Hundreds of students protest in Hong Kong over compulsory Mandarin tests

Hundreds of Hong Kong students staged protests on Friday as tensions escalate over compulsory testing of Mandarin, the dominant language of mainland China, AFP reports. The first language of Hong Kong is Cantonese, while education chiefs proposed to put more emphasis on learning Mandarin. Anger has mounted on campuses since two students from Baptist University were suspended this week for confronting and swearing at staff over the requirement to pass an exam in Mandarin before being able to graduate. Protesters from a range of universities gathered Friday afternoon in a public square at Baptist to support suspended pair Andrew Chan and Lau Tsz-kei.