By Nicole Wong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-22 07:15

HONG KONG: Public demonstrations of overt sexuality and indecent behavior are on the increase at university orientation camps and on campus, the chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), Raymond Tang, said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of an online training module to curb indecent behavior, produced by the EOC, Tang said the rise in the number of such cases on university campuses was a call for better education on the subject.

"Such incidents have raised concern among university management teams, who have worked with us for the past two years on designing the module," he said.

"It's a good time to release it, as orientation camps are being held at the moment."

Tang said there were high expectations placed on university students to become the future pillars of society, and he hoped young people would demonstrate their good characters and decency to the public.

It remains to be seen whether Tang's appeal or the training module will have any impact, however, as media reports of lewd activities at university orientation camps continue to reach the public.

A video clip recently uploaded to YouTube, for example, showed two male students from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) sticking their tongues out toward each other, while one circled his tongue around the other's mouth.

"It might be a game prepared by students for the orientation camp," Yu Yiu-tung, chairperson of the PolyU's student union, said. "We are following up on the case, but we have yet to inform the university."

Vice-president of Education Convergence Ho Hon-kuen said racy games and activities are common in universities and they warrant more attention from both the institutions and the government.

The controversy over indecency was heightened after the student journal of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) published a series of columns dealing with sex

Touching on incest and bestiality, the February and March editions were classified as indecent by the Obscene Articles Tribunal (OAT) in May.

The journal's student editors are currently raising funds for a judicial review.

The chair of the CUHK's Committee Against Sexual Harassment, Wong Suk-ying, said students must find a balance between challenging social norms and their responsibility to society.

"In challenging traditional beliefs or conventions, students must also consider whether they are having a dialogue with the general public," Wong said.

"It's an educational process."

The EOC's new training module comprises a quiz, tutorials and questions, which seek to highlight behavior that might be deemed as sexual harassment under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance.

An English version of the module is available to all local university students, while the Chinese version will be released next month.

(China Daily 08/22/2007 page5)