Mocking ‘confession’ posted at Hong Kong Baptist University in wake of compulsory Mandarin test row

Student protester takes aim at university management, claiming requirement for students to pass a Mandarin test is a bid to please mainland authorities

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William Liu posted his ‘confession’ on Monday. Photo: Facebook

Published: 10:09pm, 21 May 2018Updated: 10:09pm, 21 May 2018

A student involved in a rowdy anti-Mandarin learning protest at Hong Kong Baptist University’s language centre early this year has posted a “confession” on campus to offer a mocking apology to the Communist Party, the nation, the people, and the university for not respecting the language.

With an apparently ironic and scornful tone, William Liu Wai-lim mocked the university’s policy on Mandarin proficiency as a bid to please the mainland authorities.

The drama came after the university management rejected his appeal to overturn the punishment given to him for his role in the January protest, where he and other students besieged the language centre office in protest against the university’s requirement for all students to take a Mandarin course or pass a proficiency test.

The notices written by William Liu at Baptist University. Photo: Facebook

Liu is a fourth year student taking environmental science.

Written in simplified Chinese characters – which is used on the mainland but not common in Hong Kong – Liu’s “confession” was addressed to the “leading cadres of various levels at the language centre” and was put on the university’s “democracy wall” on Monday.