Author: Helen F. Siu Yale University, U.S.A. Keywords: Hong Kong, culture, global university, China, identity, tradition, history, values, education, community, multicultural, economics, politics. Article style and source: Keynote address given at the conference 'The Global University - a 21st Century View' held at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, 15 July, 1997

Thank you for inviting me to comment on the new dimensions of culture. I shall focus on ways of looking at culture in a global framework, using Hong Kong examples, and leave the practical issues on teaching and learning in a global university to our discussions.

Let me start with images. The scene was June 30, on the waterfront, where four thousand guests attended the departing ceremonies staged by the British Hong Kong government. The children's choir sang in English and Chinese, the orchestras played classical Chinese and Western tunes. Women dancers swirled gracefully with Chinese silk scarves, and military bands with British, Nepalese and Chinese soldiers marched in solemn formation. The rest of Hong Kong watched how the last governor sadly bid farewell in the heavy rain. Some said that even in the last act, the British 'colonialists' deserved a downpour. Others shared a touch of nostalgia, noting that even 'heaven' wept for Hong Kong's fate. The ceremonies conducted by the new Hong Kong government also triggered a wide range of responses from the public. Many complained that the decorations on the stage of the new Convention Center already looked too 'Beijing' to be comfortable. While some ridiculed the awkward spoken Chinese of the new Chief Justice, a Cambridge trained Queen's counsel, others insisted that a touch of Cantonese in his Chinese truly captures the free and independent Hong Kong character.

One country two systems is a unique idea. One country refers to sovereignty, symbolized by the change of flags and national anthems. Two systems, however, involved complex histories, cultural meanings and emotions which cannot easily fit established categories. The dynamism of Hong Kong is precisely its racial and cultural plurality juxtaposed with its attenuated 'Chineseness', and expressed in the rich but chaotic details of everyday life. Over the century and a half of history as a British colony, it was a land of immigrants and emigrants who brought values, practices, and institutions from different parts of the world and different regions within China. At the margins of empire, there had been an energized fusion of mercantile cultures. Every turn of political event outside its borders churned a cultural kaleidoscope which has allowed generations of Hong Kong residents to face the world with a degree of freedom and flexibility - as Hong Konger, Cantonese, Chinese, and global citizen. Today, life there has become brashly luxurious, multi-cultural and cosmopolitan with which Beijing is both envious and uncomfortable.

One enjoys a nostalgic colonial elegance when sipping afternoon tea at the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel. Beyond the Cultural Center frequented by worldclass artists and performers, one comes across the mosque side by side the barracks for the former Gurghar regiment. There is also Temple street where vendors served colorful Thai, Vietnamese and regional Chinese foods. If one ventures further, there is 'Women Street' a clothing market providing styles for tens of thousands of visitors from China. A walk from the Admiralty in downtown Hong Kong takes one pass St. Joseph and St. Paul's colleges, missionary schools which have provided elite Western education to generations of Hong Kong children. Past the cathedral and the Governor's residence, one reaches the Indian trading quarters, the Victoria Prison, and the Man Mo Temple. The walk allows one to wander into history where a racially mixed expatriate community and an equally complicated world of Chinese have woven into one another to initiate a cultural happening we now call Hong Kong (1). Beneath the veneer of nationalistic pride during the recent reunification ceremonies, one detects certain tensions about identity and political commitment.

The Hong Kong experience, at once local, regional and transnational, challenges conventional views on culture and cultural identity. The notion of culture as a repertoire of objectified values and practices shared by a given society can hardly be applied to the territory's complex historical experiences. One complication is generational: until my generation dies, one is hard pressed to find a Hong Konger buried in a local cemetery, because the deceased, mainly of my parent's generation, have taken China as their cultural reference point and native place, a fact carved in stone. Another complication is class. A survey of consumption tastes in the cramped physical space of the territory brings us from the expensive boutiques selling Gucci and Cartier for the jet setting backbone of Hong Kong's financial miracle, to malls where new immigrants go for items found also in the boom towns of rural south China. Judging from initial impressions, patriotic sentiments seem to split along gender lines as well, with men professing stronger sense of pride for the 'fatherland' than women, who feel attached to what they have achieved under British rule.

The Hong Kong experiences also contradict the notion of culture being timeless and durable. Tung Chee-hwa, chief executive of the the new Special Administrative Region, was born in Shanghai, educated in Britain and spent years working in the United States. He might have surprised a few by calling for the restoration of Confucian values. But in fact, he could be continuing a history of creative reinvention: Chinese merchant elite have long enriched their worldly business practices with the ability to buy cultural orthodoxy. By contributing to their real or imagined native places, to charity and in particular, to education, they sought legitimate places in the imperial order, and quickly joined the ranks of literati. In the late 20th century, as global citizens, Hong Kong business elite have extended these cultural priorities by generously contributing to education institutions in the West as well. Moreover, as family enterprises turn global, highly educated merchants' daughters attain visible channels of mobility as board members and executives. In the process, patriarchy is reworked. Confucian family values are thus blended with an unrelenting work ethic, respect for professionalism, and individual initiatives. In a sense, culture is not a durable, enclosed system of rules for people to follow. Instead, it is an arena for dialogue and improvisation. These dialogues are not limited to formal pronouncements on each side of the political divide at this juncture of Hong Kong's history, but diffused in everyday life - in the proposed naming of the streets, in family decisions to emigrate or to stay, in what language to use in scholarly texts, in proposals for Confucian education, and in the debate about whether or not to hoist the flag in the schools.

The third analytical issue is the problematic association of culture with a particular bounded place. From the start, the history of Hong Kong has never been narrowly territorial. Centuries earlier, it was situated along major trade routes. Traders came from Europe, the Middle East, and southeast Asia, and used the region's waters on their way to China. Chinese junks often flew Dutch and Portuguese flags for protection and convenience. Encounters with foreigners were not limited to the material, as missionaries who aimed at indigenization sank roots in local society. From the 16th century on, despite official displeasure, there was much cultural borrowing and accommodation along the south China coast. Identities were fluid. Chinese lineages, mobile and multi-ethnic traders, religious practitioners, pirates and officials competed and mingled in this open and diverse environment (2).

Today, a large number of Hong Kongers are linked with global professional and educational networks. Through emigration and immigration, family processes are truncated, and personal choices reconfigured, in world metropolis as in cyperspace. Few in the territory or those who have settled in Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, and San Francisco would deny their Chinese ancestry. Nevertheless, different meanings and strategies of being Chinese are being pursued and negotiated depending on the circumstances where individuals find themselves. Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers overseas watched the handover ceremonies via the Internet and satellite, some with excitement, others with ambivalence and resignation. But the emotions evoked were intense. In a sense, their attachment to Hong Kong is without clear territorial boundaries. It constitutes layers of social meaning, economic interests, political preferences which have grown global without losing the Chinese bearing. The world as much as China engages it in order to communicate. As an open, vibrant, and accommodating cultural space, Hong Kong's unique position has fuelled China's reentry into a world community. Culture is in a sense a deterritorized historical process, as carriers and those responsible for its reproduction are spread across the globe, interacting with their host communities as intensely as they capture the essence of their diaspora.

Stressing the agency of culture bearers leads to my last comment on culture. Global resources are often juxtaposed in dynamic tension with local and nationalist goals. Like every sovereign state, China would wish to see subject populations 'at the margins' identify with the political center. But history also shows that every time resourceful Hong Kongers decided to be 'proudly Chinese', it had challenged the authority of regimes in Beijing. The most notable example was Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who led the republican revolution in 1911 against the Qing dynasty. Educated in Hong Kong and America, he and other colleagues envisioned positive links between their Westernized Hong Kong experiences with Chinaπs nationalist agenda. The emotions displayed by the educated middle class of Hong Kong in the wake of June 4th 1989, and the anti-Japanese activities over the Diaoyutai island are only recent examples of similar sentiments. In the debate about cultural identity, the balance between nationalism and global resourcefulness can be delicate.

In the foreseeable future, Hong Kong will continue to be a vibrant public space for cultural construction. There are two major categories of players. The post-war baby-boomers came of age when China was remote and inward looking. Their sensitivities are rooted in the refinements of a cosmopolitan culture and professional ethic. They have improvised on what China had lost over the decades of closure, and re-presented their efforts to the world. On the other hand, Hong Kong's speedy reintegration with south China has led to an influx of 'new immigrants' who take their affiliation with China for granted. As indispensable brokers they have brashly emerged on the public scene. The competition and mutual accommodation of these two categories of Hong Kong residents will define what it means to be Chinese in a changing global context, and shape the ethos of the south China region for decades to come.

What does the Hong Kong experience tell us with regard to conceptualizing cultural processes worldwide? How does its dynamic fusion of local, regional, and cosmopolitan elements inform our vision of a global community? Working with and appreciating difference in a borderless world is not limited to the late 20th century. The explorations of Herodotus, the commercial and artistic dynamism of Renaissance Italy, the fusion of Buddhist and Central Asian culture at the height of the Tang dynasty are but a few examples. Centuries ago, the world had been connected by various human endeavors with different political and economic agendas. Although there might not have been a conscious global community, there was much cultural borrowing and exchange. The issue at this historical juncture is to find tools to understand the modern versions of this 'global' phenomenon. Although the consolidation of modern nation states did combine culture and power to form exclusive political units in the 18th and 19th centuries, 20th century is characterized by a transnational consciousness. However, at this almost post-modern end of our century, the expected cultural integration associated with modernity comes with assertions of local identities. Underlying a worldwide sharing of language and consumption objects are the differing meanings attached to them. In fact, the nation state idea has been challenged on two fronts, by divisive ethnic strife within state boundaries as much as by the fluidity of identities which comes with a transnational flow of technology, capital, commodities, population and political movements. As shown by the Hong Kong material, intense cultural diversity in an increasingly connected world poses analytical issues. Instead of imposing reified cultural characteristics to a particular linguistic group, territory or national entity, we may need to treat culture as complicated processes of meaningful human endeavors over time and across space. A key focus is not only on convergence, but also on unique ways localities capture global energies.

Finally, how can this conceptualization of culture and culture-making be applied to the theme of our conference - the cultural meaning of a global university? If we believe that cultural values and identities have sustained families, defined business ethics and informed political commitments to give social life in Hong Kong its unusual mosaic, we should appreciate the tertiary education sector for its multiple roles in the transmission of knowledge and as an arena for cultural discourse. What makes Hong Kong tick are not only its economic energies but educational institutions which enpower our young by sustaining a cosmopolitan outlook - professionalism, worldly horizons, cultural creativity. Only by maximizing the territory's unique local potential in a global context can Hong Kong remain a world metropolis and a regional financial hub while becoming an essential part of China.

Together, the tertiary education sector in Hong Kong is like a global university. The University Grants Committee which oversees funding has affirmed the most outward looking scenario for future development. The membership of the committee is international from the start. Its local members, all educated overseas, are in close touch with a world community of scholars and professionals. Despite their unique histories, missions and orientations, the eight tertiary institutions maintain an unusual degree of research collaboration and sharing of teaching experiences. With three research universities, two former polytechniques, two liberal arts colleges, and an institute of education, they collectively fill the educational needs of the entire region. Their faculty come from various parts of the world and their graduates are tuned to the manpower markets in Hong Kong and China. Sustained research relationships with overseas partners have been encouraged at institutional and individual levels. Increased attention is also given to consolidating the worldclass archival resources on south China, with the aim to develop unique areas of excellence. In sum, a strategic use of funding allows local institutions to build a relevant nexus of scholarly research and general education which bridges them with those in China and the West. Attracting the cutting edge of academic interests to Hong Kong will assure quality and broaden the horizons of both local and overseas colleagues.

Therefore, in Hong Kong as in other parts of the world, a visionary global university with the appropriate mix of technology and cultural sensitivity in the recruitment of staff and students, in the support of teaching and research, and in the securing of sustained academic relationships with overseas institutions, will provide the open, pluralistic intellectual 'space' for generations to engage the world on their own terms. I sincerely hope that the Hong Kong cultural experiences as described would stimulate discussions on how our universities prepare themselves and their students for the next century.

Notes

2. This paragraph is taken from my paper, 'Culture, History and National Identity -- Hong Kong and South China'.

An audio tape of this presentation is available from Bronwyn at Conference Recording Services (Telephone +613984012912 or fax +61398481654), The Meeting Planners, email enquiries@meetingplanners.com.au.

A comprehensive bibliography of Helen Siu's work is available on ultiBASE.

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