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Education in Hong Kong
Hong KongEducation

University of Hong Kong’s first course on race and racism helps students tackle tough topics with sensitivity

  • HKU lecturer Michael Rivera launched ‘Making Race’ course in 2022, which aims to teach students how to talk honestly about racism
  • The course was first taught in September 2022 to 29 students majoring in subjects ranging from biology to history and anthropology.

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The ‘Making Race’ course focuses on the global history and theories of race and how it has affected the world and specific areas of society, such as gender and class. Photo: Winson Wong
Lars Hamer

Despite being born and raised in Hong Kong, Filipino-Chinese Michael Rivera says he still needs to change the way he interacts with different communities or risk being marginalised because of his multi-ethnic background.

“I grew up here in Hong Kong. I have a Filipino dad, a Chinese mother and went to international schools,” said Rivera, who has a PhD in biological anthropology from the University of Cambridge and teaches the “Making Race” course at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

“But I felt I still had to ‘code-switch’ to navigate between different communities and groups of people.”

Code-switching can refer to when a person downplays their racial or ethnic identity to better fit in.

The 32-year-old added that he had to be Chinese in certain walks of life and Filipino in others, but it was rare that he could ever be his true self: Filipino-Chinese.

HKU scholar Michael Rivera introduced the “Making Race” course in September 2022. Photo: Jonathan Wong
HKU scholar Michael Rivera introduced the “Making Race” course in September 2022. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Rivera, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said that his experiences in his hometown, as well as the racism he encountered while living in the United Kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic – when Asian hate was prevalent – helped him to structure the city’s first course focusing on race and racism.
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