With thousands of books boxed and ready to go, legal scholar and democracy activist Benny Tai threw one last glance at his emptied office at the University of Hong Kong on Aug. 29. He took a breath, locked the wooden door and tapped gently, as if to bid farewell to an old friend.

“Alright, I am not coming back anymore.” Tai turned and left the university he has studied and taught for years.

The 56-year-old was sacked from his tenured position as associate law professor over his criminal convictions for the 2014 Occupy Central movement he co-founded. Tai was sentenced to 16 months in jail for public nuisance charges last April but was later released on bail while his case is still under appeal.

For weeks, Tai had been emptying out the 100-square-feet room, unearthing old notes and teaching materials, including a set of hand-crafted board games he made for his students to illustrate the judicial review process in Hong Kong.

“Whoever won could get a candy, it was fun,” Tai recalled fondly of his earlier days of teaching at the city’s most prestigious university.

During the first 10 years of teaching, Tai has devoted much of his time to developing teaching materials and exploring innovative approaches to lecturing. He drew cartoons in lecture notes to spice up the arduous studies of constitutional law. Before the days of PowerPoint presentations, he was the first HKU professor who used Harvard Graphics software for illustrations.

Teachers should think from the lens of students before devising their ways of teaching, while students can steer the research direction of teachers, said the scholar with several outstanding teaching awards under his belt.

Yet, the enthusiastic educator was let go in July by the university he has served for nearly 30 years, after a council led by controversial government adviser Arthur Li rejected recommendation of the university’s senate that Tai’s conduct did not warrant his dismissal.

Most members of the 24-strong council, six of whom appointed by the city’s chief executive, were not drafted from the university, while the senate consists largely of academic staff.

“I have no regrets,” Tai said. “When you stop focusing on what you’ve lost, you’ll realize you’ve actually gained more.” He highlighted the silver lining, saying his departure from the university and his alma mater opened a window to a new life.

Tai started teaching at HKU on Jan. 2, 1991. After over 10,000 days of teaching and research, Tai noted, especially in his last days, the changes in the institution that was once a staple in Hong Kong’s higher education.

“Academic freedom is the soul of any university, and the death of academic freedom marks the death of any university,” Tai continued. “Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong’s affairs has become more and more severe, which led to the death of academic freedom and that of HKU.”

Back in the days without interference, Tai could take the liberty to use campus facilities for the preparation of his civil disobedience movement and hold seminars on how the city’s leader should be nominated.

The university’s decision, widely accused of being politically motivated, has sparked another wave of outrage in the city. Since his departure, Tai has launched a successful campaign on crowd-sourcing platform Patreon, on which he now receives monthly donations from over 1,000 supporters.

Now free from the restraints that come with a university position, Tai has pledged to continue educating the public about the rule of law by writing books and launching community-based campaigns.

“This is why I call myself an independent scholar, which does not mean I advocate for independence, but that I am a free academic,” Tai disclosed his relief from walking out of the ivory tower.

Despite the gloomy outlook, Tai held onto his faith in the young people of Hong Kong, who have endured hardships and fought on for democracy over the past year. “When they reach my age, what they can do is far beyond what we are capable of now,” the professor smiled, looking up to the finest in the darkest times.

Click here fore Chinese version.

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