In line with a tradition since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong people had the chance again to see a delegation of 29 Olympic medalists from the Chinese mainland up close during their three-day visit to the city. This is the sixth time the event has happened after July 1, 1997. It is to be remembered that the effort to maintain this visitation endeavor this time demanded tremendous perseverance and anti-pandemic preparations on the part of the Olympians. Yet the Olympian medalists overcame all the challenges and embarked on the goodwill tour, featuring a joint demonstration of 12 different sports in various sporting venues and education institutions.
Last week, the Education Bureau promulgated a revised curriculum framework for the values education in local schools, incorporating three new values — empathy, law-abidingness and diligence — to the seven that schoolteachers were anticipating to impart to the students. The current attributes are perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity, commitment, respect for others, integrity, and care for others. Along with the government’s support measures to boost sports development introduced in the wake of the HKSAR’s landmark performance in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics resulting in one gold, two silvers and three bronzes, the chief executive has urged the school heads to promote sports as a way of fostering students’ sense of identity — one of the key elements under the updated curriculum on values learning in schools.
In the CE’s view, many of the values — perseverance, commitment and respect for others — would be nurtured among the young people in the process of athletic training. To substantiate her call for active action on bolstering students’ sense of patriotism and belonging to the motherland, the CE has cited the example that, in regional and international athletic meets such as the Olympic Games, national representatives standing on the trophy-presenting podium will “naturally feel a strong sense of national identity” when the national anthem is played alongside the raising of the national flag.
With the success of Hong Kong athletes in the Olympic Games in Tokyo and the new round of visit by the medalists from the mainland, it is time again for us to consider in greater depth increasing the athletic cooperation across the boundary, taking into account the huge benefits to the city.
Among the applause and laughter from the sporting demonstrations in Queen Elizabeth Stadium, to which 2,000 local fans have flocked to catch a glimpse of the outstanding mainland athletes, one student spectator was recounted to have taken superstar sprinter Su Bingtian — who is from Guangdong province — as the “pride of Guangdong”, affirming that the experience sharing by the Olympians offered a “great opportunity for mutual exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland, which can strengthen the bond between the two places”. This feedback indeed tells the thoughts of the majority of people in Hong Kong, in addition to the local athletic community. Two-time Olympic weightlifting champion Lu Xiaohui proclaimed during the enlightening sports show that China is set to “become a sports powerhouse in 2035”. Riding on this declaration by a world-class athlete, Hong Kong has a lot to learn and gain in striking close partnerships with the mainland’s athletic sectors. This is especially so when the local athletes are venturing into global dimensions in their training, exposure and contests in different disciplines. With decades of world-acclaimed attainments by its athletes, the mainland is in a position to offer expert advice and sophisticated coaching to the city’s athletic groups. Mentorship could be provided by mainland athletes and trainers to their counterparts in Hong Kong.
With confidence that jointly holding the nation’s highest-level sporting event would facilitate the athletic developments of the two SARs and open up comprehensive sports collaboration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the central authorities approved in August the SARs of Hong Kong and Macao as co-hosts of the 2025 National Games with Guangdong province. It is the first time that the national-level competition will be co-organized by multiple regions. Leaders and key patrons in the city’s sporting field are most complimentary about this decision by the central government, believing that jointly holding the home country’s premier sporting contest with other GBA cities will enable the city to “further integrate into the region, which is vital for its sports development”. In their expert opinion, such collaborative merging will serve to “deepen Hong Kong sportsmen’s interactions with their mainland counterparts” and drive to a higher level the commercialization of the city’s sports competitions, which in turn will push its sports development to new boundaries. Apart from the economic benefits from developing sports into an enterprising industry, enhanced efforts in expanding and upgrading the local elite sports pursuits will promote enthusiasm for popular participation and lay a reliable foundation for the HKSAR to host global athletic events.
Given the growth of Hong Kong into an increasingly vibrant metropolis in the GBA, all dedicated efforts to forge greater and higher cooperation with the mainland’s athletic circles will surely stand to our big gains. There is thus every justification for the HKSAR government to take a closer look into the various possibilities in conjunction with the local sports organizations and the mainland authorities.
The author is a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.