City University students deny teacher took class in Mandarin

A number of City University of Hong Kong students have rebuffed a news report that claimed mainland and local students verbally clashed repeatedly in the classroom after mainland students demanded a teacher hold his class in Mandarin instead of in Cantonese.

The class at the centre of the reported row was the Essential Concepts in Chinese Culture, a core course for all students of the Master of Arts in Chinese programme. Hong Kong-based on Saturday said the course lecturer, supposedly teaching the class in Cantonese according to class guidelines, used Mandarin extensively after some Mandarin-speaking mainland students urged him to do so.

The report then cited local students in the class as saying the conduct, amid local students’ protests, ultimately escalated into repeated, intense quarrels with students from across the border.

"No quarrels took place at all," five mainland students enrolled in the class told the South China Morning Post. “The report overwhelmingly exaggerated [the fact].”

They said several students approached course lecturer Dr Chan Hok Yin in the very first class of the semester asking if he could speak Mandarin, but the professor declined the request citing the rules. “Things moved on and nobody ever publicly complained about this ever again,” one student said.

The students also rejected the ’s claim that lecturer Chan taught bilingually and “paused to translate into Mandarin once every three or four sentences.”

“Professor Chan used only minimal Mandarin to briefly explain some important key terms during his lectures,” a student said. In each course, which lasts two hours and fifty minutes, Chan spent “less than 10 minutes” speaking Mandarin Chinese Culture class, students said.