School Uniform and Badge

Hoi Ping Tokens – School Uniform and School Badge

As a Hoi Ping student, we wear our school uniforms and badges to school every day. Have you ever wondered who designed them and what values they represent?

The uniform and badge of our school were designed by former principal, Mr. Lei Kwok Kit and former P. E. teacher, Mr. Chan Sai Hong respectively, and since then the designs have remained unchanged. Hoi Ping has stepped into her 45th anniversary this year, so we took the opportunity to interview the two designers in the hope of tracing the history of our school uniform and badge.

The School Uniform

The uniform we wear every day is the joint effort of a team of brilliant designers. Hoi Ping's former principals, Mr. Hon Kam Sun and Mr. Lei Kwok Kit, led a group of Home Economics teachers and put their heads together in designing the school uniform in 1973. At that time most schools adopted white as the colour for uniforms with round or sailor collars. Hoi Ping's designers, wanting to stand out, chose blue as the official colour of the uniform. Blue also conveys pureness and is easy to clean. Initially, some of the designers preferred girls to wear skirts as their uniform. Later on, however, they discovered that girls who were physically active creased their uniforms easily. Therefore, their final decision was a one-piece dress, which allows students to move without constraint.

Next, lets take a look at the design of our PE uniform. As a matter of fact, it had been changed for several times before the finalised version. Originally, there were a lot of differences between the boys' and the girls' PE uniforms. Boys wore a vest with an oblique stripe showing the colour of their corresponding houses. For girls, they wore a T-shirt with the same pattern on it. The designs of the PE uniforms were unified later on. We have the school name 'Hoi Ping' on a horizontal stripe in the front and the initials 'HPCCSS' at the back of the P.E. shirt.

The School Badge

Now it comes to the most important creation of our school—the school badge. It was jointly designed by Mr. Lei Kwok Kit and Mr. Chan Sai Hong. The design of the school badge was consigned to Mr. Chan by former principal, Mr. Fong Lai Ching. Later on, Mr. Lee came up with some ideas about the design of the badge and volunteered to join Mr. Chan.

As you all know, the school badge consists of two keys and a pigeon, with an oblique stripe dividing it into two halves—red on the left and the blue on the right. The keys represent wisdom and they are used to open the chambers of knowledge. Meanwhile, the pigeon symbolises peace. Since the pronunciations of peace (he ping) and Hoi Ping (kai ping) sound similar in Putonghua, the pigeon does not only stand for stability and harmony, but also suggests that Hoi Ping is a school that values peace. The bright colours of red and blue are used, and an oblique stripe is added on the school badge as the former principal Mr. Lei Kwok Kit wanted the school badge to be eye-catching. The oblique stripe of symbol of authority. It also gives a feeling of reverence. The school's Chinese name is printed on the oblique stripe, while the English name is placed underneath.