Copy.
The Master's Lodgings,
University College,
Oxford.
21st February, 1931.
90
Dear Sir Robert,
Remembering with great pleasure your visit
to Oxford when you and Lady Ho Tung went to see the
Races on the River with me, I venture to write to you
on a subject in which I am deeply interested, viz.
the establishment at the University of Hong Kong
of a department of Chinese Studies which, if well
staffed and well equipped, would at once hold an
eminent position among the Universities of the world.
We in the West feel an increasing obligation
to the culture, philosophy and art of China and find
that for many generations, if not for centuries,
Chinese influences have been one element of stimulus
in Western art and poetry. In English literature
the influence of Taoism has been striking since the
age of Wordsworth. Chinese art has excited the
interest of architects and decorators for at least
two centuries and has during the last fifty years had
a profound influence upon Western painting, primarily
upon French, secondarily upon English art.
Conversely,
the impact of Western literature and philosophy and
science upon China has been great.
What is needed is a University Department
which would devote itself to the study of Chinese
Sir Robert Ho Tung, K.C.M.G.
culture