MCLC: umbrellas at HK graduation ceremonies

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umbrellas at HK graduation ceremonies
Source: Sinosphere, NYT (11/18/14)
Umbrellas Come Out at Hong Kong Graduation Ceremonies
By MICHAEL FORSYTHE
A student opening a yellow umbrella in front of Albert Chan, president of Hong Kong Baptist University, during a graduation ceremony.
Prof. Albert Chan, president of Hong Kong Baptist University, told graduates on Monday to “start small, but dream big” and use all available opportunities to pursue their passions.
That sentiment — grist for the mill in thousands of commencement orations the world over — clearly did not apply to the ceremony itself. When students carried yellow umbrellas on the stage in a sign of their support for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong that have captured the world’s attention, Professor Chan refused to give them their diplomas.
Umbrellas popped up on at least two occasions during the four-day, rolling ceremony. On Saturday, video captured one male student, who was receiving a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, opening an umbrella as he stepped onto the stage. Professor Chan pointed to it, said something inaudible, and the student closed it. Professor Chan refused to shake the student’s outstretched hand and signaled him off the stage without handing him his diploma. The student then opened the umbrella again to cheers from the audience.
On Monday it happened again. According to an account in The South China Morning Post, a student knelt on stage to present Professor Chan with a folded yellow umbrella. The outcome was the same: no diploma. The newspaper reported that the students were able to pick up their certificates after the ceremonies.
The umbrella has become a symbol of the student-driven protest movement after people used them to shield themselves from tear gas and pepper spray attacks during the early days of the movement in late September. And yellow is the color of the movement, with many supporters wearing yellow ribbons and putting yellow ribbon icons on their social media profile pages.
In an emailed statement, the university said that it allowed students to display umbrellas, posters and ribbons expressing their political sentiments at the ceremony, but that carrying them on to the stage was “inappropriate.”
“The university is of the view that political elements should not be displayed on stage out of respect for the solemn nature of the academic ceremony and also to all participating graduates, parents, guests and teachers, and thus graduates were requested to leave the items before they went on stage,” the statement said.
Mio Chan, president of the university’s student union, said Professor Chan’s attitude went against one of the core principles of the school, which is to foster a sense of concern and “care about society.”
But Professor Chan, as the top official at Baptist University, has given an oath of fealty to a higher authority: Beijing. The central government strongly opposes the student-led protest movement. Last week, President Xi Jinping called the demonstrations illegal.
Many of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing elite are delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to China’s Communist Party-controlled legislature. Members must toe the central government’s line, or face the consequences. Last month, one local delegate, James Tien, was swiftly expelled from the body after he publicly called on the top official in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, to resign for his handling of the student-led protests, which have occupied the city’s streets for more than 50 days.
Among the body’s more than 120 Hong Kong delegates: Prof. Albert Chan.
“That organization only allows one opinion,” Mio Chan said.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on November 18, 2014
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