Hall Culture at Hong Kong Universities

Living away from home is part of lives of many university students in Hong Kong.  Although Hong Kong is a small city and it is possible to commute between any two points every day, staying in a student residence for at least one year is a requirement for many universities.  And the cheap rental and convenience offered are simply too attractive to miss.  Thus there are always too many students competing for too little places.  These student residences are sometimes referred to as “student halls”. 

Image via Wikipedia

What is a hall life like?  Like the majority of residential buildings in Hong Kong most student halls are multi-storey, up to 20 floors.  Each floor hosts around 20 double rooms, thus around 40 students.  Usually the floors are single-sex and friends from the opposite sex can stay only up to 11pm at night.  Residents are encouraged to open their doors to welcome friends to come in to chat any time, and yes, that also means there is no privacy.

As students they have to attend classes in the day time.  Therefore a typical hall-life starts after 7pm, whence there are gatherings organized by different interest groups.  For example the soccer team may have a practice session at 8pm or the swimming team may have a dessert gathering at 10pm.  Inter-floor social functions are common, especially between male and female floors.  Besides there are also inter-floor contests like singing contests or sports day.  Fellow hallmates build up their relationship through these various activities and a lot of them become life-long groups of friends.

However, these halls are also notorious for organizing orientation camps that contain games that insult freshmen but claiming to be “building up their confidence”.  These games are actually nothing short of sexual harassment, especially for female participants.  Every year there are media reports of details of the games, and yet every year these games carry on. 

The word “Senior” means celestial when pronounced in Cantonese.  Thus when you first join the hall, you are just a junior “ghost”.  Only after passing the orientation game, usually lasts one week, can you be promoted from “ghost” to “junior Celestial”.  In your second year you are a “middle Celestial” and in the final year you are a “big Celestial”.  After graduation you are a “Super Celestial” and you are welcome to visit the hall anytime and keep a life long relationship.

While some students enjoy their hall life to the full under the motto of “work hard, play hard”, others will feel pressurized having to attend the endless list of activities and quit after the first few days.  It is after all the student’s own choice.