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Mercury, May/June 1997 Table of Contents

George S. Musser
Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Hong Kong students are not immune to the anti-intellectualism and commercialism that plague their peers in other countries.

"Go now!" he shouted. Though not a star was visible, a roof-full of students lingered. An occultation by the Moon of the star theta Aquarii isn't the flashiest of astronomical phenomena, but these students were determined to see it, or at least the drama: Would the clouds clear in time or not? Whenever the Moon threatened to burst through, everyone rushed from their conversations to the eyepieces and CCD monitor. When the time for the occultation had passed, the instructor, amateur astronomer Ng Hung-cheung, practically had to chase his students away.

Ng held his class--mostly teen-agers, but ranging in age from 9 to 50--atop the Hong Kong Space Museum, located right on the famously dramatic Kowloon harborfront. In lieu of stars and planets, skyscrapers became the telescope objects. Directly across the harbor was the construction site of the convention center where Christopher Patten, Hong Kong's last British governor, will hand control to China's man, Tung Chee-hwa, on July 1.

Astronomers in Hong Kong don't just have the elements to battle. They are also struggling to improve science education in a society that, they say, shuns intellectualism in favor of capitalism--where there are more cellphone stores than bookstores. Although Hong Kong students top international rankings of mathematical skill, Ng and others say the enthusiasm of the students on that roof-top is the exception.

"Hong Kong students don't like to think," says Yeung Chi-hung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society. A chemistry professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Yeung regales his visitor with stories of his students. They prefer to memorize; they seldom ask questions. Those who like science tend to go abroad for their studies, and seldom return.

"They told me that the only books that they read were their textbooks and the magazines that they read were those entertainment-oriented," Yeung says. "For the chemistry program that I teach, I have observed a decline in the number of applicants. I also have observed a decline in the overall entrance qualification of freshmen of science programs."

"Their first interest is money; second is TV," agrees Ng, secretary of the society. And no wonder: The hinterland of Hong Kong is the fastest growing economy in the world, and fortunes are there for the picking. Politics likewise fails to excite students, Ng says--despite (or perhaps because of) the imminent loss of even the limited democracy introduced by Britain in the eleventh hour of its colonial rule.

The disdain for science is worsened, Yeung says, by the tracking of high-school sophomores into either arts and humanities or science. Four- fifths of students (including, Yeung admits, his daughter) choose the former track and never see a science class ever again.

These suspicions have received support from the recently released Third International Maths and Science Study, a comparison of students' scores on standardized math and science tests in 41 countries. Hong Kong came fourth in math--but 24th in science, the worst performance of any East Asian country surveyed. The United States was 28th and 17th.

Leaving an Impression

The astronomical society also conducts classes at the space museum, which opened in 1980 and now attracts 1 million visitors a year. The 28- meter planetarium dome is equipped with the latest in planetarium technology: Zeiss and OmniMax projectors, with three-button panels on each seat for audience interaction. Each show has soundtracks in Cantonese, English, Japanese, and--added recently for the hand-over to China--Mandarin.

The museum's assistant curator, Lawrence Lee, describes activities that would be familiar to his counterparts anywhere. His exhibits include an invent-an-alien video game, a simulated moonwalk using bungee cords, and a demonstration of the opacity of metals to radio waves. As his visitor tries to turn a broken crank, he moans, "Hong Kong students are very destructive."

Lee's colleague, Karen Sit Man, has been busy preparing resource kits for teachers: sundial templates, Moon-motion models, books. The museum and astronomical society have co-sponsored an annual astrophotography contest ever since the museum was in its planning stages in the mid- 1970s.

Amateurs have carried their program of popularization into the local media as well. Ng and Yeung have both appeared on television to dispel rumors of UFO sightings, and Ng has written a monthly astronomical column for the English-language South China Morning Post since February 1995. (Meanwhile, most of the other 68 newspapers have daily or weekly astrology columns.) Three years ago, the society took up translation of the ASP's Universe in the Classroom newsletter into Chinese. It distributes 1,200 issues quarterly at a cost of HK$20,000 ($3,000) a year.

These efforts have not gone unnoticed by Hong Kong's political elite. At Ho Koon last summer, Ng says he showed Saturn and Jupiter to the secretary of the civil service, Lam Woon-kwong. Evidently they left an impression on Lam. In November, he was being grilled by the colony's semi-democratic legislature, the Legco, about apparent inconsistencies in business travel expenses. Lam, perhaps knowing that an American astronomer was in the visitors' gallery, had a novel response.

"If I look at Mars in August and in November, it will look different, but actually Mars remains the same thing," he told the legislators. Translation: Though the policy remains the same, outside circumstances can change, making the policy seem inconsistent.

Speculation

But using the telescopes is another matter. According to the Royal Observatory Hong Kong, the skies are cloudy for an average of two-thirds of the time. Comet Hyakutake was visible for a grand total of two hours last spring. (The weather has been more cooperative for Hale-Bopp.) Amateurs often travel to rural areas, or abroad. Three members of the society went to northern China for the solar eclipse in March. Forty flew to India and another 15 to Thailand for the October 1995 eclipse.

The nearby provinces of China are especially popular destinations. In February, Yeung says amateurs flew to Lijiang, Yunnan, 1,400 kilometers (900 miles) away, and drove up to a 3,200-meter (10,000-foot) site that had been proposed by Yunnan Observatory for a 4-meter instrument. Travel to China poses no problem for Hong Kong residents, he says.

The 450-member Hong Kong Astronomical Society, founded in 1970, is the oldest and largest of four amateur clubs in Hong Kong. On the professional side, a few theoretical astrophysicists work in the physics departments of local universities. Ng says the groups seldom interact, though they did come together at an astronomical convention in late 1993. According to Yeung, none of the clubs has British, American, Filipino, or other expatriate members--reflecting a general segregation of expats and Cantonese in Hong Kong which members of both groups blame the other for.

No one knows what will happen to these clubs come July 1. "The return of Hong Kong to China may have some impact on amateur astronomy," Yeung says. "The Chinese government is very sensitive to gatherings and societies. They will intend to have some sort of control over these societies and make sure that they will not evolve into political bodies."

At first glance, such evolution may seem unlikely; the Hong Kong Astronomical Society is apolitical. But Chinese scientists were active in the Tiananmen Square protests eight years ago, so Beijing might not want to take any chances. Soon, Yeung speculates, the four societies may be joined by, or replaced by, a fifth: a government-sponsored astronomy club. In more ways than one, astronomy in Hong Kong is a microcosm of its society.

GEORGE S. MUSSER is the editor of Mercury magazine and The Universe in the Classroom newsletter. He visited Hong Kong last November as the self-designated foreign minister of the ASP. His email address is gmusser@stars.sfsu.edu.

For more information on the Hong Kong Astronomical Society, visit http://www.hk.super.net/~astronet/aas_e.htm; for more information on Ho Koon, visit http://hkein.school.net.hk/~hokoon.