14
SPOTLIGHT
UMP
大學廣場
OCT 2014
One week later, another
30
students of the Programme joined
the London study tour, co-organised with SOAS, University of
London. This trip aims to help students understand the meaning
of 'global city' and the urgent issues faced by an international
cosmopolitan like London. Similar to the Taipei trip, they
attended morning lectures and visited various communities
and NGOs in the afternoon. The lectures and visits uncovered
issues concerning immigration policies, poverty and social
integration, party and political systems, urban governance, etc.
to our students. At the end of the trip, many of them could not
help but to question the concept of 'global city' as a discourse
and its influence on the development of other places like Hong
Kong. One of our students – Tommy Kwan (GPAD / Year
3
)
commented, 'It was a great experience in London. The most
unforgettable thing is the history of the city. Every building
seems to have its own story to tell and they are well preserved.
It is a shame that most of the old buildings in Hong Kong are
demolished because of the so-called 'development plan.' 'They
also made comparisons regarding the systems of democratic
urban governance in London and Hong Kong.
Apart from the formal lectures and visits, students were
also divided into several groups and involved themselves in
field research. Each group had to investigate on one social
phenomenon in their city of visit and deliver a presentation at
the end of the tour. Evening debriefings were held to deepen
the debates taken place during
the lectures and visits. The
trips were most fruitful for
the students as their positive
imagination for both cities
have been refuted through
their investigation inside the
subjugated stories of the
communities. Their horizons
have obviously been widened
and their mentality has grown
more critical.
T
he I
•
CARE Leadership Programme (ILP) has
successfully organised its Taipei Study Tour from
22
June to
5
July and London Study Tour from
13
July to
26
July during the summer holiday, to help broaden students'
understanding of the societies of other democracies. The
students of both tours got a taste of the socio-economic,
political and cultural development of the countries.
This year,
14
students joined our first Taipei Study Tour. The
tour was co-organised with the National Taiwan University.
Many of the topics touched upon issues relating Cross-Strait
and Mainland China-Hong Kong relationships. Renowned
academics, including Prof. Xia Zhu-Jiu, and politicians, such
as Prof. Ko Wen-Je were invited to deliver lectures and
sharing to our students. The group visited several local NGOs
specializing in providing aids to migrant workers, residents
of neighbourhoods under redevelopment pressure, etc.
A day trip to Yi-Lan
(
宜蘭
) was organised
so that students could
visit the Fieldoffice
Architects (
田中央聯
合建築師事務所
) as
well as their Yi-Lan-
based development
projects. The trip to
Taipei has enabled the ILP students to make sense of social
and political issues as well as land development contestations
around them in a new perspective. One of the students, Li
Yiran (GRMD / Year
3
) remembered, 'I have learnt a lot about
the politics, economic and culture of Taiwan. When we came
across these issues, unavoidably, the Cross-Strait relationship
would be discussed. I realized that the concept "Chinese
people" talks about not only the identification of national and
cultural values, but also the processes of political identification.
This is how I am inspired'.
Global City,
Humanistic Leaders"
The group painted a graffiti in Bristol
I . CARE Leadership Programme
Taipei
and
London
study tours
About
I•CARE Leadership Programme (ILP)
The ILP is a special credit-bearing programme run by the
University General Education. It selects
30
-
50
outstanding
students every year to join this
2
-year programme. The
students will undergo trainings of critical social, political
and cultural analysis and campaign organising skills to
cultivate their sense of social concern.
