A US citizen and long-time Hong Kong resident, Bryan S. Bachner excels at two very disparate and high-performance occupations. He is not only a highly accomplished associate professor at the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, but also an elite center forward with Hong Kong's Wing Lun Basketball Team.
Bryan, who 16 years ago came to Hong Kong, graduated from the American University's Washington College of Law in the United States. He continued his research in Hong Kong and presently serves as Associate Professor of Law at the City University of Hong Kong and as Legal Academic Adviser, there focusing on issues related to environmental law at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Department of Justice. At the same time, with a love of basketball, he helped Hong Kong win several club championships. It was the year before last that he attended the commencement of Wuhan University in China and became an overseas doctor of law at the university.
For 15 years Bryan has passed through this school gate.
According to Bryan, during the past decade, for him Hong Kong has represented a strong and productive coexistence of Chinese and western lifestyles. And he considers it his good fortune to have witnessed the great development taking place in China. He has become something of a Sino expert, while earning the respect of his American friends.
A Chinese City - An American Dream
In the muggy and humid summer of 1989, the newly-graduated 27-year-old Bryan arrived in Hong Kong. In the area of Yaumatei, he settled in an apartment he discovered was not air conditioned and with an electric fan that did not work. With no friends in the city, and little money, he went in search of work.
Bryan's first job in Hong Kong was as a journalist and editor with Hong Kong Legal Monthly. "It was toilsome. I worked 10 to 12 hours a day and the monthly pay was 10,000 Hong Kong dollars." Wishing to become qualified to teach law in China, Bryan forwarded his curriculum vitae to many law schools.
Some of the medals Bryan has won at his many basketball matches. (May 2005)
On January 1, 1990, Bryan was recruited by the City Institute of Technology (the predecessor to the City University of Hong Kong, which changed name in 1994). "In fact, that was my first serious job after I graduated from university." At the university, Bryan began his more than 15-year career as a legal facultyman. The institute offered him an apartment of 2,000 square feet, "... the first apartment I felt was my own." He describes his reaction when he for the first time entered the place: "I thought, oh Jesus! It's so huge!"
The subject of his first course was How to Controvert like a Lawyer. "I had to work very hard, in the beginning. So hard, in fact, I was labeled as a zealot by my British colleagues." In Bryan's family, only his grandfather, who died prior to his birth, had been a lawyer and none had served as an academic. "I could only learn from my colleagues and gather experience through my own practice. I did learn a lot from by overcoming defeats and faults."
Professional Hoopster Nets Medals
Bryan, at 1.95 meters in height, looks more like a basketball player than a legal professor. In fact, as a center forward in a professional team in Hong Kong, he has earned scores of medals from his various basketball tournaments. These medals serve to lastingly memorialize Bryan's glorious years in the game.
Bryan and his friends often relax in this taproom located in the Central District of Hong Kong. (May 2005)
"Upon arrival, because of the relatively stiff institute culture and rigorous program, I felt a strong need to seek out an avocation. Fortunately, I found basketball... or, more precisely, it was basketball that found me. One day I was walking on campus and a colleague took note of my height. He asked whether I could play basketball and I said yes." Soon after Bryan was offered the opportunity to join in on the training of Hong Kong Royal Police Team. One year later, they organized a new professional team, Great Wall Electron, and Bryan was recruited. Later, he transferred to the Wing Lun Basketball Team, which won the Hong Kong championship for three consecutive years. "This is a real professional basketball team, with players of all ages, and we are like a big family." Among his Cantonese-speaking teammates, Bryan may be a foreigner, but he does not feel foreign.
"In the past ten years, I was very lucky in training and playing in Hong Kong." Bryan said with a smile, "In the United States, the NBA did not choose me, but here in Hong Kong, my dream of playing professional basketball came true." The salary of a professional player in Hong Kong is attractive. Thus, there were once four players from the NBA playing with Hong Kong professional clubs at the same time. "I'm honored to play basketball with NBA players here in Hong Kong. I would not have a chance like this in the States."
A Foreign Chinese Doctor
In September 2003, upon the commencement of Wuhan University, a very western-looking Chinese doctor (wearing a special long doctoral gown) drew much attention. For this day, Bryan had been preparing for three years. He thus became the first American to obtain a doctorate degree on the Chinese mainland.
"I chose Wuhan University because its research program on environmental law is the most advanced in China." Bryan said, "As a foreigner, I had to pass a Chinese language test before joining the doctorial thesis oral defense." To pass the test, Bryan spent his three-month vacation learning Chinese in Wuhan University. During the seven months preparing the oral defense, he asked the Chinese students engaged in the Universal Gate for Master of Law project to assist him in translating and studying two hours a day. In the end, he finished what was a challenging 200-page thesis.
Bryan studying in the library of City University of Hong Kong. (May 2005)
Bryan's oral defense was in Chinese. Concerned that the foreign student would have some difficulties, the school authorities arranged for an interpreter. Not expecting this special treatment, Bryan was surprised when he saw the interpreter. But thinking his own words would be clearer, he respectfully declined the interpreter's services. Five members of the board of committee were from Hubei Province, and spoke with strong local accents. However, the oral defense with exchange of Hubei and American accents was successful and Bryan was awarded a grade of A. Bryan considered the defense a challenging experience, representative of a bridging of legal research between China and the United States. His relatives and friends in the States express their pride of Bryan, and view the obtaining of a doctorate degree in China to be a challenging, but highly useful endeavor.
Absorbing China's Culture
Hong Kong is an international megalopolis, but its culture remains very exotic for many Americans. According to Bryan, who now lives within that environment, one should never comment negatively on the value of another culture. "We should just try to understand." He believes that in order to grasp a culture; to work and live within the culture, the first thing one must do is to learn the language.
"When you learn Chinese, you find that Chinese characters may have many connotations and so there are various ways of thinking. Take basketball as an example, because of the cultural differences, the way coaches speak to players in Hong Kong is entirely different from those of American coaches," he explains. "In the United States, if a player plays well, the coach might say, 'Great job!' While in Hong Kong, the coaches are relatively conservative. If a player plays well, the coach considers it the player's obligation. If a player does not do well enough, the coach may say, 'You should do better.'" According to Bryan, he appreciates, understands and accepts these conditions as part of living among another culture.
"During the past ten years, I enhanced my ability to cooperate with my Chinese partners. I admire the varying ways they handle problems. When I understand their way of thinking, I can accept their views without critical attitude." According to Bryan, the greatest problem for some Westerners who work in China is that they may insist that Chinese people comply with western methods. "We Westerners must be cognizant that under certain circumstances, perhaps the Chinese way may not seem to us to be the most effective, but they may have a very good reason for choosing that way."
(China Pictorial October 31, 2005)
