Bulletin No. 2, 2016

32 Chinese University Bulletin No. 2, 2016 Dr. Norman N.P. Leung is the Chairman of Transport International Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries, The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited and Long Win Bus Company Limited. He is an Independent Non- Executive Director of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited and Nan Fung Group Holdings Limited, and was formerly Executive Chairman of Television Broadcasts Limited. He had served as the Commissioner of the Civil Aid Service, Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, and Council Chairman/Pro-Chancellor of City University of Hong Kong. was moving from an agricultural economy to urban development. I was a council member of the then City Polytechnic of Hong Kong. I wanted to do something for my place of origin and so in 1986 I volunteered my service as the vice-chairman of the planning committee for the Dongguan Polytechnic, leading to its establishment in 1989. I also helped sponsor a kindergarten and a primary school in my native village. My efforts have not since stopped as there are still many places in China so impoverished that education is not a given there. I helped rebuild two primary schools in Dingxi City of Gansu Province and named them after my parents. I have sponsored over 100 students from poor families in the rural areas to attend senior high school in Dingxi City. I have come to know each one of them well through correspondence. Some of them have graduated and even got into first-tier universities. It is gratifying to note their good academic results. H ow do you see higher education in Hong Kong? When compared to Singapore where university attendance rate is as high as 85%, Hong Kong (presently at 60%) has still some way to go. The Government can improve the situation by making E ducation seems to hold a special place in your heart. Why’s that? My family moved from Dongguan to Hong Kong in 1949. As my family fortune had taken a drastic downturn soon afterwards I had to begin working at the age of 12. But I never accepted my lot and seized every opportunity to enhance myself by attending evening school and studying English through tutorials. Sometimes I had to juggle with my work schedule and change shifts with my co- workers in order to attend evening classes. But I persisted and eventually returned to full-time studies in Form 3 at the age of 20, then went on to the University of Hong Kong and later to read law in England. Education therefore means a lot to me and to a society. Through education I was able to overcome a deprived adolescence to embark on a professional career of my choice. It is also my firm belief that a society will be on an upward trajectory of progress if its people are given the opportunity to receive good education. T ell us what you have done for education on the mainland. I went back to visit Dongguan in 1985, after an absence of 36 years, and I noticed that the city Photo by Keith Hiro