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Subject: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 14:10:33 01/23/03 Thu Some of you may have heard that there will be a new phase added to the existing school premises. For details please go to the website of the PSA to check it out. Basically a new block will be built over the existing upper carpark and the music room (the existing music room and the Fathers' chapel will be demolished), there will still be an upper carpark but that will be fully or partly covered. If sufficient additional fund is received, the next phase will see the old school hall demolished and a new one built with 2 or 3 floors of classrooms on top of it. There will be a series fund raising lobbying and events in the months/years that follow kicking off this coming Sunday in the school hall. Soon when you happen to set your foot again in the dear old school, the new look of it may catch you by surprise (whether you like it or not) if you are not aware of what is going on now. The main reason for all these is, according to what G Tam told us and the press, due to insufficient classrooms. We now have 26 classes with only 24 classrooms. Talking about only 2 rooms short and the school is asking for donation of millions from the old boys and more importantly a permanent change of face to the school. Is this done out of absolute necessity or is it just to fulfil somebody's personal ego of trying to leave some marks in the school ? Has the school explore all other possible routes ? Now that there aren't many Jesuit Fathers left and it appears that the new wing (the one added some ten years ago) are not being used well enough, has the school thought of making better use of those spaces......and, even failing all that, can we not take up less students ? What makes Wah Yan so special is the quality of students it produces, not the number. I oppose anything that makes Wah Yan less Wah Yan than the one we used to know. Old-fashioned or conservative you may call me, but I definitely am a die-hard protector of the good old tradition of the school. (P.S. Already I don't like the little changes made here and there in the school in recent years. I am sure many of you agree with me if you happen to see all those changes made lately.) [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Paul Chan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:21:38 01/23/03 Thu Totally agree with you. In Paris, you have to maintain th outlook of those historial buildings but you can renovate and modernize their interior. I hope the outlook of Wah Yan can be preserved as much as possible. I still miss those wooden louvers that were turned into pen-stand and were sold as fund-raising souvenir. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:45:42 01/23/03 Thu BTW, go take a look at the pictures of the school taken on 19 Jan 2003 inside the photo album. Better still, go to the school and take some pictures there yourself especially around the upper carpark and the music room area before they got pulled down in about 2 months' time. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Toby [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:00:37 01/23/03 Thu Just for the record, the louvers were not pulled down to be sold as souvenirs, they were torn down to make way for glass windows which were placed for air-conditioning purposes (rightly or wrongly another worthy discussion). [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ho Fu [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:26:51 01/23/03 Thu This is the dear school where we learn how to treasure and keep for a lifetime all that's noble and true... [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:37:05 01/23/03 Thu Well said, Ho Fu. Cannot put it better. Seems that the guy who wrote the school song knew that one day somehting like this is going to happen. And the guys who are still singing the song everyday now should think deep about the meaning of it...... [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ashley [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 22:28:03 01/23/03 Thu I agree with you too. I am totally against changing the school premises drastically, not so much a rational decision but rather an emotional opinion. Though I am not against moderning the interior. Lam, remember my trip to Edinborugh? All the hospitals I attached were centuries old on the outside but more than modern in the inside which surprised me a lot at that time. Building an annex in the lower car-park or near the PSA building may be better ways to get more room area while keeping our school more or less the same as it is. Seems like most of us hold the same opinion. May be Toby should convey our worries to the PSA and the school herself. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ashley [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 23:08:57 01/23/03 Thu May I ask you the take some more photos of our dear School? In particular: 1. Inside of our Chapel - our chapel is one the most beautiful chapel I have ever seen in HK. Try taking a photo with someone praying, light shining on the statue of Jesus our Lord. (kind of like this one: ) 2. Inside of our Leature Theatre (our classroom when we were in Lower 6) 3. Inside of our Library 4. Inside of our school hall and the balcony from which many of us has jumped 5. A closer shot of our lady Mary. 6. A photo of our school premise (the father's library) from the lower car-park 7. A shot of the playground with people playing in it. Try including the benches of the canteen. 8. A shot of the playground from the 1st floor. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Suen [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 00:14:52 01/24/03 Fri Not every time agree with Ashley, but this time he makes the sense. No drastic change to her appearance please when modernize the internal parts and equipments. Keeping her tradition looks help maintain our spirit nourished decades ago. A cold robot-like structure definitely not fits in it and should not be the favourite of us most. Remember we are already in a city of steels. We should have a white paper and thorough consultation before any section pulled down ? Keep the spirit and old look into next century. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ding [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 01:28:50 01/24/03 Fri You look at the west! They try so hard to preserve historical buildings and then you look at Hong Kong, we build and then knock it down and then build then knock down. Where is the old HK and Shanghai Bank with the Lions? Where is Gau Loon Sing Tshai? All knocked down!!! These are a part of our RICH history. For me I totally agree with Ashley that the emotional side of myself is crying out loud but the saying 'Life must go on' is also true. The bottom line is none of us want to see changes when we are comfortable or get used to with something. Building etc. are secondary issues but the virtues and our Wah Yan spirit must be sacredly preserved. These are the true values of Wah Yan education that money cannot buy. We are utterly proud that Wah Yan has produced quality students. Quality in the sense that not just excel in academic ability (OK Ashley you are just marginally brighter than me) but we have high standards in humility and serving our fellow beings. I am positive to say that these unique qualities are harder to find from other prestigeous schools' graduates. New buildings or old buildings is one issue but practicality is another issue. Are we wasting money? Do we really need more classrooms? Is this a project of someone's self glorification? Can we do an add on or do we have to do a dismantle and build jobby? Can we preserve as much as possible (Look at Oxford and Cambridge's well preserved buildings)? You all know more than me. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 14:21:35 01/24/03 Fri Thank you, thank all of you guys of letting me know that I am not alone. Our tie to the school is largely an emotional one, very much like a religion. This is hard or even impossible to explain to outsiders in words. My wife doesn't understand me, my son doesn't understand me, but that doesn't matter. Bottom line is our appeal need not be all rational. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 14:47:11 01/24/03 Fri Toby just faxed me a clipping of the latest issue of the 'One' Magazine. It says some Wahyanites found it hard to make donation to the school becasue of the English of the principal. Basically I don't believe what the magazine said. Chances are the reporter has mis-quoted what he/she had been told. If what the magazine said is true, I find it appalling and disappointing to say the least to know that there are Wahyanites out there who refused to help the school because of somebody's poor English ! What a poor excuse which missed the point totally. What's the point of nagging on people's English and not talk about the issue itself. To be honest, except for the few talented ones (like Ashley), most of us as Chinese don't write perfect English, but so what ? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: san chai lo [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:57:55 01/24/03 Fri When Lam told me the news that there will be a development project to rebuild the side where the music room, I thought it would only be a small scale rebuild. Now I realize that is a huge project, and it changes the whole look and style of the school. From the photo/drawing, it gives more of an impression of a commercial building than that of a school. This is too big a change I would like to see - may be I am getting old or may be I am stubborn. I agree with Lam. As many others have pointed out, modernization can be done without a total reconstruction. In that way much of the history and heritage can be preserved. That said, it is a decision already made. Let's hope that the good old tradition of Wah Yan still maintains and the Wah Yan spirit will continue forever. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ashley [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 21:24:21 01/24/03 Fri Ashley this, Ashley that....no wonder my eyebrows kept twitching the whole afternoon!! In any case, let's go back to our school and attend the kickoff this coming Sunday. I don't agree with San Chai Lo that it's a done deal. Let's hear what they have got to say. See if they can convince us, else we will voice our opinions. p.s. to Ding Ding, I meant to say "not as" rather than "not so". Satisfied? :-P [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ashley [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 23:11:56 01/24/03 Fri Ashley this, Ashley that....no wonder my eyebrows kept twitching the whole afternoon!! In any case, let's go back to our school and attend the kickoff this coming Sunday. I don't agree with San Chai Lo that it's a done deal. Let's hear what they have got to say. See if they can convince us, else we will voice our opinions. p.s. to Ding Ding, I meant to say "not as" rather than "not so". Satisfied? :-P [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Shun [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:51:10 01/25/03 Sat Personally, I do not wish to see any drastic change to the appearance of our mother school, unless there is real need. Being traditional is not a bad thing, especially when our traditional attribute is bringing us good things, for some reasons even we ourselves don't know why. The building project seems to change the whole face of our school. Nobody knows if after that, the traditional Wah Yan style of our students would also be changed. Perhaps our school management may exactly know what the real need behind the change is. It could be more than that our school is lack of 2 classrooms. Trust the school management would also agree it is not worth to spend so much money and time and incurring risks of changing the style of Wah Yan just for the purpose of adding 2 classrooms! In my opinion, adding 2 classrooms is not a difficult task. Just turn the canteen area into classrooms. Its above is our Labs and L6S/U6S classrooms anyway. The canteen can then move to a location closed to St Margaret. If there is real real need to add a "new building", instead of tearing down the Music Room and chapel, we may add more floors above the Sports Room/Library/Biology Lab annex. By doing this, at least there is no change on the appearance of the front of our school. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ding A Ling [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 07:26:55 01/27/03 Mon Ashley, stop that uncontrollable twitch, you twit!!!(Like that punch? Just to show my English is better than our principal's). 'Not So' or 'Not As' doesn't make much difference...except I know it's a fact that you are 'not as' or 'not so' Liang Chai (handsome) and Dai Jeck as I am :) Yeah! By the time I write this, you would have been back from the Sunday meeting. What's the outcome?!?!?! By the way, Cheung Yu Shun, tearing down the canteen would be very sad and hazardous as I really sentimentally miss those Kwat Kee noodles with spoonfuls of chilli sauce I had during recess and also Mr. U'Joelly will have to cook 'Lap May Farn' for lunch and thus another forseeable fire in the music room. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ashley [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:43:08 01/27/03 Mon Toby, Lam, Hofo, "Yu Chu", Bernard Tsui and I were there. My recurrent back problem troubled me again when I was on my way to the school and I had no mood listening to whatever they said. Bernard and Toby should be able to tell us more. I did get a brochure on the project and read it. I don't want to say that but you are right to say your English is better than our principal's (but bullshxt otherwise). Yeah... I know Lam was mocking me when he talked about my (far from) "perfect" english but do you know the meaning of "Father's Domitory"? At first, I thought it was a typo but then I discovered the word was "misspelt" on every floor plan in the brochure. How sad. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 09:31:24 01/27/03 Mon Simply amazing that people don't even bother to use the spell check tool which is so handy now that I don't think there can be any valid reason for not using it before realeasing any formal documents. DD, one outcome of the event was that the school received a check of HK$5 million from a single old boy called 'Yau Mok Sing' and of course a number of other smaller donations. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Ding Ding [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 11:40:25 01/27/03 Mon HK 5Mil! That's more than twice I need for my retirement in Canada! Send it my way. On a more serious note though, is this a definite go ahead plan? Are they openly listening to those who think otherwise? Keep me informed please. I stepped down as a director of our alumni group here in Vancouver last year after being one for 8 years (due to various other committments). I am, however, still active in Wah Yan stuffs. No doubt our alumni group would be very keen to know gossips and side news so please keep feeding us. Jason Yu Shun, AGM/Chinese NY dinner is on the 16th. Bring your camera this time. Phoebe is FREE and so you have no excuse of not coming! See you then. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:17:38 01/27/03 Mon Is it definitely going ahead ? For the first phase (the one for the upper car park and the music room redevelopment) I would say yes, very much to my (and our) disappointment though. For the second phase (the new school hall), it will depend on how much money the school is getting from us. And of course , the whole thing is in the hand of the management board and who are we to stand in the way of this historical moment of the school ? The PSA has a representative sitting on the board and I think the PSA has given the go ahead signal to the school already. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: ngancht [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:41:13 01/28/03 Tue Hi there folks, It had been quite a while. Concerning the redevelopment, some 10 years ago when i was in the PSA Council, Gordon Wu came up with a very ambitious redevelopment plan. If you folks recall that particular scale model his plan was to known down the whole school and even bulldoze Mount parish and build a brand new school on top of it. A new road could connect Kennedy Road and Stubbs Road. Unfortunately (or better say fortunately) the Government didn't approve the 'new road' part and the PSA and school board could not find the fundings. I could still recall they have not decided how to deal with the load yield radioactive stuffs in the caves back then. I wonder whether they had been cleared by now. Anyway, most HK merchants and government officials alike are short sighted. All they care are $$$ and $$$ and nothing else. They should be kicked back to school and take their history class. In my very biased opinion every good administrator should study history so they could learn from the past and then help shape the future. Anyway, enough BS. I'll try to come more often. At least during the holidays. Best Regards, Thomas [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 12:43:53 01/28/03 Tue Well said, 'most HK merchants and government officials are short sighted'. I believe you also meant to include some of the school officials in your statement as well. Okay, guys, tell me whether you think we should do anything about it (I mean the redevelopment), and how. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: san chai lo [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 23:43:38 01/28/03 Tue I am a little pessimistic. If the project gets funding and signed off, there is not much we can do. From the bit and pieces that I read, the project was signed off and now is just waiting for the funding. So the best thing we can do to protest now is not to donate money for the project. However, if the big donors from PSA like the project, our protest would have little effect. Just to clarify, has the project been cleared by the government already? [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: ngancht [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:05:12 01/29/03 Wed Hi there, If I have not misread the circular (which I have received three times, two printed, one email), phase I appeared to be funded by the Government. Best Regards, Thomas [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Why I don't like about the proposed new addition to the school Author: Lam [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:51:50 01/29/03 Wed Here is some more information for you guys. The project is broken down into 3 phases. Phase 1 is the development of a 4-storey building on the upper car park and the music room, this phase is wholly (or mostly if not wholly) funded by the government and I believe a $39 million fund has already been granted (or at least approved). Phase 2 is the additon of one extra floor on top of this new building and is to be funded by the school (meaning the old boys). From a planning point of view, these 2 phases are not separable, meaning that when we do the first phase the second must be in mind already. Given that a Stephen Yow has already donated $5 million, the remaining should just be a piece of cake. These 2 phases combined is what I referred to as the first phase in my previous postings. The final phase (or the 3rd phase) is the tearing down of the existing school hall and the building of a multi-purpose building comprising an elevated school hall, 2 floors of classrooms on top of it (and some more carpark spaces underneath it, if I remember correctly). And this is where the bigger chunk of money is needed. So, San Tsai, to make the long answer short, yes, phase 1 is definitely going ahead along with phase 2. Phase 3, it depends. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]