Editor’s note

This page is a product of a joint program between School of Journalism and Communication of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) and Shenzhen Daily. The story, graphics and photo are contributed by the school’s research team.

IN February 2018, Xiaoyu started her second semester in a Shenzhen public primary school. What makes this 6-year-old girl special is that she was born in Hong Kong but lives in Shenzhen.

Xiaoyu, one of many cross-border students (or “double-non” students) because her parent or parents are non-Hong Kong citizens, is among the first group of Hong Kong children who were admitted to a Shenzhen public primary schools beginning from the fall semester last year. On April 6, 2017, the Shenzhen education bureau released the Shenzhen 2017-2018 School Year Primary School Enrollment Arrangement for First-Graders, announcing that cross-border students can be enrolled in Shenzhen public schools under a point-based policy. According to the policy, cross-border student enrollment will be handled the same as children of non-Shenzhen hukou residents whose admissions to public schools are based on a point-earning system. It means that Xiaoyu will not have to spend three or four hours commuting between Hong Kong and Shenzhen for school.

The new policy immediately drew heated online discussions. On a post titled “New Admission Policy on Point-based System” dated April 6, 2017 on bbs.szhome.com, thousands of netizens joined the discussion. Parents of “double-non” children hailed the policy as a huge alleviation of their daily stress while some others argued it was unfair that the “double-non” students vied for the limited public education resources with children of Shenzhen hukou residents.

According to a Southern Metropolis Daily report from Feb. 7 quoting an unnamed Shenzhen education bureau official, under the new policy 6,495 “double-non” students applied for spots as first-graders and 7th-graders in Shenzhen public schools for the fall semester of 2017, and 2,936 students were admitted.

Eligibility for “double-non” children to study in Hong Kong can be traced back to a landmark court ruling in Hong Kong in 2001. The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong ruled on July 20, 2001 that Zhuang Fengyuan, who was born in Hong Kong though neither of his parents were a Hong Kong citizen, have a right to permanent Hong Kong residence. Ever since, mainland couples have poured into Hong Kong to give birth. According to a Shenzhen Economic Daily report dated Feb. 18, 2017, cross-border schoolers hit 30,000 in 2015 and about 28,000 of them spend at least four hours commuting between Shenzhen and Hong Kong daily. In 2012, almost all Shenzhen public schools began to decline applications from Hong Kong or Macao students.

Stories of hardship the cross-border students have undergone are numerous and have aroused much public attention. Kuankuan is just an addition to the long list. As a fifth-grader at a primary school in Hong Kong in 2017, Kuankuan lives in a two-room flat with his mother Li Mei in Longhua District, Shenzhen. Outside the house, there is a viaduct that the Shenzhen Metro Longhua Line runs through. The line ends at Futian Checkpoint, where Kuankuan crosses the border every day. Every day Li has to wake her son up at 6:15 a.m. and send him to the subway station. “I really think life is too hard for the kid,” Li said of her son.

Anna Luo, chairperson of the Women’s Federation of Luohu District, Shenzhen, summed up four major issues of this group: children’s safety on the way to school, good relationships between parents and children, children’s self-identification, and social identification. She has been striving for the safety of nanny cars, and in the 2015 Shenzhen Political Consultative Conference she proposed to put nanny cars under the Shenzhen School Bus Management Regulations.

Others also began to pay attention to the psychological problems.

Chen Yiru, a member of the Shenzhen Political Consultative Conference, pointed out the two problems facing the cross-border children are the heavy costs on time and psychological health.

In Chen Xuan’s 17-year life, she has had a 12-year experience as a cross-border student. This year Chen will attend the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (equivalent to the College Entrance Exam on the mainland). Every time she mentions her identity as a “cross-border child,” Chen jokes that she could tear this label off after being admitted to a university in Hong Kong. She says frankly that this label has caused her to be “almost unable to integrate well into the environment” in her Hong Kong schools.

Chen sensed a strange atmosphere on the first day of primary school. The teacher required them to write down both their Chinese name and English name. However, Chen, who received the preschool education in Shenzhen, had no idea about an English name. So she wrote down both her Chinese name and pinyin. “My teacher berated me immediately,” Chen recalled. “I just felt very baffled. First, why did the teacher scold me? Second, I had already written a name, why did I have to write the other one?”

The situation did not improve with age. After attending secondary school, she found her peers started to form into cliques and Chen felt much isolated. Chen seldom used Facebook or Instagram, which were very popular among Hong Kong students. Shortly after the start of secondary school, exchanging social accounts became popular among students. A female student came to ask for Chen’s Facebook account. Chen shook her head and said, “I do not have one.” “Since then I have been completely disconnected from their social circles, and most of my close friends use QQ.”

Although undergoing difficulties with social interaction, Chen still thinks she is lucky. “My dad is a native Hong Kong resident, so I can speak Cantonese. And I know that some cross-border children who cannot speak Cantonese basically cannot merge with local students. They are suffering discrimination and bullying that we cannot imagine.”

In 2018, with the new policy, there is now more than one option for “double-non” children. To continue their Hong Kong odyssey, or stay in Shenzhen? The decision belongs to their parents.

(Contributed by Xu Shuntian, Nie Guona, Zhu Qiuyu, Lin Ziqing, Cai Miaomiao, Lin Xiaolei, Chen Xiaolin and Yuan Ying.

Translated by Tao Xinyi and Tian Tian.)