Student hearts beat in unison and in unity

"The spirit of Bauhinia unites the beating heart in all of us."

Fearless of the rocky paths ahead of me because you are my companion.

Salute to our country, to years of brilliant achievements.

We are separated by land but we share the same Chinese dream."

These are the lyrics of the song Bauhinia, written, composed and sung by Hugo Kong, 22, a Hong Kong student at Peking University. He dedicated the song to the 25th anniversary on July 1 of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

"As a patriotic young man from Hong Kong, I'd like to use what I'm best at, music, to build a connection between the youth of Hong Kong and of the mainland so we can eliminate whatever misunderstandings we may have of one another," Kong told 21st Century Newspaper's Gen Z's words program.

What prompted him to write the song was witnessing unrest in Hong Kong in 2019 over changes to extradition law. In violence that broke out, thousands of people, most of them youths, were arrested.

"Those who took part in the violence were only a small part of Hong Kong youth," Kong says. He hopes that Bauhinia would help people in the mainland appreciate that the vast majority of young people in Hong Kong are peaceful and patriotic.

In the music video Kong invited 24 college students to sing together with him, 12 from Hong Kong and 12 from the mainland. Of the Hong Kong students, some study at the University of Hong Kong and some at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The 12 from the mainland study at institutions including Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing. The 25th singer, Kong, not only pays a tribute to the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, but also acts as a bridge connecting the two groups of young people.

"I see myself as much a Beijing resident as I am a Hong Kong resident," Kong says, which is why he considers it his responsibility to take on the bridge role. "I'm trying to convey a sense of unity with the song."

In fact, it was this yearning for diversity and broader horizons that took Kong to Beijing in the first place. In 2015, the then 15-year-old arrived in Beijing for a 10-day exchange program at the Central Conservatory of Music, during which he met music professors and classmates from many different parts of China. He says he was fascinated by the variety of cultural backgrounds, which later led to his decision to attend university in Beijing.

In 2018 he was admitted to the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, where he studied TV and radio broadcasting.

His subject choice was largely due to an exchange trip abroad before he became a university student when people were confused by his self introduction as "from China" instead of "from Hong Kong".

"It occurred to me then that there are still many people who know little about China and that Hong Kong is a part of China. A sense of mission suddenly rushed through me, and I decided that I wanted to be a communicator to spread China's voice."

In Peking University Kong shares a room with three others, from Shandong, Anhui provinces and Beijing. Their next door neighbors are from Zhejiang province, Shanghai and Inner Mongolia autonomous region. "We are all from different provinces and regions, and I don't see why Hong Kong is special in any way," Kong says. "My identity as Chinese comes before my being a resident of Hong Kong."

Staying with his peers from all across China for four years also allows Kong to gain new perspectives. "We all have different opinions. And when we bounce ideas off each other we often end up developing new understandings of things."

Kong's love for new experiences also took him to a primary school in a small mountain village in Hunan province in the summer of 2019. During his one-week stay there he taught children about music, English and taekwondo.

"I was hoping to see a different side of China. Yes, top-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai are part of China, and fourth- and fifth-tier cities are also part of it. Only when we see both the glamorous and the underdeveloped sides of China can we know that young people like us are needed to make our country better."

This is why Kong takes his role as a communicator so seriously. He uses his phone to livestream with primary school students in Hong Kong to take them on tours to visit Beijing hutong and to introduce them to traditional Beijing delicacies and handicraft, such as sugar-figure blowing. And during the Beijing Winter Olympics early this year Kong appeared as a presenter in Phoenix Television's Winter Olympics series, reporting behind-the-scenes stories of the Games to overseas Chinese people.

Kong says he has always believed that communication is the key to bridging gaps and eliminating misunderstandings, and that it is the responsibility of young people like him to work hard to make that happen.

In Bauhinia he writes: "We are born with the same yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes. With renewed hope, we shall embark on the journey once more. We'll write a new chapter of Hong Kong, and strive for a better future."