In fact, it was this yearning for diversity and broader horizons that took Kong to Beijing in the first place. In 2015, the then 15-year-old arrived in Beijing for a 10-day exchange program at the Central Conservatory of Music, during which he met music professors and classmates from many different parts of China. He says he was fascinated by the variety of cultural backgrounds, which later led to his decision to attend university in Beijing.

In 2018 he was admitted to the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, where he studied TV and radio broadcasting.

His subject choice was largely due to an exchange trip abroad before he became a university student when people were confused by his self introduction as "from China" instead of "from Hong Kong".

"It occurred to me then that there are still many people who know little about China and that Hong Kong is a part of China. A sense of mission suddenly rushed through me, and I decided that I wanted to be a communicator to spread China's voice."

In Peking University Kong shares a room with three others, from Shandong, Anhui provinces and Beijing. Their next door neighbors are from Zhejiang province, Shanghai and Inner Mongolia autonomous region. "We are all from different provinces and regions, and I don't see why Hong Kong is special in any way," Kong says. "My identity as Chinese comes before my being a resident of Hong Kong."