Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

A Tribute to Our Alma Mater Address by D r . Thomas H. C. Cheung Mr. C h a n c e l l o r, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, members of the University C o u n c i l , honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen: First allow me to express, on behalf of my fellow honorary graduates, our immense gratitude to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for bestowing upon us this special honour. To the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, all Council members and all the guests gathered here today, let me also say thank you. Thank you for making time to attend this congregation, which to us is a most memorable event. My fellow honorary graduates are eminent individuals with distinguished accomplishments, who truly deserve the honour that has just been conferred upon them. It is a pleasure and an honour to speak on behalf of such a distinguished group. As an alumnus of this university, I feel particularly gratified that an honorary degree is being awarded to me by my alma mater, and I am most willing to share this honour with all the alumni of the University. Since our graduation we have tried our best to put to good use the training and knowledge we acquired from the University, and it warms our hearts to learn that our efforts and achievements have been recognized and appreciated b y o ur alma mater. As an early alumnus who has kept in close touch with the University all these years, I wish to share with you today my feelings about my alma mater and my expectations as a loyal alumnus. Three post-secondary colleges, Chung Chi College, New Asia College, and United College came together to form The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. Shaw College joined their ranks in 1986 and became the fourth constituent college of the University. What we admire most are the founders of our university — Dr. Choh-Ming Li, Dr. C.T. Yung, Dr. Ch'ien Mu, and Dr. T.C. Cheng, all of them great educationalists with a strong sense of mission and lofty educational ideals. They set themselves the tasks of preserving and promulgating traditional Chinese culture, and producing quality graduates to serve the needs of Hong Kong and its neighbouring region. In those days members of the local community had high expectations of the new university. The great majority of them being Chinese, they hoped to see a university that would revere the Chinese scholarly tradition and integrate Chinese and Western cultures; they expected its graduates to be truly bilingual in Chinese and English, willing to and capable of serving different sectors and trades of the community; they expected it to nurture scholars and professionals with integrity and vision, whose scholarship and expertise were on a par with the most rigorous international standards and could be put to good use in the territory. Back in the fifties, Hong Kong was still recuperating from the Second World War, and its social and economic development was less advanced. Local youths who received their secondary education in Chinese and who aspired to pursue a higher education had little choice but to leave Hong Kong. Much of this had to do with a stubborn misconception held by some people in the higher education sector then that the Chinese language was inadequate as a medium of instruction in higher education and advanced research. It was due to the foresight, sagacity and persistence of our founders that resistance was overcome and sufficient support was amassed locally and from overseas, from people like Lord Fulton of Falmer, for The Chinese University with an emphasis on bilingual education to be established. Very soon it was proven that Chinese could function as effectively and adequately as English as a medium of advanced learning and research. For their vision, idealism and hard work, the founders of this university won warm applause from the local population and extensive acclaim from the international academic community. Since then, The Chinese University has striven to provide high quality education for its students and to launch advanced research projects. Over the years the University and its constituent colleges have 46th Congregation 27