involving harassment.
INITIATION RITES, including hazing under the guise of orientation, are an integral part of university life worldwide, especially for students taking up residence in campus dormitories.
But the practices are coming under increasing scrutiny, especially in Hong Kong where many regard them as a nuisance and a distraction at best, and a threat to academic success at worst.
There have been reports of freshmen being hospitalised after all-night drinking sessions, succumbing to peer pressure to be 'one of the boys', although more serious cases, such as an infamous one at a Chicago school recently, have yet to come to light here.
In the Chicago incident, a group of drunken secondary school girls who subjected younger pupils to a brutal initiation ritual were expelled form Glenbrook North High School following an annual 'hazing' ritual that spun out of control, with senior students showering new ones with faeces, urine, blood, fish and pig intestines.
Reports of harassment in Hong Kong have not reached that level, but hazing is a matter of degree. Freshmen in local university dormitories usually get less than four hours of sleep during their orientation week as they are forced to participate in round-the-clock activities.
Every summer, there are different orientation 'camps' to familiarise freshmen with campus life; based in departments, faculties, colleges or dormitories. The dormitory rituals are always the most vigorous because organisers hope to cultivate strong community spirit.
These camps, organised by senior students known as 'sen' (god in Cantonese) at the University of Hong Kong, or 'lo guei' (elder in Cantonese) at Chinese University of Hong Kong, often have official endorsement. Generally viewed as chaperons, they even have the power to admonish students when they fail to commit to dormitory activities.
A former hall-mate of St John's College at HKU, a dormitory with nearly a century of history, who gave her name as Ann, said the 10-day orientation camp was as rigorous as military training. Freshmen were forbidden to have eye contact or talk with each other for most of the time; they got only five to 10 minutes for a meal and one to three hours for bed each day.
Anyone who failed to remember the names of all floor-mates and each floor leader, and every detail of the history and traditions of the dormitory and each floor, was chastised by leaders in front of the whole group, an embarrassment that often ended in tears.
'Every year the freshmen are treated so harshly because the 'sens' want to cram a lot of tradition into them in only 10 days, which is nearly impossible. Absolute loyalty and full participation is demanded throughout the camp,' she said. At Lee Hysan Hall, another HKU dormitory, freshmen have to brace for a 24-hour evaluation forum at the end of the orientation camp. One by one, they have to stand on a stage surrounded by more than 300 dormitory residents, and submit to a barrage of queries, comments, or insults from 'sens'.
Plato Fong Sze-tik, a Year Two student living at Lee Hysan Hall, said most of the freshmen felt miserable during the public ordeal.
''You look sloppy! Did your mum not teach you how to dress properly?' barked one senior student. 'You did not play hard enough and you did not even try as you promised. You are a mean, no-good liar,' sneered other angry senior students,' Fong said. 'I was embarrassed and some of the girls were reduced to tears.'
Last year's orientation camp at Chinese University (CUHK) sparked anger and complaints from female students about the sexually hostile behaviour that went on, with them being subjected to demeaning slogans. An inquiry resulted in the university issuing a strongly-worded reprimand to the organising committees from the university's four colleges.
Students describe antics that have not attracted such public attention. For a week at Yin Lin Tang, a male dormitory at Chung Chi College, CUHK, senior students burst open every door of the freshmen's rooms to shake them up. Those who are in bed are smeared with toothpaste, and if the victim still does not get up they may set fire to the hairs on their legs. The midnight raids are just for fun, they say.
Even more ridiculous are the week-long orientation programmes that invariably involve obscenity and unpleasant food. Freshmen may be ordered to carry an object, usually a banana, between their thighs, and try to seize each others' in a race. They are also ordered to carry eggs in pairs mouth-to-mouth and pelt each other with tomatoes and other fruit.
The highlight of the night comes when two freshmen are selected to perform 'X-corner', parting their thighs and grinding their genitals against each other in front of the rest of the dormitory residents.
Exhausted, they are then taken out for an all-night drinking binge. Freshmen are expected to drink as much as possible in order to impress the senior students.
'They think that's in keeping with the 'macho' image of Yin Lin Tang. We had two Year One students sent to hospital because they drank too much during the orientation week,' said Keith Ko Pak-hung, a Year Three student who is moving to Pentecostal Mission Hall. 'You have only two options: to be part of them, or to be mocked and labelled as muffins or geeks.'
He said many students decided to leave the hostel after a year or two. Simon Lee Chi-ho, now in Year Three, said: 'Every night when the clock ticks past eleven, I know it's time to lock the door, switch off the light, go to bed and do my revision with a torch. And then, thump, thump, thump, there comes the gang of them who will burst open every door to pull you out for supper and drinks, and taunt you if you tell them you want to study.'
He said he had travelled an hour to his home three times a week over the past two years to study. 'They are always ranting and raving in the corridors and pressing you to go out for supper and all-night binge drinking,' he added.
An overseas exchange student, who studied English for 18 months at HKU, described the culture of hazing in the university's halls of residence as 'weird'. 'I was pretty horrified when I got there,' she said. She described the first year orientation round of games, women forced into beauty contests, formal dinners and pressure to join clubs as 'not completely horrible, but very juvenile'. As an overseas student, she was not forced to participate, but she said she heard many stories from friends who found the experience overwhelming. 'For many students it is their first time away from home.' She said some first-year students, especially those with a high academic workload, left the hall because of stress.'The commitment and loyalty to the hall is very high. This gets in the way of studies,' she said.
But wardens dismissed complaints. Dr Wong Kwok Chun, dean of the St John's College, denied there was any kind of 'torture' in the orientation camp, but refused to comment further. The warden of Yin Lin Tang, Professor Wong Kun-chun, said: 'I have never heard of any complaints on the orientation programmes or bullying at my dormitory and I have not found any problem with them so far.'
Edward Tong Chin-pang, chairman of Orientation Affairs Committee and a Year Two student at HKU, said: 'We did receive two to three complaints on the activities being too physically demanding last year. Every year the committee distributes guidelines to orientation camps' organisers and a complaint channel is set up for freshmen to file complaints. Freshmen's rights are well considered and protected.'
Wayne Tsang Wai-hang, chairman of the Student Union of CUHK, said establishing committees to inspect students' activities would have only a minute impact. 'University students certainly know what they can and cannot do. If they deliberately breach the rules, no one or committee can really put a to stop it. Instead, promotion of self-discipline is of paramount importance,' he said.
Dr Kenneth Leung Wai-yin, chairman of joint committee of New Student Orientation at CUHK, said orientation camps were beneficial and crucial for both leaders and freshmen. 'Leaders learn how to design their activities and guide the newcomers. It is in and of itself a learning process.
Meanwhile, freshmen will undergo some thinking and behav-ioural changes with their leaders acting as their models showing their upcoming university lives and duties as part of the university community,' he said.
Additional reporting by Michael Gibb. Sally Yip is a journalism and communications student at CUHK.
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