The Review 2015

27 WORLD-WIDE WORK EXPERIENCE Breaking Down Barriers of Language, Culture and Personal Belief Seeding the Future – Internationalisation HKU secures internship opportunities for students in Hong Kong and, increasingly, in Mainland China and beyond. Not only do they get to apply their learning in the working world, they also broaden their cultural exposure, as two Business students recently found. Bonnie Ng Yu-tung (above left), a fourth-year BBA(IS) student, wanted two things from her internship: exposure in Mainland China where there is rapid technological development, and experience working with a multinational corporation, having previously interned An opportunity to go to Russia to develop social advocacy skills not only inspired Law student Eriko Lau Kin-ling (pictured, in blue jacket) to return to the country, but to study its controversial anti-gay propaganda laws in-depth and interview those affected by it. Eriko first went to Russia in 2013 under HKU’s Intensified Learning Opportunity Programme and came home determined to return. After seeing international coverage of the country’s anti-gay propaganda law just before the 2014 Winter Olympics, she contacted people in Russia’s LGBT community and decided to undertake research on this controversial legislation. In summer 2014, through the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme, she travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg to conduct interviews with LGBT activists and individuals, representatives of the Russian Orthodox church, the founder of the Moscow Gay Pride parade, and law professors at her host university, the Higher School of Economics. Her final project, submitted in May 2015, grappled with both the social and legal repercussions of the law. “This was my first time to conduct research like this – stepping away from campus and even Hong Kong, entering a foreign community and integrating my knowledge with a real-life situation,” she said. “I learned that it was important to enter the field to understand issues because the truth can be tainted by politics. I learned to combine the information I got, which was mainly from the interviews, with theories from books and journals to give more persuasive arguments. “And personally, I learned to be more open-minded to different cultures and to people who are different. My own religious belief sometimes conflicted with that of the interviewees but I learned to respect others and reflect on my belief and my own stance towards this law. The conversations I had changed a lot of my thoughts towards LGBT issues.” Eriko graduated in 2015 and hopes to be able to return to Russia in future to work. with NGOs and a start-up. She spent the summer working as a software engineer intern in the Shanghai offices of EMC Corporation where, among other things, she developed an app and produced a video for the company. “This was a precious opportunity for me to gain practical working experience in a multinational ICT corporation and to gain exposure to Shanghai culture. I also met representatives from different companies and expanded my network. I wouldn’t have had this chance in Hong Kong,” she said. Tracy Ho Chui-sze (pictured with Bonnie), a fourth-year BBA(Law) student, spent the summer of 2015 as a trainee at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Perth. She was rotated around different departments where she got a chance to apply her skills, gain exposure to Australia’s banking industry and witness first-hand a work culture that emphasises greater work-life balance than is usually seen in Hong Kong. “The most important thing I learned is that as an intern, we should be proactive about our learning. The more you ask your supervisors and colleagues, the more you will learn,” she said. On the Ground in Myanmar Debby Chan (pictured, in blue), a third-year PhD student in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, has made three month-long research trips to Myanmar this year to get information that otherwise would remain buried in the country. Her topic is social opposition to Chinese investment in Myanmar. Since most cases before 2012 were not reported in the media due to the strict censorship ordered by the ruling military junta, the only way to get information has been to go directly to eyewitnesses and participants. Ms Chan has interviewed dozens of villagers and activists, including former political prisoners, to get an accurate understanding of the strengths of the social movement in Myanmar and the events that went unreported. In so doing, she has had to work around both technological constraints (telecommunications networks are underdeveloped and email is not used much) and a different work culture. “Setting up appointments is quite difficult because nothing can really be confirmed. People will say ‘call me when you arrive’ or ‘let’s confirm next week’, but they may never return my calls,” she said. “One t ime I travel led to a vi l lage and there was no mobile phone signal at all. I immediately comprehended the difficulties for villagers in communicating with each other and reaching out to journalists or civil society groups in cities.” Her perseverance in contacting people is paying off, however, and she has been amazed by their openness in sharing their political views. “People seem to have totally forgotten their fear under the dictatorship,” she said. They give Ms Chan a particularly warm response when learning she is from Hong Kong. “They are enthusiastic to show their support for the Umbrella Movement – they see it as an inspiration for them,” she said. The Review 2015