Bulletin No. 1, 2024

Fanling Tsung Kyam Church and was aware that his friend was seeking stable employment. “Yau Wah, would you like to join me at Chung Chi College?” asked Dr Lin. Yau Wah accepted the job offer, which was to work on a construction project of the College. As newcomers to the campus, the family settled in temporary housing on a hill. Yau Yuk-yau recalls: “There were 12 stone houses on the hilltop. Unfortunately, they have been dismantled and we can no longer find them now.” Local residents named the hill “the mountain of pineapples” because of their abundant planting of the tropical fruit in the area. For Yau, it was a special place where she played for hours on end. “I grew up in an underprivileged family and did not have the chance to go to school. Living in Chung Chi allowed me to attend evening classes organised by university students,” Yau says. She studied for two years, then went about looking for work—and what better place to start than in CUHK, right on her doorstep. “My first job was to handle administrative tasks for Tse Chiu-kit, the first Registrar of Chung Chi College. In 1969, I was formally employed by the College to work at the laundry department in Ming Hua Tang… I stayed there for about four years.” She got married at the age of 18, and when she started her own family, her husband and daughters became part of the CUHK community as well. The College allowed Yau to bring her newborn daughter to work. Her husband also joined CUHK, serving at the College Office for more than 40 years until his retirement at 60. From Yau’s father to her daughters, the bond between the Yau family and the University is one spanning three generations. While working at Ming Hua Tang, Yau supplemented her income by offering domestic help. She remembers Chang Ta-ch’ien, one of the most prolific Chinese artists of the 20 th century, who was invited by Chung Chi College to stay in Block B of the staff quarters. “Chang had to pay for his cleaning, ironing and laundry services. When I told him my monthly salary was HK$30, he said he had no money for that, but could give me one of his paintings Yau Yuk-yau started working at the Chung Chi College Staff Club and Ming Hua Tang in 1969. During the 1970s and 1980s, Yau provided domestic and childcare services to staff members. She worked at Hua Lien Tang from the late 1980s to 1990, then returned to Chung Chi College in 2000 and served at the Chapel until her retirement in 2008. Now, she works part-time while being a Chapel volunteer. P R O F I L E Imagine CUHK being one’s childhood home. Having a stone house on a campus hilltop for a humble abode. And the undulating slopes for a children’s playground with pineapples sprouting up all round. That idyllic experience is owned by Yau Yuk-yau, now retired and volunteering at the Chung Chi College Chapel. As a nine-year-old child, she started calling the Sha Tin campus home. It was to be the beginning of three generations of the Yau family intertwining their lives with the University. The inseparable bond between the Yau family and CUHK all began with a simple invitation by Dr Lin Daoyang, the second head of Chung Chi College. Dr Lin knew Yau Yuk-yau’s father, Yau Wah, from 42   Chinese University Bulletin | Yau Yuk-yau