ABSTRACT
The problems I wish to discuss, or perhaps I should say to present impressionistically, concern the difficulties which I believe Chinese students experience in studying in a western-type university and attempting to benefit by such an education. The foreigner (‘western person’ in Chinese) coming to teach in Hong Kong University is first aware of these as his own problems: his students cling to the authority of the printed word, are unwilling to discuss academic problems, and seem to be afflicted by an overpowering lack of curiosity which may cripple their studies. As the teacher comes to know his students, he begins to see that his problems are also, and primarily, theirs. I would state as the central problem that the most intelligent and lively students are very much aware of their dilemma: they do not know what kind of people they are. Those with less insight, the average students, try to solve this by attempting, consciously or unconsciously, to assume the role, or rather the series of disconnected roles, which the teacher seems to expect them to play. The most articulate may come to terms with this dilemma of the choice of roles by making conscious decisions; some deliberately accept the western intellectual standards they are offered. Unfortunately for the community, these are often the most anxious to leave Hong Kong altogether and make their lives in the west which has so much to offer them. I want to pose the question: how does this quest, deliberate or blind, for his identity affect the Hong Kong student?
