A prominent Hong Kong secondary school, Good Hope School, withdraws guidance that reportedly discouraged or prohibited the use of Cantonese in graduation videos. The school says it has fully and formally withdrawn the guidance for next year’s Form Six graduation class video after receiving community concerns.

The policy came under scrutiny following reports that a guideline had been unapproved and was perceived by some as limiting students’ use of their mother tongue in school-produced graduation content. In its statement, the school says it takes responsibility for the incident and emphasizes that it does not intend to constrain students’ language or cultural identity. While outlets focus on the backlash and the school’s reversal, they differ mainly in how they describe the guideline’s status—one highlighting that the school “withdraws” after backlash, and the other stressing that the measure was unapproved before the controversy became public.