2021 marks the 50th Anniversary of Hong Kong Shue Yan University (HKSYU). A joyful event that was held on campus in December added special joy to this year of celebration. On December 11, an alumni couple, Miss LI Wenwen, Wendy and Mr. XU Shengcheng, Panda, held their wedding ceremony on campus. Dr. HU Fai-Chung, Deputy President of HKSYU, attended and sent blessings to the happy couple. Dr. Francis CHEUNG, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors, and Mr. George LUNG Chee-ming, a fellow member of the Board, were invited to represent the couple’s parents who were not able to travel from Mainland China to attend in person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Professor Selina CHAN Ching, Associate Academic Vice President University Research, delivered a speech at the wedding, wishing the newlyweds every happiness in their future together. Watched by relatives and friends, the couple exchanged their solemn vows and wedding rings before receiving the congratulations and good wishes of all present.
Panda, the groom, graduated from the Department of Sociology, while his bride, Wendy, completed her studies in the Department of Economics and Finance. Both came from Zhejiang Province and were admitted to HKSYU in 2012. Right before the wedding ceremony at the Research Complex of the University, Panda told the reporter of the Newsletter, “I am from Ningbo and Wendy is from Zhaoqing. We were both accepted by the University right after graduating from our local high schools and decided to come to Hong Kong for our studies. We met each other for the first time at the common area of our dormitory. During Year 2 summer vacation, as we had to stay at the campus for summer internship, we met far more frequently and started dating.”
The special meaning of this wedding
For these two young people who left their hometowns and came to Hong Kong, the University was their second home. Panda remembered that during the four years of dormitory life, teachers treated them like family members. Moreover, the love story of the University founders Dr. CHUNG Chi-yung and Dr. Henry HU Hunglick is for them a perfect model of romance. They had often seen Dr. HU taking Dr. CHUNG for a walk along Wai Tsui Crescent in her wheelchair. “We were deeply touched by the love and respect they showed one another”, Panda said. They learnt that Dr. HU and Dr. CHUNG had also met during their studies in Chongqing city (during WWII) and had held their wedding ceremony with the help of their teachers and friends at the university there. It inspired the young couple to wish to hold their own wedding at HKSYU during its commemorative 50th Anniversary year.
In the absence of their parents because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions, the couple invited two eminent Shue Yan alumni, Dr. Francis CHEUNG and Mr. George LUNG, who had been their mentors through the University’s Mentorship Program in 2015 and have since become their personal friends, to stand in for their parents at the wedding ceremony. When the wedding date was fixed, the couple faced difficulties in finding a lawyer who was available on that day to serve as civil celebrant of the marriage. The problem was eventually solved with the help of a teacher of the Law and Business Department, and they found Ms. YUEN Sze Sze , the alumni who studied Cooperative Programme in Shue Yan in the 1990s, as the civil celebrant of marriage. The couple believe that their lives are inextricably linked to Shue Yan.
Source: Nov and Dec 2021 Combined Issue