Under the "Seniority System" — Wax-Dripping, Door-Banging, and Indecent-Assault Cases in HKU Hall Student Associations

A "junior" made to stand on stage for ten minutes answering questions about "team spirit" and whether they will "run for committee"; a signed egg that must be carried at all times for two weeks, checked even in late-night room inspections — these are openly acknowledged "traditions" within HKU's hall culture. When this hierarchy of tacit tolerance slid toward wax dripped on genitals, late-night door-banging and verbal abuse, and even criminal indecent assault, the university administration and public opinion were forced to confront where the boundary of "resident self-governance" lies. This article organises recent disputed cases by hall, marks a credibility rating for each, and treats living individuals in accordance with BLP norms without making political characterisations.

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# What is the "senior/junior" hierarchy?

HKU halls follow the Hall system rather than a college system; each hall has a Hall Students' Association, through which residents organise orientation, high-table dinners, inter-hall competitions and other activities (for the institutional background see Hall Life and Traditions). But within halls there has long existed an informal hierarchy of titles and a punishment culture:

• According to an HK01 investigative report^※, hall culture centres on the titles "junior immortal" (新生, newly arrived students) and "senior immortal" (usually students in their third year or above who hold sway in hall affairs): senior immortals hold considerable authority to judge the conduct of junior immortals — from "friendly reminders" about lateness or forgetfulness, to demanding, in the name of "tradition", that juniors complete various instructions.
• The report states that in men's halls it was historically common for punishment games such as putting "mustard mixed with assorted sauces into residents' underwear" to be played, with new students most often as targets.
• The "Mass Orientation" segment requires new students to go on stage one by one and answer questions in front of everyone about team spirit, whether they are willing to "run for committee", and views on current affairs, with each person standing for roughly five to ten minutes; some interviewees mentioned that a new student was once questioned repeatedly on stage until they cried.
• Halls emphasise a spirit of "giving one's all, no regrets": residents are expected to take part in sports events, competitions, formal dinners and similar activities, and those who are absent may face exclusion by others on the same floor; some interviewees described this culture as placing hall activities above academics, close to "brainwashing".
• The same report also cites the recollection of former Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang: as a student he was reportedly required by "senior immortals" to carry a raw egg signed by an upperclassman for two weeks, subject to surprise inspections during that time.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources (the hierarchical culture itself) / single source (specific punishment details such as the mustard game). The "senior/junior" terminology and hierarchy recur across multiple reports and alumni accounts and can be treated as a long-standing informal practice within hall culture; individual punishment details (such as the mustard game) appear mainly in a single investigative report — this article presents it as reported, and readers should judge for themselves.

Some hall alumni have expressed reservations about a causal link between "hierarchical culture" and recent bullying incidents: according to a reader submission published by HK01^※, a former resident said "in our era it was rough too, but it never went as far as it does today," suggesting that hall culture itself cannot simply be equated with the extreme cases exposed in recent years. (Credibility: forum submission, low credibility)

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# 2017: The St John's College wax-dripping case — 23 students disciplined

The most widely reported and most heavily disciplined case in the history of HKU hall disputes occurred at St John's College.

• According to HKFP^※, in March 2017 (exposed in April), during that year's St John's College cabinet election, a candidate withdrew and published a post disclosing that about 20 people had entered his room and dripped candle wax onto his groin area, with those involved reportedly describing the act as a "tradition" of that floor. The candidate wrote that he had faced varying degrees of bullying, physical assault, and even intimidation during the campaign, and ultimately decided to withdraw.
• According to a follow-up HKFP report^※, an HKU spokesperson confirmed that an investigation into the bullying incident was under way, that the university was gathering accounts from those involved and witnesses, that support would be offered to affected students, and that appropriate disciplinary action would follow if misconduct were found.
• HKU and St John's College eventually announced the disciplinary outcome: 23 students were disciplined, of whom 3 were expelled from the hall, 19 were suspended from residence, and 1 received a written warning. This is the largest known disciplinary outcome in an HKU hall bullying case.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources. The course of events and disciplinary outcome are cross-confirmed by several Chinese- and English-language news sources, and the university's response is supported by an official statement. The students and candidate involved are living individuals; this article does not name any of them and refers to them only by role.

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# Around the same time: the Lee Kuo Hsien Hall sexual-bullying video controversy

Around the same time as the St John's wax-dripping case, a disputed video from Lee Kuo Hsien Hall also surfaced.

• According to SCMP^※, a video circulating online reportedly showed a student pinned to a bed by residents on the same floor, with one of them touching the victim's head with his genitals; the students involved were subsequently suspended from the hall.
• According to a commentary piece in Initium Media^※, after the video spread online, some social-media comments characterised the incident as "homosexual conduct" and used it as a basis for discriminatory remarks; the article discusses the St John's wax-dripping case alongside the Lee Kuo Hsien Hall video controversy, arguing that both incidents exposed deeper problems in hall culture involving the intertwining of collective bullying, authority-worship, and misogynistic/homophobic attitudes.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources (that the incident and disciplinary action occurred) / commentary in nature (the cultural-attribution analysis). The content of the video and the disciplinary outcome are confirmed by news reporting; the characterisation involving "misogyny and homophobia" is the opinion-based argument of a commentary piece, presented here as attributed and not reflecting this site's position.

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# 2019: William MW Mong Hall — the "hostessing" and "bra removal for bare-back photos" orientation controversy

The two 2017 controversies concerned men's halls, but women's halls were not spared either. In August 2019, HKU's women's hall William MW Mong Hall was the subject of a reported bullying and sexual-harassment incident involving a female resident.

• According to an Apple Daily report (as reproduced by HK01)^※, a female resident said she was inappropriately touched — including on the thigh, shoulder, and hand — by senior male students at a hall gathering; she and several other female residents on her floor also reportedly experienced physical punishment, criticism sessions, and collective ostracism from other residents.
• According to an ET Net report^※, the complainant said she was forced to act as a "hostess" for senior students; more seriously, she and several female residents on her floor were reportedly required to remove their bras together, covering themselves only with their hands, and film a short video showing their bare backs while being told to "look back with a smile" at the camera — with the implication, if they did not comply, that this could affect room allocation the following year.
• According to an on.cc report^※, hall warden Chan Chun-ling (referred to by title and surname) confirmed the university had received the relevant complaint and had formally opened an investigation; HKU also confirmed receipt of the complaint and said that, if the evidence were sufficient, it would consider initiating disciplinary proceedings against the students involved.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources. The substance of the complaint (indecent touching, physical punishment, filming of bare-skin footage under threat concerning room allocation) and the warden's response are independently cross-confirmed by three or more Chinese-language outlets. As no publicly reported investigation conclusion or disciplinary outcome had appeared by the time this article was compiled, the final outcome of this case is marked as unconfirmed / pending verification, and no assumption is made about it.

This case echoes the earlier wax-dripping and sexual-bullying-video cases in men's halls, indicating that boundary-crossing conduct carried out "in the name of hall tradition/orientation custom" is not confined to halls of one gender, but is a systemic problem in which the "senior/junior" power structure recurs in different forms across different halls — a common feature being that senior residents hold substantive social and even resource-related (room allocation) discretion over new or junior residents, and boundary-crossing conduct is often made possible precisely through this power imbalance.

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# 2024: Swire Hall — the men's-toilet voyeurism case

Privacy and safety issues within halls are not confined to bullying framed as "customary tradition"; in recent years individual voyeurism cases involving criminal offences have also occurred:

• According to HK01^※, on 5 December 2024, an incident occurred at HKU's Swire Hall: a 22-year-old HKU female student visited her boyfriend at Swire Hall and, while using the men's toilet, discovered a mobile phone hidden beneath a partition and suspected she had been filmed; on inspection, the phone was found to contain multiple photos and videos of women using the toilet.
• According to an i-CABLE report^※, police arrested a 19-year-old mainland male resident on suspicion of "voyeurism"; HKU subsequently wrote to the arrested student to terminate his residency, and reminded all residents that between 10:30pm and 8:30am, they may not remain on floors assigned to residents of the opposite sex.

Credibility: confirmed. This case is cross-confirmed by multiple media on the police arrest and HKU's official disciplinary response, and is among the most strongly evidenced cases in this section. In line with BLP norms, this article does not use the arrested individual's full name, referring to him only by age and residency status; should the case involve a subsequent criminal-prosecution outcome, this should be separately verified and updated.

The Swire Hall case differs somewhat in nature from the hall disputes described above — it did not originate from tolerance under "tradition" or hierarchical culture, but from an individual exploiting a gap in hall facility arrangements (such as management of a toilet on a mixed-gender floor) to commit a criminal offence, reflecting that institutional blind spots remain in the physical management of halls (such as floor-based gender segregation and toilet safety), and prompted the university to tighten floor access-hour rules immediately after the case came to light.

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# 2022: Lee Shau Kee Hall — the drunken door-banging harassment of mainland residents case

• According to Ming Pao^※, in the early hours of 7 September 2022, residents at HKU's Lee Shau Kee Hall reportedly repeatedly banged on the doors of two non-local (mainland) residents on the same floor while intoxicated, and made remarks in Mandarin such as "we're just out having fun" and "welcome to Hong Kong."
• The incident drew attention after being reported by Ming Pao and other outlets on 11 September. The university's response said it took very seriously the fact that certain students had used inappropriate language and conduct to offend other residents while intoxicated within a hall, and had decided to discipline the students who breached the hall code of conduct.
• The eventual disciplinary outcome: 3 residents were disciplined — 2 were permanently expelled from the hall and 1 was banned from residence for one semester; a further 2 received warnings.
• The Federation of Mainland Undergraduate Students at HKU subsequently issued a statement characterising the incident as "campus bullying," criticising the conduct as vulgar and serious in nature and as infringing the mainland student's lawful personal rights.
• According to a report reproduced by Speakout.hk^※, the Equal Opportunities Commission also publicly condemned the incident, calling on the university to examine whether the conduct might have breached the law (such as ordinances relating to racial/regional discrimination), and urging HKU to strengthen oversight of resident conduct.

Credibility: corroborated by multiple sources. The course of events, the disciplinary outcome, and statements from all parties (the university, the mainland students' federation, the EOC) are cross-confirmed by several Chinese-language media outlets. The residents involved are living individuals and are not named in this article.

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# 2024: hall "group mother" indecent-assault conviction case

The "group father/group mother" system within hall student associations (a one-on-one mentoring relationship between senior residents and new students) was intended to help new students adjust to hall life, but has also, in one case, led to a criminal matter:

• According to an HK01 court report^※, the incident occurred on 31 December 2021 at a farewell dinner in HKU's Lee Chi Kei Hall; a male student (referred to in reporting by his surname, "Pun") was alleged to have made repeated unwanted physical contact with his "group mother" (a senior female mentor), including pressing his body against her, and was further alleged to have subsequently exposed himself and made offensive remarks, referring to himself with a crude term and telling the woman to "sort it out" herself.
• The case was heard at the Eastern Magistrates' Courts; on 20 August 2024, Magistrate Don Tang found the defendant guilty on two counts of indecent assault, with the case reportedly numbered ESCC 2419/2023.
• The defendant was remanded, and the case was adjourned to Tuen Mun court to obtain a community service order and probation report ahead of sentencing.

Credibility: confirmed. This case is supported by a formal criminal prosecution and court conviction record, and is among the most strongly evidenced cases in this section. In line with BLP norms, this article does not use the defendant's full name, referring to him only by role and surname; the nature of the case is a criminal matter already resulting in conviction, not unverified rumour.

This case illustrates that the power imbalance under the hall "group parent" system (the mentoring authority of senior over new residents) can, in extreme cases, escalate into a criminal offence, and has also prompted hall student associations in recent years to be required to strengthen oversight of "group parent" pairings and activities (consistent with the direction of reform for handling orientation-camp sexual harassment; see Orientation Handling).

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# Summary: the watershed from "tradition" to "discipline"

Taken together, these six cases show a clear trajectory in the HKU hall student association system between 2017 and 2024:

• Before 2017, the "senior/junior" hierarchical culture and "traditions" such as wax-dripping were largely tolerated within halls, with few precedents of exposure leading to discipline;
• The 2017 St John's wax-dripping case and Lee Kuo Hsien Hall video controversy were the first landmark incidents in which social-media exposure triggered a large-scale disciplinary response from the university (23 students), directly linking "hall tradition" to "campus bullying" for the first time, while also exposing a problem of misogynistic/homophobic secondary harm in online discussion of the sexual-bullying incident;
• The 2019 William MW Mong Hall case shows that boundary-crossing conduct carried out in the name of "customary tradition" is not confined to men's halls, with serious cases in women's halls also involving threats tied to room allocation and coerced filming of nude footage;
• The 2022 Lee Shau Kee Hall case shows that hall disputes involving mainland students additionally triggered involvement from mainland-student organisations and the Equal Opportunities Commission, with the severity of discipline (permanent expulsion from the hall) correspondingly stricter;
• The 2024 Swire Hall voyeurism case and the group-mother indecent-assault case show that, whether the underlying issue is a facilities-management gap or a power imbalance within a hall, once criminal law is engaged the matter is no longer confined to disciplinary rules but enters formal judicial process, and the university has likewise been prompted to tighten floor-management rules.

The six cases span three distinct types of dispute — collective bullying tolerated under "tradition," sexual harassment and indecent assault arising from power imbalance, and criminal voyeurism arising from facilities-management gaps — pointing together to the same structural issue: hall self-governance grants senior residents a considerable degree of voice and discretion over resources (such as influence over room allocation), and where this power lacks effective oversight, it can readily slide into bullying or even crime. This article states only the organisational operation and case facts at the hall level; it does not address the political positioning of halls or the characterisation of politicised events after 2019, which are covered uniformly in modules 13/14.

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# See also

• Hall Life and Traditions — the hall system, high-table dinners, and other positive traditions (factual)
• Organisational Structure · Election and Recall Disputes — controversies over student-union council/cabinet elections
• Orientation-Camp Excesses and Handling Mechanisms — orientation-camp sexual-harassment cases and cross-university reform
• Halls Module (10-colleges) — detailed profiles of individual halls

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