S’pore Lecturer’s Office Vandalised By Students At Hong Kong University After ‘Political Agenda’ Warning

By
Victor Fong
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Alright people.

I’m here to tell you a story.

You don’t talk your nonsense. We already know everything from the headlines… you think you can prevent us from scrolling and skipping your usual ramblings in the front?

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Dammit. You’re right that I can’t. But that’s why this part is important. Nobody reads anymore.

You know the story about blind people touching an elephant? A group of blind men have never come across an elephant before and conceptually doesn’t know what it is.

One fine day, an elephant was brought to them, and they decided to understand what the elephant is by touching it. One says an elephant is like a snake, cause he touched the trunk. Another touched the ear and said it’s like a fan. Another touched the legs and said it’s like a tree trunk. One touched the tail and said it’s a rope.

Clearly, none of them touched the shoes. / Image: Giphy

You see the problem there? None of it actually describes the elephant.

Here’s what happens when you headline read. It’s like stuffing your hand up the anus of the elephant. It’s going to be clickbaity and stir some emotions in you, and you’re not getting an understanding of the elephant.

My point is, unless you simultaneously live in Hong Kong and China, and also work in both governments, and then have a god-given ability to see through fake news, don’t assume that everything you know about the Hong Kong protests is true and unbiased enough to form an opinion.

So, the actual news.

Assistant Professor From S’pore Issue Warning Against Politics In Classroom

Tan Yong Chin is an assistant professor who relocated from Singapore to the City University of Hong Kong about two months ago, now lecturing in marketing. This is his first academic placement and he previously studied at SMU for a PhD in marketing.

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It is claimed that students had made protest-related presentation slides for class.

Remember the elephant story, and know that we don’t actually have the full slides. We only know that images of Winnie The Pooh and slides relating to Chinese bubble tea chain HeyTea and American streetwear brand Vans were in the presentation.

Whatever was in the presentation was enough for Tan to send a warning in email on 18 Oct 2019, which was then circulated to online chat groups.

Again, elephant story: We don’t have the full email.

Here’s what the students not happy with:

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“For any future presentations in class, if you use it as an opportunity to broadcast any political announcements or statements, the whole group will automatically get zero points for the presentation.”

Assuming that this story isn’t fake news, the students clearly didn’t understand that Tan was just a bloke looking forward to his new post, or to hear the elephant story.

Image: Imgflip

Students Vandalised His Office

Image: takungpao

Again, elephant story. This is the only image we got for this case. Which, by the way, is covered in SCMP, takungpao, Zaobao, AppleDaily, and many other news site which basically repeats the same thing.

Assuming this image isn’t doctored, the graffiti has words like “white terror”, “Hongkongers rebel”, and “You are here to teach. Do not bring your political agenda into assessment criteria.”

CityU’s student union also asked the university management to strike down his threat to award zero marks.

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CityU And Tan’s Response

CityU doesn’t actually know of the professor’s comments, but a spokesman did add that teaching materials must be related to the course contents.

As for Tan, he said CityU was “very supportive” and has made arrangements to make sure he’s safe.

“The university has set up a task force to look into this issue, and I trust that they will make a decision in the best interest of all students.”

In addition, he clarified that the email “had nothing to do with the Pooh image or Vans campaign”.

Tan’s social media accounts have been closed since then.

Remember the elephant story, people.

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It’s possible I brought up the elephant story just to show elephants skydiving. / Image: Giphy

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Victor Fong
Email: [email protected]