The Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK)

In March 1989, several academics from Hong Kong’s two major universities, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), went separately to Boston, USA, to attend the annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). Without any prior arrangement, these academics bumped into each other while attending each other’s presentations, and were excited about what each other had to say. The fervour for some form of intellectual exchange in a comparative context led to the birth of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) that same year.

When the founding President of the CESHK, Bernard Luk (1989-91), gave this vivid description of the founding of the society at the 2005 annual conference, one could still detect his intellectual concern for a body of which the founding members had held a visionary agenda. It was a time of much attention to the political and social development of China, especially after the outbreak of the social unrest in and near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hong Kong was still a colony of the United Kingdom, but since it was scheduled to return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the population was very sensitive to political developments in China. The Tiananmen incident penetrated almost all dimensions of life in Hong Kong. Looking back, Luk (2005) recalled:

At that time there was very little communication across the Harbour [i.e. between the two universities]. The few of us at the Chinese University of Hong Kong got together and decided to form a CESHK. I took a pen and paper and wrote a first draft of the constitution. The other two colleagues went to the police station to register [it in] Spring 1989. Up north bigger things were happening. All of Hong Kong’s attention was focused on Beijing/Tiananmen. Nobody did any work. I was on sabbatical then so I helped draft the constitution, and sent colleagues to register it with the police. That was it.