Kwok Scholars

New Scholarships

We have awarded six Kwok Scholarships in 2021 to:

• Stephanie Cheung (Oxford MPP),
• Alice Lui (Cornell Hospitality Study),
• Qingling Kong (Oxford DPhil in Education),
• Tobias So (Cornell Hospitality Study),
• Chris Wong (Yale MPP in Global Affairs) and
• Muyi Yang (Oxford MPP).

Is the legitimate aim to protect 'traditional marriage' an impediment to the legislation of same-sex marriage?

The recent case of Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for Civil Service has begged the question of whether the courts in Hong Kong are in fact moving towards recognizing same-sex marriage. Gerald Chen argues that same-sex marriage is a right that is well-protected under the Basic Law.

Rethinking Hong Kong's asylum strategy

Roshan Melwani has recently submitted a policy brief to the Legislative Council suggesting a rethink of Government policy priorities under its Unified Screening Mechanism. This comes after the Government announced its intention to amend the Immigration Ordinance, which will entail significant practical implications for the rights of asylum seekers and ethnic minorities.

The Optimisation Mindset

Self-awareness, preferences and values affect the choices we make every day.  Martin Yip prompts you to ask yourself : what are you optimising for?

Access at Oxford

Sharon Chau looks into ways which Oxford can and should do to widen access of underprivileged students.

There is no Social Delimma, only the Metaverse Delimma

Jack Chong argues that surveillance capitalism is inevitable. We have a bigger problem than the Social Dilemma, we have the Metaverse Dilemma.

Table to Write

Kids in Malawi struggle to learn while sitting on the ground for the whole school day. A table enables their education and empowers their future. Qingling Kong curated a calligraphy exhibition to raise funds for the Sangadzi1 Primary School in Malawi that she visited on her work mission. The goal is to provide tables to 1890 school kids enrolled in 2021.

Hong Kong Debate and Speech Community

Hong Kong Debate and Speech Community is an NGO founded with the intention of promoting English speech education amongst underprivileged students in the city. Brian Wong has been appointed Governor of this organisation. 

The Plague Year 

Having devoted fully to the development of South East Asia and collaboration between Hong Kong and the region, I returned to my hometown in February last year. Since then, I have been helping a Hong Kong biotech company to engage in anti-epidemic work, combat COVID-19 both domestically and in emerging countries, especially Latin America, during this extraordinary period of time. Notably in Peru, I have reached out to the leader of an indigenous community and we are helping them to gain access to COVID-19 diagnostic reagents and vaccines.

To increase the testing efficiency locally in Hong Kong, I helped to advocate sample pooling technique to local laboratories and the government as the testing strategy. This technique reduces time and labour by more than half as required by the traditional testing method. With a strong belief that Hong Kong could play a crucial role in technology and innovation, while engaging in the battles against COVID-19, I am also participating in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area biotech organizations to foster scientific partnerships between the SAR and the Mainland. 

Throughout the year serving the biotechnology industry, while I witnessed many changes of the city, be it good or bad, I have gained a new perspective to look at things on a "molecular" level. Hong Kong's future outlook depends greatly on scientific and technological advancements, STEM education is definitely the cornerstone for Hong Kong to succeed as a knowledge-based economy and to alleviate shared concerns of the society such as poverty and social stratification.

I think only when STEM education is widely implemented into our community, only when our future pillars are educated with science knowledge, and only then Hong Kong’s future will be reborn from the shadows of the past. I will make it my top priority to work on this in my upcoming projects.

Ayo Chan