Regardless of Our Backgrounds We Are All Elites Under Globalization If we can understand how universities place us within a competitive sphere, we may better comprehend the issue of estrangement within CUHK. Written by Lam Siu-bun Translated by Leung Chun Hei & Tan Hou Yuan From the 2014 Orientation Issue of CUHK Student Press
The estrangement may be ubiquitous Among the undergraduates of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) during 2013-14, there were 14,109 locals and 1,780 non-local students, a majority of the latter group—1,374 to be precise—were elite students from mainland China. In other words, there was about one mainland student in every ten students on campus. However, I observed that both mainland and local students know rather little about each other, as if they are living in two parallel universes. No one initiates any conversation at class, let alone back at the dorms; they seem to never cross paths. Yet it only takes a few scrolls on local websites or social media like CUHK Secret to witness some stereotypes. For instance, local students believe that “mainland students like to steal from the communal fridges,” “mainland students don’t shower,” and mainland students think most locals are “angry youths” [1].
Why are we so divided when we are living on the same campus? Maybe, it is because we speak different languages, or it could be the varying habits and unique cultural backgrounds. However, this article cannot address all of these issues, so what I want to examine is: why are we so indifferent towards this sense of division, and even believe it is a matter of course? The most common answer might be that mainland students are only here for their studies, and since they are not staying for long, the division is not that big of a deal. Worse still, some local students even assume that mainland students come to Hong Kong to “snatch resources.” They are not genuinely schoolmates, but competing rivals. Thus, the division is not unexpected, it is bound to happen. However, if this is solely a confrontation between mainland and local students, the estrangement should only occur between these two communities. Yet, I noticed that local students are estranged from one another as well. In contrast to secondary school, university life is much more eventful: there are orientation camps, student organizations, and all sorts of courses
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