CUHK: Five Decades in Pictures

7 The First Decade: 1963–1972 Sir Cho-yiu Kwan, remains to this day the premier venue for University-level meetings and other signature events. In the span of five decades, the number of buildings on campus has blossomed from a few into well over 160 teaching, research, residential and recreational facilities of various designs and functions. Even before the University had a proper roof, it had begun to lay bricks for its many mansions. General education was the natural expression of its humanistic and whole- person educational ideals and the curriculum in this regard has been continuously refined and adapted with the changing times. In as early as 1965, the University had signed an agreement with the University of California to provide overseas exchange opportunities for its students. Extramural studies serving the public at large as well as the Graduate School offering postgraduate and research-oriented studies soon followed suit, the latter being the first of its kind in Hong Kong. A toddler by human standard, the Chinese University did not wait long to get up and pioneer in all the aspects of a modern comprehensive university. Early student life was simple but idyllic. The young men and women developed their intellectual capabilities while enjoying the camaraderie with their teachers and fellow students. When not in class, some of them rowed in the Tolo Harbour for leisure. Some climbed the mountains of Ma On Shan to steel their resolve. Friendships were forged; romances ripened. Shatin was a much more remote locale five decades ago than it is today, but physical distance did not deter our students from caring for and participating in society. The Chinese University Student Union was inaugurated in 1971. It is nostalgic to look back to the days, or rather evenings, when those finishing school had to catch and hop on the diesel train to get back to town after a day’s travails. Those who did not have to commute went for their extracurricular activities or back to their dorm life. Photographs from these early days are necessarily in black and white, but the memories and sentiments recorded on celluloid are of varying and enduring colours. Never in the history of higher education has the transmission of knowledge received such a literal enactment. In October 1971, hundreds of students and staff, some spouses, lined the 900-metre distance from the old library of Chung Chi to the newly completed Elisabeth Luce Moore Library and manually passed on its holdings, 120,000 tomes in all, in two days. It was an experience and a sight indelibly engraved in the institutional memory of the University. The first decade in theUniversity’s annals closedwith amuch desired endnote: construction of the Shatin campus was completed and, with Chung Chi already there, New Asia and United moved into the unified campus in the early 1970s. The precepts, the people, and now the premise were ready for the Chinese University to take off. It has been a familiar story since.