Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1996

Joint Declaration, nor the length of the transition to the full implementation of those arrangements 13 years after they were agreed. Those of us for whom the Joint Declaration seems like yesterday have to remember that mos t students of this university had barely started primary school when it was signed. They will come fresh to the framework that will shape their lives. Like Hong Kong's generations of leaders before them, they will face new, and sometimes difficult, realities. They will surely do so in a way which is as pragmatic and positive as those who went before. How do we all face these new and sometimes troubling realities? Let me turn again to Prof. Spence for help. He warns against the danger of stereotypes. In his own work he has done an immense amount to break away from stereotyped images of China's past. Instead he has introduced us to real people facing real problems, whether they be emperors or brigands. There surely is the road for the practical scholar and for those who w i ll deal successfully with unfamiliar people or unfamiliar ways of doing things. Hong Kong's future lies in China. We all know that. But as a special part of China -- different from and complementary to the rest. We all know that too; it is the thread that runs through the Joint Declaration. We know that to make this future successful and beneficial for both Hong Kong and China requires tremendous effort on both sides up to, through and beyond 1997. A notable scholar of Central Asia once said that those who live on the periphery of great states know more about the way those states operate, and their culture, than those within ever know about the people on their borders. That, he said, is how those smaller communities manage to survive. There is an obvious lesson here for a smaller community like Hong Kong. But, if the big states are to benefit fully from what those smaller communities can often bring to them, then they too have to spend some effort understanding their special characteristics. In the past it has not always been easy to persuade people in Britain to understand the special characteristics of Hong Kong. But, over the years, it has gradually been learned that Hong Kong flourishes best, to everybody's advantage, whe n it manages as much as possible of its own affairs. That is why the practical way in which Hong Kong has operated is often so different from what is laid down in the old constitutional documents. It is that practical experience 一 that high degree of autonomy in all except foreign affairs and defence — which China has set out in the Joint Declaration as its policy for Hong Kong after 1997 and which people i n China w i ll need to carry out in practice i f Hong Kong is to flourish to the benefit of the rest of China as well as the people of Hong Kong itself. So making a success of the future of Hong Kong requires knowledge and understanding — from both sides. It requires persistent contact and dialogue — on both sides. An d it demands the avoidance of the easy stereotype — on both sides. That is where the lives and work of my fellow honorary graduates today point the way. A deep study of China and its history. Enterprise successfully applied bot h in Hong Kong and in mainland China. And a sense of community service to cap it all. The Council of the University in its wisdom has given some good models for this generation of students to follow. May this all-important generation o f students at this great university become the successful leaders of Hong Kong's tomorrow. May this university, together with Hong Kong's other universities and colleges, continue to act as a centre of learning and wisdom in the years ahead. And may Hong Kong move forwar d with courage and see its future blessed with the prosperity which w i l l allow all its people to flourish. • 15