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with further gifts for the Chinese Library. A lecture room in the University has been set aside as a Chinese Library and Read- ing Room. Members of the public who are interested are cordially invited to come and see this room and to inspect the library.
These developments have been rendered possible by the generosity of Mr. Chang Wing and Mr. Liew Weng Chee, both of Kuala Lumpur, and the Executors of the Estate of the late Mr. Tye Kee Yoon of Penang. Students are now taking these advanced courses, and special instruction in translation from Chinese into English and from English into Chinese now forms a regular part of the Chinese course.
A University Chinese Language School has also been started. The two Colonial cadets who have lately been appointed to Hong Kong by His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, and some others, are already starting to learn Cantonese in this school. The School is under the general direction of Mr. H. R. Wells; and Mr. Sung Hok Pang, senior Chinese master of Queen's College, Hong Kong, has been seconded by Government to work as a whole time teacher in this school. The University authorities are now negotiating with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, with a view to arranging instruction at such hours as will be convenient for those who are working in offices but wish to acquire some facility in Cantonese.
The generally accepted method of learning Chinese is for each student to have a private personal teacher. This arrange- ment will continue, but there will also be class instruction; teachers will be selected and trained and their work will be super- vised and directed. It is hoped that a real introduction to the study of the Chinese language will be given and that students will learn, in the early years of their study, the value of ancient Chinese literature, while at the same time they get an insight into modern literary style and methods.
The Language School aims not merely at giving instruction in Chinese and training teachers, but also at investigating the best method of teaching Chinese to those to whom it is not a mother tongue; and at the production of suitable text books. In this work it is hoped that the School will have the assistance of all the members of the Chinese Department staff. If the Language School proves a success, it should be a boon to all those Britishers who come to Hong Kong with the intention of making China the scene of their life's work.
But the University has a much more far reaching scheme for the advance of Chinese studies. It aims at creating a strong Chinese Department or School which may in time develop into a Chinese Faculty. This School will teach the Chinese Classics but it will also aspire to a comparative study of Chinese and western law, history, philosophy, literature and art. The University has already a scheme for the comparative study of Chinese and Roman Law, but the University cannot proceed with this scheme for want of funds. Finally the University has in view a Chinese language department of the Chinese School which, in addition to teaching Chinese to those to whom Chinese is not a mother tongue may assist in the evolution of the Chinese language, especially as a medium of intercourse which shall be intelligible to all educated Chinese.
All these schemes aim at giving the Chinese an opportunity for an intensive and comparative study of their own history and culture. The days are past when any great country can live isolated from the rest of the world. The University dreams of training men and women who will be qualified to play a great part in the China of the future-scholars, capable of interpreting the West to China and China to the West.
There remains the necessity of money. To establish and endow a Chinese School the University will require about $1,500,000 (Hong Kong). The University also wants a building in which to house the Chinese School and it is thought that the
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