That students in the 1970s placed China first and Hong Kong second
meant that they were more interested in China.506 There are several reasons the
student movement was dominated by the China Faction in the 1970s. First, from the 1950s to the early 1970s generations of Chinese students studied Chinese history and culture in schools. The history curriculum in effect encouraged them
to identify culturally with China.507 Second, Chinese-language publications with
information on China such as the Ming Pao Monthly (明報月刊) and Qishi
Niandai (七十年代) were readily available.508 The official CCP publication
Hong Qi (紅旗) was also available in the University of Hong Kong library.509 Third, despite the New Leftists‘ involvement in the 1971 movement their
506 Alvin Y. So., ‗The Transformation of Urban Movements in Hong Kong, 1970-90‘, in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 24, 4, 1992, pp.32-43.
507
Flora L.F. Kan, Hong Kong’s Chinese History Curriculum from 1945: Politics and Identity (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2007), p.77.
508Qishi Niandai (七十年代) and the 70s Bi-weekly (七十年代雙週刊/七零) were different
publications.
509Hong Qi was often used by left-wing trade unions in Hong Kong as study material. See ‗The
Communist Controlled Schools‘, Hong Kong Special Branch Report Summary, Communism in Schools in Hong Kong 1960-1962, CO1030/1107.
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influence on university students in the 1970s was limited. Although 70s Bi-
weekly worked with university students at some point in the 1971 Baodiao
campaign, the 70s Bi-weekly was not a student activist group. Most of the
members were not students and leading members such as Mok Chiu-yu and Ng Chung-yin were working adults. Fourth, the 1970s saw the rise of China as a political state gaining international status as evidenced by the PRC‘s entry into
the United Nations (UN) in 1971 and US President Richard Nixon‘s visit to
China in 1972.510 Moreover, the 1971 Baodiao campaign was in the eyes of the
public a nationalist movement despite the fact that the New Left was attempting
to give it an anti-colonial tone. The 1971 Baodiao campaign saw the display of
nationalistic sentiments by Hong Kong youth and I believe it might have sparked their interest in learning about China and thus set the stage for the rise of the China Faction in subsequent years. David Chan Yuk-cheung, for example, was involved in the 1971 campaign as a secondary school student and he would later
become one of the most important leaders of the China Faction511 and participate
in the 1996 Baodiao campaign in which he died. Lastly, the Cultural Revolution
in China and the related propaganda up until 1976 was a strong external factor
providing university students with nationalist as well as political inspirations.512
There are other theories regarding the causes of the rise of the China Faction in the 1970s. Former Social Faction member Lai Chak-fun, for example,
510 Ru如, ‗Yiqie yaocong liaojie zhongguo kaishi‘一切要從了解中國開始 (Everything must
Begin with Understanding China), Undergrad學苑, 16 October 1972, p.6. See also, Blyth and Wotherspoon, Hong Kong Remembers, p.99.
511 Li Jingjun李靜君, ‗You xueyun lingxiu dao guangboren Chen yuxiang shinianruyi‘由學運領
袖到廣播人 (From Leader of the Student Movement to Broadcaster: Chan Yuk-cheung Remains the Same for Ten Years), Wide Angle廣角鏡, 16 September 1985, pp.52-55.
512
Special Report, ‗Xianggang xiaoyuan de huohong niandai‘ 香港校園的火紅年代 (The Crimson Years in Hong Kong Universities), Yazhou zhoukan, 10, 20, 1996, p.38.
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argued that Li Yi (李怡), chief editor of Qishi Niandai (七十年代), provided
guidance to students in their quest to learn about China. Lai also argued that the
leftist newspaper Ta Kung Pao (大公報) had contact with university students.513
Chan Koon-chung (陳冠中), who studied at the University of Hong Kong in the
1970s, argued that until the late 1970s Qishi Niandai served as a propaganda
apparatus for the CCP.514 From 1981 onwards, however, due to a change in its
political stance, Qishi Niandai was no longer part of the leftist camp.515
Until the late 1970s, the China Faction in universities was quite critical of the Trotskyists, and often criticised them severely in their writings in student publications. For example, the pro-China student activists criticised the Trotskyists for ‗jeopardising the interests of Chinese and Hong Kong comrades‘
and ‗interfering in the student movement‘.516
With the emergence of the China Faction at universities, factionalism became much more apparent in the student
movement than in the 1971 Baodiao campaign.
An example that reflects the strong interest among university students in
understanding China was the China Week (中國周) exhibitions. Student unions
of different universities in Hong Kong organised the first China Week exhibition
513
Li Zefen黎則奮, Qishi niandai xianggang qingnian jijin yundong huigu香港青年激進運動
回顧 (A Review of the Radical Hong Kong Youth Movement in the 1970s), 7 June 2008, http://www.grass-root.org/college/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=695.
514 Chen, Shihou bentu wenhuazhi, pp.34-37. 515Ibid.
516 See, for example, Editorial社論, ‗Renshizuguo yundong shibukedang‘認識祖國運動勢不可
擋 (The Understanding the Motherland Movement is Unstoppable), Xuelian bao學聯報, 10, June 1975, p.2 and pp.3-5. See also, author unknown, ‗Tuopai ruhe chashou xuesheng yundong‘ 托派
如何插手學生運動 (How the Trotskyists Interfered in the Student Movement‘, Xueyun chunqiu
學運春秋 (The Student Movement Years) ed. Yuandong shiwu pinglunshe 遠東事務評論社
(Xianggang: Yuandong shiwu pinglunshe, 1982), pp.93-97. The original article was written by a committee member of the Hong Kong University Student Union (HKUSU) and published in the HKUSU newsletter in January 1975.
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in 1973.517 More exhibitions were held in the following years. David Chan, for
example, represented the HKFS, one of the organisers of the China Week exhibitions. The aim of the China Week exhibitions was to help the public
understand mainland China. In fact, the slogan ‗renzhong guanshe‘ (認中關社),
which means ‗identification with China, pay attention to (Hong Kong) society‘, was the popular slogan among students and those interested in China‘s affairs. The pro-China students also claimed that they were promoting the ‗spirit of the
May Fourth Movement‘ (發揚五四精神).518 The HKFS in the 1970s adopted the
slogan: ‗keep the world in mind, understand our motherland, be concerned with
society, fight for the rights of our fellow students‘ (放眼世界，認識祖國，關心
社會，爭取同學權益).519 Hong Kong university students began visiting China during this time. The visits to China undoubtedly contributed to their pro-China sentiments.
Pro-China sentiments and supporters of the China Faction existed outside
universities as well. Joseph Lian Yizheng (練乙錚),520 for example, was one of
those from outside universities who supported the pro-China Guocuipai. Like
Chui Pak-tai, Joseph Lian inherited his sense of nationalism from his father who
was a GMD official.521 Lian participated in the Renzhong guanshe movement,
517
Alvin Y. So., ‗The Transformation of Urban Movements in Hong Kong, 1970-90‘, in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 24, 4, 1992, pp.32-43. See also, Pik Wan Wong, ‗The Pro-Chinese Democracy Movement in Hong Kong‘, The Dynamicss of Social Movement in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2000, pp.55-90.
518
See, for example, Chan, Zuori jinri Chen Yuxiang, pp.52-55. The essay in this edited volume was originally a speech given at a meeting held by the HKFS on 5 May 1974 to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement.
519
Chan Yuk Cheung to M.R. Templeton, 26 June 1975, HKRS 147-7-100. Chan was then the President of the HKFS and Templeton Principal of the Northcote college of Education.
520
Joseph Lian is now working as the lead writer for the Hong Kong Economic Journal (信報).
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although he was not a student at the time. He was teaching at a secondary school and helped organise the 1975 education exhibition to criticise the colonial
government‘s ‗enslavement education‘ (奴化教育). The exhibition was a China
Faction initiative.522 As far as factional differences were concerned, the situation
outside universities appeared to be different from that inside universities. Joseph Lian, in my interview with him, said that there did not appear to be strong
hostility between China Faction and other groups outside universities.523