Lawmaker Backs Call For Probe Into CUHK Emblem Affair

Lawmaker Priscilla Leung on Wednesday backed a demand from some members of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's governing council for an independent investigation into its now-abandoned decision to introduce a new version of its emblem.

The council officially reversed the decision to change the emblem at a meeting on Tuesday at the recommendation of its vice-chancellor, Rocky Tuan, saying it would revert to the version used before October 17.

Leung, a graduate of CUHK who chairs the Legislative Council's panel on education, told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme that she and her fellow lawmakers had not been asked about the change, and she was astonished to hear that professors and even external members of the university's council had also not been consulted.

"They should have consulted the stakeholders with due process," she told RTHK's Ben Tse, complaining that "few people had been consulted".

"They deserve such an investigation because it is to avoid further procedural flaws," she added.

The new logo placed the university's traditional Chinese phoenix logo against a purple background rather and the traditional purple and gold split.

Leung and other alumni had complained that the simplified version of the emblem no longer included its motto, "through learning and temperance to virtue".

The university had earlier said it consulted some 2,200 stakeholders before introducing the new logo.

In a brief statement published on its website late on Tuesday, it said: "At its meeting today (25 October 2022), the Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong accepted the Vice-Chancellor’s recommendation that the University’s official emblem should revert to the pre-17 October version (i.e., purple and gold split colour)."