CUHK: Five Decades in Pictures

51 The Third Decade: 1983–1992 events during those years included an important conference on the modernization of China in 1983, the academic exchange agreements signed with the Academia Sinica in 1986, and the first of the University’s graduates winning the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship in 1987. In 1987, Dr. W. Szeto, the architect who laid down the master plan of the campus two decades ago, donated ‘The Gate’ by the famous sculptor Ju Ming and ‘The Forum’ fountains to the University. Both structures continue to adorn the University Square to this day, at the same time serving as permanent reminders to successive generations of graduates of the time worthily spent on their well-beloved campus. In 1987 Professor Ma Lin, the second Vice-Chancellor, retired from the helm of the University after nine years of service of unsurpassed merit, and was succeeded by Professor Charles K. Kao, who inaugurated a new chapter in the University’s advancement to international fame and exalted standing. During the late 1980s a number of new buildings had emerged on campus that featured deviations from the angularity and monochrome of the earliest buildings, and they provided alternatives to the much-loved and well-executed fair-faced concrete that had been a mark of distinction of the CUHK campus. For both utility and aesthetics, the new buildings were less monolithic and monumental, but more personable and friendly. The Chinese University campus was beginning to mature, with the gradual appearance of a variety of architectural styles and colours. The decade also saw a lot more understanding and exchange of views and opinions between the student body and the university management. At the same time, services to alumni commenced on a large scale, and alumni home-coming began to be organized as grand affairs, drawing thousands of graduates back to the campus with their families and bringing vivid colours to life on campus. The 1980s were the years during which the Chinese University showed itself coming of age, and it was also a time when the University consolidated its strengths and resources to prepare for the achievements that were to come in the next twenty years. In terms of contribution to community growth and development, Chinese University graduates showed greater diversification in their career destinations during the decade, and became more evenly distributed in the three main sectors of the local employment market, education, commerce and the public services whereas, in the years before, there appeared to be an over-reliance on jobs in the teaching field. Socio-economic factors such as the decrease in the number of school-age children, and the booming opportunities in the tertiary sector of the economy, no doubt all played a part, but the University had also made great efforts to instil the concepts of career planning into graduating students, to prepare them for the early employment life, and to garner the support of major recruiters.