Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1997

From a Humble Start Over those 30 years, ICS has come a long way. It started out only as a glint in the eye of Dr. CM. Li, the founding vice- chancellor, who announced the establishment of the institute back in 1967 to mark the University's commi tmen t to Chinese culture. That was just when the Cultural Revolution was raging on the mainland, and even spilling over to Hong Kong. Courageously, he set lofty goals for the institute ： ‘to combine tradition and modernity, and to bring together China and the West'. Dr. Li's vision for the institute took shape only slowly, even though it never stopped making progress. As the University did not yet have its own campus in those days ， the institute had to start life in makeshift offices in a d own t own bank building. Nevertheless, a few steps forwar d were made in 1968, when the ICS Journal was founded, and research grants were secured from international foundations to support the work of its senior professors ： Chou Fa-kao, Chuen Han-sheng, Mou Jun- sun, Chen Ching-ho, and others. The decisive break came only four years later, when the ICS building and the Art Gallery (now known as the Art Museum) donated by the Lee Hysan Foundation wer e inaugurated in September 1971. Thus the institute ； f ound its permanent home, and became ready t o strike out i n n ew directions. That same year the Centre fo r Translation was established, and under the initiative of Messrs Stephen Soong and George Kao a highly unconventional idea gradually took s h a p e, resulting i n the publication i n 1973 of Renditions, a journal aimed at bringing Chinese culture to the West through translation. Those early projects of ICS were very different from one another, but each had No longer just a glint in the eye — Dr. C.M. Li (right 2} officiating at the unveiling of the ICS commemorative plaque together with (from left) Mr. Szeto Wei the University architect, Mr. Lee Hsiao Wo of the Lee Hysan Foundation, and Dr. Lam Chik Suen who undertook the construction of the ICS building. (1971) ICS AT THIRTY— A Portrait of the Institute of Chinese Studies 1967-97 7