A Hong Kong public school has responded after four secondary female students were allegedly harassed by a group of men at a Guangzhou hotel during a compulsory study tour to mainland China. They said teachers had “severely reprimanded” the men involved.
Chang Pui Chung Memorial School, located in Tseung Kwan O, said in a statement released on Monday that all Form Five students travelled to Guangzhou last Thursday and Friday. The trip was organised by the Education Bureau as part of a compulsory mainland study tour under the Citizenship and Social Development subject.
According to the statement, at around 9.50pm last Thursday at the hotel, a student called a teacher for assistance but they were taking a shower and failed to answer the phone.
“Meanwhile, a teacher from a neighbouring school first discovered in a fourth-floor corridor that four hotel guests had sought to harass four female students from our school. At around 9:52pm, two teachers from our school intervened to handle the incident,” the statement read.
The school said the men involved did not make any physical contact with the female students, nor did the students suffer any physical harm: “Our school teachers severely reprimanded the men involved in the incident… One man apologised and guaranteed no such incident would happen again. He also offered his identity card for teachers to take photos of, and to show that he was willing to take responsibility,” the school added.
Online uproar
The response came after reports by local media and netizens. One netizen claimed on Threads last Saturday that the men asked the students whether they were from Hong Kong, surrounded them and held up phones to take photos and videos.
The students called their school teachers for assistance but it took 15 minutes for any to arrive on the scene, according to the post. It claimed that the teachers blamed the students afterwards for leaving their rooms and speaking to strangers.
The post sparked controversy online, receiving over 7,700 “likes” and 178 comments as of Wednesday, with netizens questioning why the teachers allegedly blamed the victims.
In an interview with HK01 last Saturday, a student familiar with the two female students said the victims felt angry as a teacher had blamed them for talking with strangers. The school did not respond directly to the allegation.
” [The teachers] continue to provide counselling for the students. While following up on the students’ situations, they also hope that they will learn how to protect themselves in unfamiliar environments,” the statement read.
It added that the teachers had checked the phones of the three men involved and found there were no photos or videos of students from the school: “A remaining phone did not have enough battery power and could not be turned on even after immediate charging. It is believed that there was nothing suspicious,” it said.
Mainland China study tour
The Education Bureau announced in 2020 that it would replace the Liberal Studies subject with Citizenship and Social Development, which has more emphasis on mainland China and less on current affairs.
Hong Kong public schools began to teach the new subject in September 2022, with mainland China study tours beginning in 2023.
According to the bureau, the mainland China study tours are “an integral part” of the subject. The tours aim at “enabling all senior secondary students taking local curriculum to gain first-hand understanding of our country and its latest development through field study activities, understand and appreciate Chinese culture, and enhance their sense of national identity.”
The bureau currently offers 28 tours to mainland China. Among them, there are 18 tours of one to three days in Guangdong Province, and 10 tours of four to five days outside Guangdong Province.
