Hong Kong university professor faces backlash for telling female students to marry rich

Backlash has erupted after prominent economist Terence Chong Tai-leung told female students at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s New Asia College that academic achievement should take a back seat to marrying for money.

What Chong told students

Chong, a Chinese University of Hong Kong associate professor, made the remarks last week in an address to New Asia College.

His speech was titled “How to invest in your life?” and was framed around life choices rather than only academic or career planning.

According to the source account, Chong “basically told the female students at the event that they were wasting their time on academic achievements, since women must aim to marry for money.”

He also said women should not pursue a PhD because “a woman’s youth is precious.”

He urged them instead to “invest in your looks.”

Why the response matters

Alice Wu, a political consultant and former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA, described the remarks as an economist’s reductionist view of love and marriage.

Wu wrote that “Love is a many-splendoured thing: except when seen through the lens of economists, apparently.”

She said students speaking up against that analysis of love and marriage was a welcome sight.

Wu argued it would be better still if the episode sparked a broader and needed debate.

The backlash, in her view, was not surprising because the speech amounted to a slap in the face to people campaigning for gender equality.

She also linked the remarks to patriarchal stereotypes that hold women back.

That context is why the controversy goes beyond one campus speech and has become a test of how openly such views are challenged.

Source: South China Morning Post