The Sino-Japan Youth Conference is unique in following aspects:
1) The Conference is organized by, and targeted at Secondary School Students
What is exceptional about the Sino-Japan Youth Conference is that it is entirely student-run and student-initiated, as well as student-geared. It has evolved under the hands of students who have studied in LPCUWC and who have felt that their awareness of the world has been greatly broadened by their experience at an international school. The Sino-Japan Youth Conference is therefore a culmination of what we as UWC students feel is important to work for, in order to continually broaden our own experience of the world. We also hope to introduce to other students the importance of thinking about the world as a global unit, as well as about the place of youth in the world. We believe that the youths of today are the future leaders of tomorrow who will play a part in enhancing the world we live in for generations to come.
2) The Conference is based on the idealism of inter-cultural understanding of United World College movement
“United World Colleges makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future”
Mission Statement
Under this statement, the first United World College was founded in 1962 in Wales that had students from all over the world selected on personal merit irrespective of race, religion, politics and the ability to pay. Along with the explicit aim of fostering peace and international understanding, this global educational movement inspired by the German educationalist Kurt Hahn was regarded by the Times as “the most exciting experiment in education since the Second World War”.
The United World College was initially founded so that youths from aged 16 to 18 could overcome the hostilities of the Cold War. The UWC movement has grown since then that today; we have 12 colleges operating on a worldwide scale. With students and staff from many different nationalities and a wide variety of backgrounds, they form vibrant, enthusiastic and compassionate communities that live and work together in mutual understanding and learning. The UWC movement, headed by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and Nelson Mandela, has grown to include National Committees in over 120 countries, an extensive alumni network of over 36,000 graduates and, now, over 1,200 new students per year studying in various UWCs making a difference in the world they live in.
The United World College Sino-Japan Youth Conference of August 2009 is one project out of many that aims to implement the values and the mission statement of UWC by reaching out globally.
3) The Conference is based on Hong Kong
A former crown colony of the United Kingdom, the Pearl of the Orient, a growing hub of international finance and trade; these are just several phrases to describe Hong Kong. As a specially administrated region, Hong Kong’s sovereignty was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China in 1997 during the Handover and is currently being governed under the “one country, two systems” policy. The policy stipulates that the Central People’s Government is responsible for the territory’s defense and foreign affairs, while the Government of Hong Kong is responsible for its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, immigration policy, and delegates to international organisations and events. With a long history interwoven into the various affairs of the ‘Far East’, Hong Kong will be the ideal starting point in understanding the Sino-Japanese relations and the perceptions that surround it.
Hong Kong itself is located on the south-east coast of China, surrounded by the South China Sea and bordering Shenzhen of Guangdong province. It consists of many small islands as well as a large portion of territory still connected to the Mainland. For many tourists, it is considered as a cultural hotspot with over one million Japanese tourists in the past year visiting Hong Kong to marvel at the Peak, Victoria harbour and the plethora of skyscrapers that litter our harbour front. Tourism has helped Hong Kong transform from a manufacturing economy to a service based industry that has helped evolve trade and investments between Hong Kong and other countries.
One of the first things that most visitors notice about Hong Kong is its dense urban core located mostly around Hong Kong Island or the Kowloon Peninsula given as Hong Kong is one of the most populated regions in the world. There is an influx of immigrants from the mainland of approximately 45,000 a year which has increased the population as well as the need for Putonghua rather than Cantonese. The amalgamation of such will put the campus of Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong as the centre of understanding such intricacies with students coming from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
