本人於1987年加入剛成立的香港大學社會科學研究中心,香港的主權回歸已成定局。四年後,成立香港大學民意研究計劃,距離回歸六個年頭。時至今天,本人的專業研究生涯剛剛好過了35年,也許應該退休。2022年的今天,香港的一國兩制進入後半期,民意研究團隊工作了31年,脫離大學後運作了三年,亦剛好見證了一國兩制25年,算是完成一個階段性的歷史任務。香港前途茫茫、民研長路漫漫,如何繼續科學和民主的旗幟,為社會、民族和世界尋找新的方向,是香港民研最新面對的挑戰。最近有人問我:路還可走多遠? 我答:路是人走出來的,與其詢問路還可以走多遠?不如繼續走下去,把路走出來。
I joined the newly established Social Sciences Research Centre at The University of Hong Kong in 1987, when the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty was already a foregone conclusion. Four years later, I founded the Public Opinion Programme at The University of Hong Kong, it was six years before the handover. Today, I have just passed 35 years of professional research career, so perhaps it is time to retire. This day in 2022, Hong Kong’s one country two systems has just started its second half-life, and our research team has witnessed it after working for 31 years, the last three of which as an independent institute outside the university. We have completed one important stage of a historical task. Now that Hong Kong’s future is uncertain, and public opinion research still has a long way to go. We now face the new challenge of how to keep the flags for science and democracy waving high, while we find a new direction for the society, the nation and the world. Recently I was asked, “How far can we still go?” I replied, “We walk out the paths, so let us keep walking.”