HKU Campus Legends & Superstitions Examined: The Lily Pond, the Main Building's Clock Tower, and Hall Ghost Stories

One-line verdict: What circulates most widely at HKU isn't the ghost stories themselves, but the taboo system that has grown up around them — the Lily Pond's "don't answer if someone asks the time late at night", the Main Building gate's "the U won't stay on", University Hall's tapir statues "touch them and you're cursed, stroke the lion to undo it" — all of them unverified oral tradition. This piece isolates each one in turn and sets them against the documented history of the pond's reclamation and the 1930 donation of the clock tower.

Wild History Zone · 15 Modules · Deep File No.1. This piece focuses on the campus taboos and superstitions at HKU (what you "must not do", and what happens if you do), rather than the full plots of the ghost stories. The legends themselves — the Lily Pond's ghostly woman, the curse of University Hall's stone statues, the morgue, the "Vniversity" spelling — are already physically isolated and handled in Campus Legends & Hall Traditions; this piece does not retell their plots, but only the behavioural taboos that derive from them and their credibility. All folk claims are isolated in vermilion-coloured rumour cards labelled "unverified folk tradition"; any individuals involved are referred to only as "Mr./Ms. [surname]"; proper nouns (halls, buildings, hall crests) retain their original names. This piece touches on no politically sensitive events.

Cross-references: for walking tours see Walking HKU — Two Heritage Trails and the "Campus with the Most Ghost Stories" Claim; for building facts see 05 · Campus; for hall facts see 10 · Colleges/Residential Life.

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# Taboos, not ghost stories: how to read this piece

Anyone can tell a campus ghost story, but what actually gets remembered by each new generation of students — and genuinely obeyed — is usually not the plot but the line appended at the end: "so whatever you do, don't…". HKU's urban legends are especially like this: the tale of the Lily Pond's ghostly woman has been told for decades in varying versions, yet nearly every version ends in the same taboo — if someone asks you the time late at night, don't answer. These "you must not do X" taboos are where the real vitality of campus legends lies, and they are the object of this piece's examination, isolated out for scrutiny on their own.

This piece is complementary to the existing Campus Legends & Hall Traditions: that piece isolates and records the legends themselves (who, where, what happened) with credibility ratings; this piece picks out only the taboos and superstitions derived from the legends and asks three questions of each — what precisely the taboo requires one to do or not do, whether any verifiable source exists, and, against the documented facts of the University or its archives, whether it holds up. Anything without evidence is isolated in a rumour card labelled "unverified folk tradition", with no retelling of grisly details and no dramatisation.

One thing to state upfront: none of the taboos listed below has any official record, incident report, or archival corroboration. They are included here because media reports (such as HK01's compilation of campus ghost tales^※) or television dramas (such as TVB's Twelve Legends) provide a traceable public account — not because they are credible. Readers should treat them throughout as folk phenomena of campus oral tradition, not as statements of fact.

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# The Lily Pond: why do "old ghosts" tell you not to answer late at night?

The HKU Lily Pond is the most photogenic spot on campus — and the most "afflicted" legendary site. Let's set out the documented facts first, then the taboo.

The documented Lily Pond first. According to the University's own introduction on its Facebook page^※, the present-day Lily Pond "lies peacefully behind the stately Knowles Building" as "a serene oasis in the midst of bustle" (original: "Nestled behind the stately Knowles Building lies a serene oasis – the beloved Lily Pond."). According to the HKU Estates Office's building records^※, the site was originally a large lawn in the 1950s, later converted into a sizeable lily pond using fill from Deep Water Bay, and quickly became a gathering spot for staff and students; the original pond disappeared during campus expansion works in the 1980s, after which a smaller version was retained; a bronze statue of Dr Sun Yat-sen, erected in 2003, now stands in the pond. In this "lawn → pond reclamation → downsizing → re-installation" history, there is no record of anyone drowning, no murder case, and no pond closure.

Now the folk taboo. According to HK01's compilation of HKU campus ghost tales^※, the most widely told Lily Pond tale is the "asking the time" taboo: legend has it that anyone lingering by the pond late at night will meet a young woman who repeatedly asks "what time is it now?", and the taboo that has been handed down is — do not answer. As for the ghost woman's origins, multiple contradictory folk versions exist; this piece does not retell them (see the separately isolated Legends piece), but records only this behavioural taboo derived from them.

Worth noting in juxtaposition is that the "asking the time" taboo is hardly unique to HKU. Late at night, by the water, alone, a stranger who shouldn't be there striking up conversation — this motif recurs across Chinese and global campus urban legends, and "if you answer, you'll be dragged away/taken" is the standard ending. This suggests the tale records less a specific incident and more a narrative template that can be applied to any quiet stretch of water; the HKU Lily Pond merely happens to supply the stage — "late night, secluded, with water". This is also why this piece insists on labelling it "unverified folk tradition" and setting it alongside the documented pond-reclamation history — the same body of water carries both a verifiable landscaping history and an unverifiable oral taboo, and the two should not be confused.

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# The Main Building and clock tower: why won't the "U" on the gate stay up?

The Main Building is HKU's oldest building and the one most often dragged into legends. Again, the documented facts first.

The documented Main Building and clock tower. According to the Wikipedia entry on the HKU Main Building^※, the Main Building was donated by Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, with construction beginning in 1910 and the building completed and opened in March 1912; it was the University's only building in its early years. Its exterior has been a declared monument of Hong Kong since 1985. Designed by the architectural firm Leigh & Orange, it is an Edwardian building of red brick and three storeys with granite Ionic columns, laid out symmetrically around a central clock tower, with additional turrets at the four corners. According to the same entry^※, the clock tower on the roof was donated by Sir Paul Chater in 1930 — in other words, the clock tower people look up to today is a physical object with a known donor and date, and has nothing to do with any ghost story.

The folk "U" taboo. The most "taboo-flavoured" tale attached directly to the Main Building is the claim that the "U" on the University gate won't stay up. According to a folk compilation attributed to a Sohu account "HKU Night Talk"^※, campus rumour has it that the "U" in "UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG" on the University's gate, because its shape so closely resembles the round arch, "gathers the resentful spirits of the dead", and so no matter how it is hung up, it always falls off the next day. This tale points at the same stone inscription as the better-known "Vniversity spelling" legend, but in the opposite direction — the latter has long been officially clarified by the University as a deliberate imitation of Roman epigraphy (see the official rebuttal already set out in the Legends piece), whereas "the falling U" is pure folk embellishment, with no maintenance record or University statement to support it.

As for the "clock tower ghost story" — many assume that such a century-old tower must have a frightening tale attached, but a search through the accessible folk compilations and media round-ups reveals no fully formed ghost story centred specifically on the Main Building's clock tower in circulation; the tower appears mostly as a "gloomy old building" backdrop mentioned in passing, not as the protagonist of an independent legend. This piece accordingly records the truth plainly: no specific clock tower legend exists to be found; what is documented is only the historical fact of Sir Paul Chater's 1930 donation. Writing down "there is no legend" is precisely to avoid conjuring a phantom tale that isn't there.

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# Hall ghost stories and taboos: sealed corridors, the back hill, and morgue initiation

Halls of residence are another disaster zone for campus legends. The taboos circulating among HKU residents are mostly tied up with the enclosed spaces of old buildings, construction of new wings, and initiation rituals. Isolated one by one below.

# May Hall and Eliot Hall: the sealed corridors

# St. John's College "the call of the back hill": the empty coffin

# The Medical Faculty morgue initiation: an old tale retold again and again

# University Hall's "four not-likes": touch them and you're cursed — stroke the lion to break it?

The "four not-likes" stone statues at University Hall are a rare example at HKU of a solvable taboo — one that not only says "don't touch", but comes with a ritual for "what to do if you already have". The documented facts first.

According to the Wikipedia entry on University Hall^※, the building began life as Douglas Castle, completed in 1861, and was formally converted into a University hall of residence in 1956; its exterior is a declared monument of Hong Kong, and the architecture blends Tudor and neo-Gothic styles. Flanking the stone staircase at the main entrance stand three "four not-likes" stone carvings (two large, one small), whose features "are like an elephant in head and trunk, like a qilin in body and tail, and like a lion in claws", yet match none of them exactly. The same entry records two further documented artefacts: a spiral bronze staircase (fifty-two steps) that arrived by sea from Paris, was confiscated by the Japanese military during the Second World War and shipped to Japan, and was returned after the war; and the hall's cook Sister Sao (袁苏妹女士, Ms. Yuen So-mui, 1927–2017), who served from 1956 until her retirement in 1998 (her Honorary Fellowship and other documented aspects are covered in the Legends piece).

"Touch them and you're cursed; stroke the lion and it's lifted" is a very typical folkloric structure: it imposes a taboo while leaving a back door open, so believers feel both awe and not-panic. The stone lion, with its long-established apotropaic role in Chinese tradition, was the natural nearby candidate to be drafted in as the "antidote". This is also why the "four not-likes" taboo has circulated so stably among residents — it doesn't just scare you; it gives you an actionable ritual to put your mind at ease.

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# Credibility summary

The table below sets out the taboos and superstitions covered in this piece, together with the documented facts they are juxtaposed against, so that at a glance you can tell "what has no evidence" from "what is real".

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# Where these superstitions come from: a footnote in folklore

Line the seven items above up side by side, and the "production mechanism" of HKU campus superstition comes into fairly clear focus. Roughly four forces are at work.

First, old buildings are themselves narrative containers. The HKU campus holds one of the densest concentrations of heritage buildings among Hong Kong's tertiary institutions — the Main Building (1912), University Hall (1861), May Hall and Eliot Hall are all century-old structures; add University Hall's genuinely documented wartime burden (the ground floor was, during the Japanese occupation, "said to be used for torture, executions, and as a morgue") and the older a building is, and the more real wartime trauma it carries, the more readily oral tradition attaches ghostly plots to it. Legends are rarely pure invention; they cling to real but hazy history.

Second, taboos are a pressure valve. Campus superstition spikes in two settings: exam season and residential life. The "four not-likes – touch it and you won't graduate/fail your exams" claim condenses abstract academic anxiety into a simple action — "don't touch that statue"; the Lily Pond's "don't answer late at night" condenses the unease of walking alone at night into an executable rule of self-protection. The function of a taboo is never just to frighten; it gives anxiety an actionable ritual outlet — do this one thing, and you feel steadier.

Third, the enclosed structure of halls naturally breeds oral tradition. A hall of residence is where first-years first leave home, sleep collectively, and hand stories down generation to generation; tales like the "back hill's empty coffin" and "sealed corridor couple" almost all grow at the nodes of spatial change — new wings under construction, old sections closed off. Seniors lead juniors, old ghosts scare new ghosts; the legends are consolidated through nights of initiation retelling and become part of a hall's identity.

Fourth, secondary media transmission "fixes" the oral tradition. According to Wikipedia^※, TVB aired the drama Twelve Legends in 2019, one episode of which, "The College Campus's Unexplainable Event", uses a "lotus pond" — i.e., the Lily Pond — as its setting, weaving the motifs of classic campus urban legends into a fictional crime narrative. Per the same entry^※, the drama does not adapt any real campus murder case; it borrows long-circulating legendary motifs. With that broadcast, the Lily Pond story — previously oral, version-varying — was given a fixed, amplified televisual form. This helps explain why the Lily Pond remains the campus's most "famous" legendary spot to this day: it has a real quiet-water stage, and it has been repeatedly endorsed by mass media.

To be clear: the four points above are a folklorist's observation of why legends circulate; they are not an admission that any individual taboo is true. On the contrary, understanding their generation mechanisms is what lets us set each in its proper place with equanimity: the documented pond-reclamation history, the clock tower donation, the declared-monument status — those belong to official history; don't-answer-late-at-night, the U-won't-stay-up, stroke-the-lion-to-lift-the-curse — those belong to folklore. One campus can hold both meaning systems at once, but this archive's position is unchanged throughout: the documented recorded as documented, the oral isolated and labelled, never the two confused.

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# A blunt toolkit for debunking: three questions to ask any campus taboo

Compiling this piece was, in effect, also a replicable debunking process. Faced with any claim of the form "you must not do X at some place in HKU", this archive asks three fixed questions — and readers may want to ask them too.

Question one: what precisely does this taboo require one to do or not do? A superstition that survives can almost always be compressed into an executable action — don't answer, don't touch the statue, don't press your ear to the wall. Conversely, if a "legend" offers only atmosphere and cannot state a specific taboo, it has most likely not yet "grown into" a taboo; it's just a frightening description. Isolating the action is the first step of identification.

Question two: apart from oral tradition, is there a third-party source? This piece's bar for inclusion is not "is this story believable" but "does a traceable public account of this claim exist?" The Lily Pond "asking the time" tale and the University Hall "four not-likes" can enter because compilations like HK01's^※ precede them; whereas a specific incident like "a student died after damaging the statue" has no news or archival record whatsoever and can only be marked as rumour and excluded. A record doesn't make something true, but it at least shows the tale "genuinely circulates" rather than being someone's spur-of-the-moment invention.

Question three: set against documented facts, does it hold up? This is the crucial step. The Lily Pond is set against the pond-reclamation history; the U against the official statement on the spelling and the clock tower donation; the "four not-likes" against the artefact records of the statues and the bronze staircase. Once juxtaposed, most taboos betray themselves — either directly contradicting official statements (as the U tale does against the "Vniversity" clarification) or clinging to a real but exaggerated history (as the occupation memory does for University Hall). Debunking is not about proving "there are no ghosts"; it is about cleanly separating what can be verified from what cannot.

These three questions are, in the end, this site's general stance toward all low-credibility material: neither gullible nor cynically dismissive; treat oral tradition as a folkloric phenomenon worth recording, not as something to be "debunked" or "confirmed". That these HKU taboos have survived a hundred years is itself a cultural and psychological fact with its own reasons — recording them, labelling them, and juxtaposing the documented record is enough; belief is left to the reader.

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# Not found / pending verification

• The earliest origins and dates of each taboo: none can be established; this piece can trace them only as far as recent media compilations and online collections, with no archival record of earlier oral sources.
• Specific incidents such as "a student died after damaging the four not-likes": no verifiable news or archival record of any kind; this piece records them solely as isolated folk rumour and does not credit them.
• The "legendary location" of the Lily Pond: folk versions contradict each other (behind the Knowles Building / between the Hung Hing Ying Building and the Pao Siu Loong Building); the documented location follows the University's official description (behind the Knowles Building).
• The Main Building's clock tower: no specific legend exists to be found; the documented history (Sir Paul Chater's 1930 donation) is in the Main Building file (05 · Campus).

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