Authorities at China's Peking University have asked all teachers and students to refrain from making uncivilized comments about Hong Kong after a professor made controversial remarks about the special administrative region.

During a recent school meeting, teachers and students were told to support Hong Kong's development, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the university. Everyone should take a "rational, peaceful and civilized" approach when handling cultural differences, it said. "Peking University will make unremitting efforts to promote exchanges and cooperation between people on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong," it said.

The school meeting is believed to be connected to recent remarks about Hong Kong made by Kong Qingdong, one of the university's professors.

Kong referred to Hong Kong residents as "bastards" and "dogs" in response to a video he saw of Hong Kongers scolding a mainland woman for violating rules against eating on Hong Kong's subway trains. The video sparked an outcry in Hong Kong, with Kong claiming a few days after the incident that the media deliberately took his words out of context.