“Life is a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get,” was a well said line in the movie Forrest Gump. It inspired generations to enjoy and reflect upon its inspirational story and to remain fearless facing the future. To me, it is to pick the right chocolate, that matters.
My name is Major Pau, and I was born and fostered in Hong Kong, After receiving my Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Examination (HKDSE in short, similar to Gao Kao in the mainland), I received four offers from The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the National Taiwan University and Wuhan University. It was a hard choice to make.
Well, for now, here I am, in Wuhan University. Two reasons drove me to commence a university life here choosing my subjects in the field of history and humanity. In 2012, strikes triggered by the HKSAR government proposal of integrating National Education into the school compulsory curriculum were prevalent on campuses, on podiums and along streets. Nine major universities in Hong Kong interpreted the proposal as an attempt to brainwash young generations, resulting in class boycotts in colleges. Looking forward to embracing my university life with all sorts of opportunities, I felt discouraged remaining in an environment full of disbelief, doubts and anger. Further, studying my major, Chinese History, at its birthplace is definitely more instrumental and inspirational. I fetched my suitcase with the determination to head for Wuhan University.
Another reason was the mission I granted myself. When I was in my secondary education, back in Hong Kong, peoples’ opinions, media news and politicians’ editorials on mainland China were not always positive. With doubts and questions in mind, I nurtured the desire to look into the burning issue and understand it for myself in the hope I could make a difference. Taking the challenge, I took part in the Student Union at the School of History, hoping to acquire first hand observation and objectivity.
Being a junior member of the Student Union, I was delighted to be acquainting friends and other committee members from different provinces. Ideas flourished and perspectives were quick on the trigger during working meetings and sharing sessions. When my term of being a member came to an end, the hard realization of leaving haunted me. Bidding for a leading position in the Student Union, namely that of Vice-president, seemed the way to better materialize my deep heart mission. I made it. Since then, my campus life has well-intertwined with the Student Union development.
Time passed. Two years went. Here comes the end of my term as a President of this association. As a leader, I always reminded myself to realize concepts and tackle difficulties in a humble manner. Instead of simply planning activities, it is more significant to establish a culture within the union, something which can be interiorized and passed on to the next members. This is the core element that keeps an organization lively and humane.
My choices of taking up service posts in college are not only about expanding my personal circle or gaining more executive experiences, but also about need to communicate with youngsters from both mainland China and Hong Kong. With better mutual understanding, less hostility and conflicts will arise. In order to be part of such cultural process, I express and interpret views of Hong Kong counterparts to my mainland college mates and help explain the rationale and background of mainlanders’ stances to the Hong Kong students. On one occasion, I was invited to a non-government organization named Law Ting Pong Foundation to deliver a speech. My statement was that mainland China was in fact more international than Hong Kong for Hong Kong is merely a highly westernized city. Apart from the cultures of the Chinese and those of some great western powers, Hong Kong hardly incorporates other cultures. On another platform, being the students’ representative, in the forum with the Chief Executive of HKSAR Leung Chun Ying who visited Wuhan University in April 2015, Mr Leung shared the same views with me that Wuhan University could be the head engine in mid-China, hoping it could perform well the roles in various domains of interaction with Hong Kong.
Meeting new people is always refreshing and exciting. Even more than leaving my home town and studying in mainland China, I made a choice to go further. Last summer, via “AIESEC -WHU”, I joined an internship program in Colombia, Latin America. It was a 6-week work experience program which welcomed youngsters from all over the world to teach local English, ranging from school children to adults. Once, eight working partners in a team spoke 4 languages to co-design teaching tasks and English-related activities. You cannot imagine how versatile and challenging this actually was to us allfreshmen teachers. We had to be using three international languages to communicate, English, Spanish and Putonghua (Mandarin). I met team members from many continents, more than forty countries, in fact, and made really close friends. Yet, most importantly on a personal level, I met my girlfriend during the internship. She is also Chinese, raised in Xinjiang and now studying in the University of Nottingham Ningbo.
Life is about choices. Making the right choice is not about getting rich or famous, but about nurturing a fruitful and enlightening spirit peppered with achievements, and driven by the determination of protecting your loved ones
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and contributing to the welfare of your home city and your mother nation. It is not necessary to prove these wise choices; they are self-evident.
(Edited by Yue Rao, Diana & Sijia Hu)
