the-quest-for-excellence-a-history-of-the-chinese — Page 2

continuing education in Hong Kong.
Many CUHK teachers and graduates of the University have taken part in consultation committees of the Hong Kong government or of other public, professional, or private bodies, rendering service to the community by contributing their expert knowledge, skills, opinions and experience. A number of teachers have been interviewed from time to time by the mass media, or have contributed articles to newspapers and news magazines, offering their expertise or reflections on current issues of public concern, or alerting the public to serious though less visible problems. CUHK students also have made use of various public ac-tivities or demonstrations, to present their views and the results of their surveys to the public. In recent years, many members of the University . have taken active parts in Hong Kong politics. Some members also have provided professional consultation services to the business sector. All these are ways by which the University outputs its values and
knowledge. More details will be provided in Chapter 8.

Conclusion
For more than four decades since the refugee scholars and their students
first came to Hong Kong in search of freedom, and eventually estab-
lished first the Foundation Colleges, and then CUHK, they and the
second and third generations of teachers and students have made good
use of the Hong Kong milieu of freedom and university autonomy, to
merge together several academic traditions.
CUHK scholars dedicated themselves "to manifest virtue and to
renew the people." (United College motto) They reminded themselves:
... We set our minds on Heaven and Earth, recognizing no division between East and West, intent on interflow of scholarship.
... We live within this scenery of hills and sea, cherishing people and nature, devoted to education. (From the couplet on the pillars at the gate of Chung Chi College)
Through thick and thin they struggled on, building the new society of Hong Kong, introducing, merging, and creating new knowledge, enriching the Chinese language for a new age, and setting this unqiue University on a noble foundation.







Institutional Changes
Tak Sing CHEUNG

Meeting of the restructured AAPC, 1977
Background: University Administration Building
Sociologically defined, the word "institution" refers to established ways of doing things in a community or social group. On the one hand, it is a yardstick for behaviour that cannot be altered easily. Especially untouchable are those inaugural events and charters, which carry with them sacred qualities, becoming a symbol of identity and the basis of legitimacy of a social group. On the other hand, an institution is just a means for human beings to adapt to their environment. As time and circumstances change, it has to change accordingly. In the past thirty years, the institutional arrangements of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have developed in successive stages under the contending forces of change and resistance to change; of ideals and realistic considerations, and are therefore full of dynamism and complexity.
Generally speaking, the principal concern of a university is its academic activities, to which administration is supplementary. But the planning and management of academic activities fall within the scope of "administration," and hence cannot be considered of secondary impor-tance. The following account traces the institutional development of CUHK over the past thirty years along two lines, namely, the ad-ministrative system and the academic system.
A. The Administrative System
(1) Administrative Structure during the Initial Period .
The Chinese University was established on the basis of the Fulton Report 1963, by the passage of the University Ordinance by the govern-ment of Hong Kong. The report stated clearly that CUHK was to be a federal university, incorporating the three Foundation Colleges of Chung Chi, New Asia and United. Long before the founding of CUHK, these three Colleges existed independently with their respective scales of operation, traditions and social foundations. Chung Chi College carried on the spirit of the Christian universities in mainland China, advocating freedom and democracy. New Asia College was founded by a group of exiled scholars who deeply loved and were committed to promoting Chinese culture. They had taught before in national universities, keeping up a long tradition of Chinese scholarship. United
Institutional Changes
College was established through the merging of several smaller academies. Most of its teachers were Cantonese scholars, and the school was supported by the people of Hong Kong. As Dr Choh-ming Li said: "Here (CUHK) we can see the three components that shaped higher education in China over the last half-century: church universities, na-tional universities, and provincial universities."
The three Colleges existed before CUHK as independently operat-ing administrative entities in the 1960s. During this initial period, each college had its own College Board of Governors/Trustees in charge of all the properties and college affairs. Although small in scale, they were complete in all facets of operation. Each had its own administration building, teaching building, library, cafeteria, activity centre, and dor-mitory. Chung Chi even had a dormitory for the staff. The curricula developed by the Colleges were not identical, but shared the basics of arts, science and business programmes, sometimes lacking one of the three. The College Boards seldom held meetings, and actual decision. making power generally lay in the hands of the college presidents. Under the Office of the President, there was the Registry, in charge of academic affairs; the Students Office, responsible for matters concern-ing students; and the Bursar's Office, which managed finances, school buildings and lower-ranking staff. Some of the Colleges established the position of Vice-President to assist the President in the administrative work. All teachers belonged to the Colleges, and those from the rank of lecturer and below, were recruited by the Colleges, subject to the University's approval. Those in the rank of senior lecturer and above, were selected by the University, and assigned to the respective colleges. In this arrangement, the Colleges still had extensive powers of "checks and balances" in hiring teachers to senior positions. According to the University Ordinance, the hiring of these teachers could only be con-firmed with the agreement of two parties; the College to which the teacher belonged, including its President and representatives from the College Board and Academic Committees, and the recommendation of two external assessors. If unanimous agreement could not be reached, the final decision lay with the Academic and Administrative Planning Committee of the University. The members of this committee included the University Vice-Chancellor ( chairperson), and the Presidents of the three Colleges. The University Registrar acted as the Committee Secretary. In other words, even in the last stage before approval, the
Colleges had an influential role in stating their positions. The students of
various faculties were admitted to respective colleges. Admission pro-
cedures included an entrance examination and final selection process.
The entrance examination was conducted by the University authorities.
Further than that, the University only set down the basic admission
requirements (for instance, five passing subjects, including Chinese and
English), and let the Colleges make their own decisions during the final
selection process. After being admitted, the students would attend clas-
ses, conduct activities, and some even board at their respective Colleges
until graduation.
During the early period following the establishment of CUHK,
the Colleges enjoyed augmented independent powers under this
system. This was not only a situation created by fait accompli, but it
also had the support of legal principles. The Chinese University Or-
dinance dearly indicated that the University was a federal university .
(based on the Fulton Report 1963). Not only were the Colleges given
great powers in terms of organization, it also clearly stipulated that the
University Headquarters were directly only responsible for the follow-
ing: (i) The Administrative Central Office of the University, (ii) the
University Library and Laboratory, (iii) research programmes at high
level, and (iv) other buildings, organizations, for activities designated
by the University Council. Aside from these four areas, the University
was to coordinate as a whole the operations of the CoHeges. The most
important coordinating unit was the Academic and Administrative
Planning Committee mentioned above, which held weekly committee
meetings.
Noting the federal university background of most of the key
members in the Fulton Commission, it seemed that the Hong 'Kong
government never had the intention of establishing a single integrated
university. However, instead of concluding that the federal model
was ideal in the opinion of the government, one can rather infer that
it was a model chosen after considering the realities of trying to
establish CUHK. Before the establishment of CUHK, Chung Chi,
New Asia and United College had already achieved significant scales
of development, and each had established its own independent sources
of financing. If the government were not to arrange the new University
in such a manner, the Colleges might not have been willing to
participate.
Institutional Changes
(2) The Centralization and Unification of Administration in the Seventies
Under the leadership of the first Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li, the University Central Office continued to develop with the passage of time. At the start of the 1970s, there were several central facilities and programmes directly under the jurisdiction of the University. (1) The research institutes: the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities, the Institute of Science and Technology, and the Institute of Chinese Studies. Within these institutes, there were research centres, including the Economic Research Centre, Mass Communications Centre, Geographical Research Centre, Chinese Linguistics Research Centre and Social Research Centre. (2) Advanced programmes, including the Graduate School, the School of Education, and the Lingnan Institute of Business Administration. (3) Extramural studies. (4) Library. (5) Health Centre. (6) Student Appointments Service. (7) Science Centre. and
(8) Computer Centre. For administrative efficiency, matters related to the admission of students have been centralized under the University Central Office since 1971. In the previous system, students had to apply separately to the three Colleges after receiving examination report cards. The University then had to check the application forms for each College, which led to verifying the same information three times over, duplicating administrative procedures. The students also ran into problems of repetition. If all three Colleges were interested in a certain student, he or she would have to attend three interviews; and if all three interviews were scheduled to be held at the same time or close together, the student, not being able to be at different places at the same time, would have to give up two of his or her choices.
It was the inter-collegiate teaching that shattered the foundation of the constituent Colleges. The Colleges did not have a large number of students, and the departments were small. Each department would generally have only three to five teachers, and therefore to develop a relatively balanced and comprehensive curriculum was no easy task. Inter-collegiate teaching was the natural and rational solution.
Inter-collegiate teaching was, in essence, centralized teaching. It centralizes not only teachers, but students as well. As a result, many organizational structures like Boards of Studies and Factdty Boards were strengthened in order to implement inter-collegiate teaching. The
gain of one was the loss of the other, and the departments, College Faculty Boards and even Academic Boards of the Colleges gradually lost their functions, becoming organizations in name only. With the advent of inter-collegiate teaching, the teaching activities of the Univer-sity were gradually enlarged at the expense of the Colleges. Power followed responsibility, and the power of determining teaching policies was quietly centralized in the headquarters of the University. This was a pivotal change in reforming the systems of CUHK.
The expansion of power and responsibilities of the University Headquarters could be generally observed in its administrative or-ganization. In the early days after the establishment of the University, under the Office of the Vice-Chancellor there was only the Registry in charge of all administrative matters. In 1969, the Bursar's Office and the Office of Physical Development were set up out of the Registry. The former office took charge of the University finances and the latter supervised construction and management and maintenance of the University campus. Then in 1973, a new Registry was reorganized to be solely responsible for University academic matters, examinations, and admission of new students and related matters. This functional specialization and structural differentiation of the organization indicated that, after entering the seventies, CUHK had become a vigorous and mature institution. However, this also marked the beginning of conten-tion between the centralized administration and the Colleges striving to preserve their autonomy.
In March of 1969, when the University Grants Committee ex-amined the allotment of funds for the 1970-1974 four-year plan of CUHK, it directed the University to strengthen the central functions, and further recommended that the government should allot only 77% of the funds budgeted for by CUHK. As everyone knew, the University Grants Committee would not normally base their allotment on the budgeted amount submitted by the University, but discounting almost a quarter of it was indeed too drastic. Because of this reduction, the University administration proposed plans on the "pooling of resources" in 1970 and 1972 respectively. The intention was to raise the efficiency of personnel in all departments and reduce the administrative expenses, through the integration of administrative and teaching functions. Based on the figures of the early 1970s, administrative expenses of CUHK accounted for 14.1 % of its annual total expenses; similar expenditures in
Institutional Changes
the University of Hong Kong were only 6.9% of its total budget. The higher administrative expenses of CUHK were undoubtedly related to its federal system. Under this system the administrative structures were often duplicated and administrative processes conducted through con-sultations, discussions and meetings. The result was a need for more personnel to deal with matters of daily administration, records, documentation, and files. In order to implement the "pooling of resour-ces" plan, CUHK Vice-Chancellor, Choh-ming Li, delivered a speech, to all the teachers and staff of New Asia College on 15 April 1970 in the College auditorium. He stated that in order to deal with the reduction in funds, CUHK would henceforth collectively plan and implement the human, material, and financial resources as well as space allotment of the three Foundation Colleges. Strong reactions came immediately from the Colleges. Some people, using pseudonyms, expressed their views in newspapers by pointing out that the fundamental spirit of The Chinese University Ordinance emphasized the word "federal," and not the word "unitary." These letters asserted that CUHK was a federal university, the components of which were three participating units retaining their individual plans for human, material, and financial resources and space. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 5 July 1970) Subsequent discussion of this issue was continuously published in the newspapers, and the topic was enthusias-tically debated on campus.

(3) Working Party on Education Policy and University Structure
In February 1974, University Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li appointed a Working Party on Education Policy and University Structure, chaired by the then New Asia College President and University Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Yti Ying-shih. The terms of reference of the Working Party were to consider and bring forward suggestions on the following issues: basic policies related to the guiding education principle of the University; problems of organization between the University and the constituent Colleges and any issues related to future developments of the University. The Working Party held sixty full meetings, and a large number of group meetings. A summary report was finally released in July 1975. The basic stand of the Working Party was
that CUHK should maintain its federal structure. While agreeing with the overall development of the University, it intended to strengthen the powers and roles of the Colleges. The way to attain this objective was a proposed "integration of departments of study." This meant combining similar departments scattered among the three Colleges, and reassigning them to a single college. There were three possible patterns for this kind of integration. The first was "faculty-based" which was to convert the Colleges into faculties. For example, New Asia would be in charge of the Faculty of Arts, Chung Chi would handle the Faculty of Science, and United would develop a Faculty of Social Sciences (or professional courses). The second was "department-based." After integrating the academic departments and placing each department under one of the Colleges, all three Colleges would still retain all their traditions of offering general courses. The third was "area-based studies" which was a compromise of the above two options. Academic departments similar in nature would be reassigned to one of the Colleges according to its tradition, but they would not be forced to be under a faculty of the same nature. For example, if Chung Chi were to specialize in Science courses, it could still maintain Music and Religion Departments at the same time. The Working Party could not reach a unanimous decision in selecting the most appropriate of the three patterns, but a majority favoured the "area-based" approach.
Aside from the "integration of departments of study," the Working Party also mentioned in its report the basic principle of "academic participation in the government of the University." The principal missions of the University were teaching and research, and these types of activities were mainly conducted by teachers. Therefore, all develop-ment plans of the University and important university administrative decisions must be made with the participation of teachers. The Working Party particularly queried the composition of the Academic and Administrative Planning Committee. All the members of this Committee were administrative heads within the University, and no faculty representatives were included. Due to this oversight, the views of the . teaching staff were not easily conveyed, making it difficult for administration and faculty to attain a maximum degree of coordination. Furthermore, due to administrative reasons, the needs of teaching and research did not receive the proper emphasis and attention.
Institutional Changes
(4) The Second Fulton Report
The reforms recommended by the Working Party implied far-reaching consequences, and if they were to be implemented, The Chinese Univer-sity Constitution would have to be amended. The Hong Kong Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, was concurrently the Chancellor of CUHK. On 11 November 1975, he appointed the Commission on The Chinese University of Hong Kong, chaired by Lord Fulton of Palmer. Other members included Sir Michael Herries, Chairman of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee, 1965-1973; and Professor Ching-kun Yang, Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh. Mr I.C.M. Maxwell, Deputy Director of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas served as Secretary. Based on the initial ten-year development experience of the CUHK and the final report of the Working Party on Educational Policy and University_ Structure, the Commission was empowered to produce recommendations on possible reform of the management, financial and adminintrative systems, ordinances, and scale of the University and its member Colleges.
On 5 December 1975, the Commission started its investigative studies in Hong Kong, listening to the opinions of concerned people and discussing the various issues raised. On 9 February 1976, all the Com-mission members held a conference in London, and prepared a report which was released in March of 1976. The basic thrust of the report was that, while maintaining the federal system of CUHK, the integration of the university administration should be continued and strengthened. The Fulton Commission further agreed with the principle of "academic participation in the government of the University." When the Working Party brought up this principle, it referred to the internal affairs of the University, but the Commission used this principle to target the govern-ing bodies of the Colleges. The report pointed out that:
In this context we must consider the position of the governing bodies of the Colleges.... It appears that the constitution of Chung Chi College makes specific provision for only 2 members of the academic staff to be on the 40-strong Board of Governors -the President and the Vice-President ex-officio. New Asia College's constitution makes specific provision for 3 academic staff -the President, Vice-President and Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies to be mem-bers of its Board of Governors, the strength of which is 33..The United
The Quest for Excellence
College Board of Trustees includes 5 members of the academic staff (the President and 4 Deans) in a total complement of 39 .... The situation we have described in respect of the three College Boards seems to us an anomaly in the light of our endorsement of the impor-tance of academic participation in the governance ofuniversity institu-tions, since it appears that the Boards of Governors/Trustees of the Colleges are given by their constitutions supreme responsibility for the general direction of their colleges, and in particular are empowered to revoke decisions of their Academic Boards and Councils." (Para-graphs 21 and 22)
The report also pointed out that governing bodies of the Colleges were self-perpetuating:
The Chung Chi College Board of Governors, for example, can co-opt up to 15 members. This power of co-opting is capable of being exer-cised by a majority, simply representative of Christian churches and missions. The New Asia Board of Governors has a possible member-ship of 33 and there is provision for 13 of them to be nominated by "such members who were Trustees of the New Asia College incor-porated prior to 1 August 1959 or their successors" and for up to 5 others to be nominated by Board members. Furthermore, however, all members of the Board who are not ex-officio members have to be elected by a majority vote of the Board. In the United College the Board of Trustees consists of 19 members elected by the Board in comparison with 15 nominated and 5 ex-officio. (Paragraph 22)
The Commission considered the composition of the three College Governing Boards to be very unsatisfactory. Although the traditions of the Colleges should be maintained, the Commission recommended that this responsibility be shouldered by the academic staff of the respective Colleges. The Commission further recommended that the power of the College Boards of Governors/Trustees in the University should be limited to the management of the assets, which the member Colleges brought with them when CUHK was established.
The Fulton Commission supported the "integration of departments of study" proposed by Professor Yti's Working Party in principle, but did not support the three patterns of applying this principle in practice, outlined above. Aside from the technical obstacles, such as the inability of the Colleges to reach an agreement on the distribution of depart-ments, the more important reason was that the Commission did not want
to assign real or implied academic power to the Colleges. This would
allow them to independently execute matters without restraints from the
University. (Paragraph 37)
The Commission maintained that:
It would be to take an unjustifiable risk with the future of the Univer-sity to allow separate power-centres to co-exist within one and the same area of responsibility. Potential stalemates have no place in a satisfactory constitution of a university. (Paragraph 39)
Therefore the Commission recommended that CUHK should adopt
a single administration to replace the original federal system. (Para-
graphs 40 and 81) The report also recommended that all powers and
functions except those explicitly given to the Colleges' Boards of Trus-
tees (i.e. their responsibility as trustees for the assets they brought into
the University at its foundation and still retained) should be vested in the
University. In particular the University should be responsible for
academic and development policy, financial management, the
matriculation of students, the appointment of staff, the determination of
curriculum, the conduct of examinations, and the award of degrees.
(Paragraph 70)
Lord Fulton had an exceptional knowledge of and admiration for, the individual College traditions, and did not allow the member Col-leges that constituted CUHK to be swept away by this great tide in history. The Commission under his presidency strengthened the ad-ministrative integration of the University, while also determining the roles to be assumed by the Colleges in the University. The report mentioned two types of teaching process in university education. The first was labelled "subject-orientated" teaching, which was an organized process of teaching conducted through lectures, discussions, demonstra-tions and other formal class sessions. The purpose of this method was to impart knowledge to a body of students. The second process was known as the "student-orientated" educational process. It involved small groups conducted in order to enable the abilities, talents, powers of judgment and independent thinking of students to develop to the ex-treme. The Commission determined that "subject-orientated" education lay within the jurisdiction of the University Headquarters, while the Colleges should be responsible for the "student-orientated" education. �P Other than this change, the mission of each college was to be limited to
overseeing the welfare of their students, in areas such as boarding, counselling services, and maintaining discipline in the College.
Since the powers and functions of the College Boards would be limited to the management of assets each college had brought into the University, the Fulton Commission recommended that each college establish a College Assembly of Fellows to manage college affairs. The first Assemblies were organized through the appointment of six Prin-cipal Fellows from each college by the University Council. The can-didates were designated by the College Boards and recommended by the Committee chaired by the University Vice-Chancellor. Three of the members of the committees were nominated by the professors, readers and senior lecturers. Three others were nominated by lecturers and assistant lecturers. After the appointment of the six Principal Fellows, other Fellows could be selected. The Fellows were chosen from amongst the teachers of each college for five-year terms, and could be re-elected for successive terms. Each Assembly of Fellows was chaired by the College Head. Candidates for this position were chosen by the selection committee composed of six Fellows of the College concerned, and appointments were then made by the University Council. The six Fellows in the Selection Committee were nominated from Fellows of different ranks by the Assemblies, but the position of Selection Com-mittee Chairperson was assumed by the University Vice-Chancellor. Under this arrangement, the Colleges fell within the direct jurisdiction of the University, and the administrative linkages between the Colleges and their Boards were basically severed.



(5) The Responses from the Colleges and the Re-draft of The Chinese University Ordinance
The three Colleges had different responses to the proposals for chang-ing the system of CUHK. Broadly speaking, New Asia voiced the strongest opposition, Chung Chi opposed less vociferously, and United did not raise any objections. Although the Working Party of Professor Yti mentioned the "integration of departments," the inteption was to preserve the federal system of CUHK. However, before the release of the final report, the Board of Governors of New Asia College public-ly declared their opposition detailing reasons point by point. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 13 January 1975) Chung Chi did not make any public
Institutional Changes
announcements. However one of the members of the Board of Gover-
nors, Dr M. R Huang made highly critical remarks in his individual
capacity to the daily newspapers. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 31 March 1975)
After the release of the second Fulton Report, with its proposed changes
that delegated the actual administrative powers in the University to its
Central Headquarters, the Colleges found it even more unacceptable.
Main points in opposing the recommendations of the report are sum-
marized here as follows.
The first was a matter of principle. The federal system adopted by
CUHK was originally proposed by the government and agreed upon by
the three Colleges after consultations. On this basis, the Fulton Commis-
sion (1963) made detailed recommendations which were formally ac-
cepted by the Legislative Council. The 1963 Fulton Commission was
obviously in favour of the federal system, as it mentioned in its report:
We have attempted to ... make a constitution of a "federal type" of university. In our view no other plan could do justice to the rights of the existing Colleges, to their varied and interesting origins, or to their distinguished contribution to education in Hong Kong .... ff such a university were a unitary one, like the University of Hong Kong, the Colleges would enjoy a status little higher than that of halls of residence. (Paragraph 95)
Therefore the recommendation of the 1976 Fulton Report to change
the administrative system of CUHK to a unitary system was not only in
contradiction to its previous report, but also a violation of the agreement
between the government and the three Colleges.
The second was a matter of procedure. The opinion of New Asia
Board was that both the Working Party of Professor Yi.i and the Fulton
Commission (1976) had submitted their reports without involving any
College Board representatives, or consultation with the Colleges. These
reports were submitted directly to the University Chancellor and the
Hong Kong government respectively, and later incorporated into or-
dinances. These procedures were not consistent with the British tradi-
tion of respecting the autonomy of a university.
The third was a matter of contents in arguments. New Asia College was of the opinion that there was no sufficientjustification for convert-ing CUHK from a federal to a unitary system. New Asia held that a �P unitary system was not more economical to operate�P than a federal
system. The biggest item of a unitary university's expenditures was teacher's salaries which were determined by a ratio of teachers to students. The federal university should follow the same ratio in salary appropriation, and thus the total amount in salary expenditure was not excessive. The federal system did incur more administrative expenses. However, based on the operating scale at that time, the total additional number of administrative personnel for the three Colleges was no more than twenty. This was a small percentage of the total of almost five hundred administrative personnel in CUHK, and most of the additional staff belonged to the low and middle salary levels. New Asia recognized the duplication and confusion that existed in the internal academic and administrative affairs of CUHK. They maintained, however, that this situation arose from the desire of the University to replace the powers and functions of the Colleges, and not because of the federal system itself. Moreover, the Fulton Report criticized the lack of academic participation in the respective College Boards of Governors/Trustees, and stated that the Boards were too powerful to the extent that they were not consistent with the principle of governance of the University by teachers. As a result, the Boards were stripped of all authority to govern the Colleges, and became organizations holding in trust the original college assets. The opinion of the New Asia College authorities was that the principle of strengthening teacher participation in college gover-nance was not related to the issue of a university system, and could be applied in a federal university just as well. Therefore, this principle should not be used as a reason for changing the university system.
Lastly, the New Asia authorities criticized the separation of "sub-ject-orientated" and "student-orientated" educational processes by the Fulton Commission. In their view the processes were inseparable parts of the same course, and therefore this division did not meet the basic principles of education. The teaching of a subject to a student must be carried out in the same organization and by the same teacher in order to be effective. The smaller scale of the Colleges allowed more intimate relationships between the teachers and the students, which effectively combined the "teaching of a subject" with the "teaching of a student." In a sense, this was the biggest advantage of the federal system.
The government evaluated opinions from all sides, and in spite of the strong opposition from New Asia College, finally accepted the Fulton Report (1976). A Chinese University Ordinance was drafted and
Institutional Changes
brought to the Legislative Council in October 1976. The Chung Chi Board raised objections to certain clauses in the ordinance, but was no longer in opposition after the government promised to amend them. The New Asia College Board of Governors objected to the very end, and refused to support the drafting of the ordinance with or without the amendments. Nine of the Board members, including the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, even resigned en masse after the official passage of the ordinance, and released a joint-declaration to demonstrate their protest. Dr M. H. Huang, a Board member of Chung Chi College also offered to resign, but his resignation was not accepted. The changing of the system of CUHK, an issue that had gone through seven years of arguments and had turned from an internal problem of a university to being the focus of public opinion, finally came to a conclusion. From that point on, CUHK was able to concentrate all its energies for further development with a new face.
(6) From Administrative lntegra_tion to Decentralization
After completing the task of unifying CUHK, Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li retired in 1978, and returned to the United States. He was succeeded by Professor Ma Lin. Later in this chapter, it will be men-tioned that during the tenure of Vice-Chancellor Ma Lin, some reforms were carried out in the academic system, but essentially the administra-tive structure remained unchanged. After the re-defining of the roles of the Colleges by the second Fulton Report, the administrative powers of the University were highly centralized. This situation continued until 1987, when Vice-Chancellor Charles K. Kao took office.
In view of an imminent rapid expansion of CUHK in the nineties, during which the number of students will increase by 40% from 1991 to 1995, Vice-Chancellor Charles Kao proposed the concept of "decentralization" on his own initiative. After several months of broad .consultations, he released his fourth Open Letter to all teachers and students on 6 February 1991, setting forth the objectives, contents, and procedures for implementation of his proposal. Generally speaking, there were three objectives for decentralization. The first was to reduce bottlenecks in the organization, and increase administrative efficiency. The second was to encourage academic creativity, avoiding unneces-sary administrative hindrance. The third was to delegate suitable powers
to various academic units, so that each unit would bear its appropriate responsibilities in its pursuit of excellence. The basic idea of the proposal was to retain the policy-making authorities in the central units, like the Administrative and Planning Committee, the University Senate and the Council, but delegate the powers to implement such policies to the faculties and departments. Between the winter of 1989 to April of 1990, the University reviewed and re-defined the responsibilities, duties and accountability of the faculty deans, departip.ent heads, and the boards of studies. After the delegation of powers, the deans and depart-ment heads would be responsible for the work and decisions made within their jurisdiction. The administrative units of the University Central Office headed by the Bursar, Registrar and Secretary, in addition to providing designated support services, had to assist the faculties and departments in helping them to fully understand the University policies so as to ensure a smooth implementation of such policies.
Delegating powers to the faculties and departments was to be car-ried out in stages. Before the release of the Open Letter, the University Senate had passed simplified academic decision-making procedures on 17 October 1990. This was the first step in the delegation of powers. It was later decided that each faculty could amend its own curricula, adjust the number of courses, introduce additional admission criteria, deter-mine academic course classifications, and deal with matters concerning students taking more than one course in one of the Colleges, as long as there was no violation of university policies and regulations. The academic decision-making procedures that were simplified in this plan included the appointment of external examiners, external assessors, the directors of studies, and members of boards of studies. It also dealt with matters like exchange programmes and summer courses. Between 1991 and 1994, the administrative decision-making powers on personnel and finance would also be delegated step by step to the faculties and depart-ments. The first reform was in the recruitment of teaching and research staff at the rank of senior lecturer or below. In this area, the faculties would be able to make the final recommendation. During the recruit-ment process, a Selection Committee from the Department and the Staff Appointment Committee (to be established) would act as checks and balances for each other. An appointment could be referred to the Ad-ministrative and Planning Committee for arbitration only if a request
Institutional Changes
were specifically brought up by a member of the Staff Appointment Committee. The Second reform was in the organization of teaching staff in the faculties. Staff members on the same "employment terms" could be transferred from department to department. Personnel hired under different "employment terms" could also be cross-transferred, follow-ing the same principle. The third reform was that the faculties could also transfer: funds among departments or even among the faculties, besides continuing to take care of the appropriations from the University. In summary, the purpose of decentralization was to make the university administration more flexible, and enable the University to be better equipped to face the challenges of the 1990s, and on into the twenty-first century.
To adapt to new circumstances the University started to reorganize the administrative departments by redefining duties and responsibilities so as to avoid duplication and confusion. The first office to be reor-ganized was the Secretariat. Effective 1 January 1990 the Secretariat was consolidated into three distinct sections: Personnel, Council and General Affairs, and University Development. The third section was entirely new. Its main responsibility was to assist the University in the expansion of research and development activities through communica-tion and cooperation with organizations outside the University. At the present date, other aspects of the university administrative structure are undergoing continuous reforms.
B. The Academic System
It may be tactless to compare schools with factories, but in reality there are similarities between the two. To put it simply, both schools and factories are refining organizations that require the input of raw materials. After processing, and through quality control, the products become output. For a university, these are the processes of student admission, teaching, examination, and the conferring of degrees --,--all important segments of the university's academic system. Universities around the world all have quality controls, but methods are not entirely similar. For instance, British university students must take part in degree
examinations, while in the United States and Canada, students are required to earn a determined number of credit units. Since Hong Kong is a British overseas territory, the British degree examination system had to be adopted, if CUHK was to be recognized by the government. Besides, since its founding, CUHK has been determined to achieve excellence. Partly because the United States is deemed to be the world leader in higher education, and partly because the first Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, Dr Choh-ming Li, had taught in American universities for many years, the American credit unit system was also adopted by the University. Furthermore, the three Foundation Colleges followed the tradition in mainland China in which the required time period of study was four years. As a result, all three systems of degree examination, credit unit, and academic years were adopted when the University was established. In order to be awarded a degree, a student must pass the degree examination, accumulate the required 124 credit units, and com-plete four academic years of studies. An interesting example was the case of an internationally known mathematician, Professor Yau Shing-tung. He completed a four-year degree programme in just three years, and was allowed to graduate by Chung Chi College, but was not able to get a degree because of his failure to comply with the academic year requirements adopted by the University at that time. He simply entered the graduate school of the University of California in Berkeley, and was able to get a doctorate in mathematics after two years.
In the past thirty years the academic system of CUHK has undergone a renovated and simplified process either through self-improvement or external pressures. The system that was based on a combination of credit unit, academic years, and degree examination gradually evolved into a flexible credit unit system. This development is summarized below.
(1) Student Recruitment and Disputes over the Four or Three Year Degree Programmes
The institutional reforms of CUHK in the last thirty years involved two major disputes. The first was in the area of administration, a dispute between college autonomy and university integration. The second was
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the academic system, which involved a dispute between proponents of three-year and proponents of four-year degree programmes. The issues of administrative integration were generally settled following the recommendations of the second Fu[ton Report, but, soon afterwards, CUHK had to face the issue of academic year programmes. This issue came up in 1976, and remained in continuous dispute until 1990.
To help us understand the origin and development of the dispute, it is best to first examine the student recruitment system of CUHK. Stu-dent recruitment is an important element in a university's system, and at the same time, this process should be quite straightforward, e.g., just select and admit the best applicants. Since the early 1970s, the Univer-sity has been tormented by the issue of student recruitment,. so much so that finally, the whole academic system had to be reformed. The in-fluence of the recruitment issue was indeed far-reaching, and its roots can be traced back to the education system of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, English -and Chinese secondary schools have always coexisted side by side. The English schools followed the British tradition of education, which was five years of secondary school, two years of matriculation courses, and three years of university. The Chinese schools continued to adopt the mainland China model of education, which was three years of junior secondary, followed by three years of senior secondary, then upon graduation, a four-year university programme. As mentioned earlier in this article, one of the founding objectives of CUHK was to provide a channel for the Chinese secondary school students to further their education. In 1965, the government changed the Chinese secondary school programme to five years, making it the same number of years as English secondary schools. From then on, a Chinese secondary school graduate would have to attend Form 6, which was one year of matriculation study, before he or she could a.pply to CUHK. Thus while the government succeeded in unifying the academic year systems of the secondary schools, it retained the two-tier system at the matriculation and university levels. Originally, Chinese secondary school graduates would proceed to CUHK, while English secondary school graduates would apply to the University of Hong Kong. Each group would travel their separate ways. But following the development of Hong Kong society, Chinese secondary school educa-tion gradually declined. As shown in Figure 1, the proportion of Chinese secondary school students within the total number of Hong Kong
Percentage
40 -r------------------------------------------------------------------------------------�P -�P

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Year
Fig. 1. The Percentage of Students Studying in Chinese Secondary Schools
secondary school students consistently decreased from 36% in 1959 to less than 10% in 1988. As a result of this decline, CUHK could no longer rely on the Chinese secondary schools as a source of student recruitment. After 1978 the proportion of Chinese secondary school graduates among the new university students was only approximately 20 to 30%_
Looked at from another angle, English secondary school graduates had two choices in pursuing university education. The first was to apply to CUHK in their Form 6 academic year, and the second was to apply to the University of Hong Kong while they were in Form 7. The entrance examinations for CUHKand the University of Hong Kong have been conducted by the Hong Kong Examinations Authority since 1979 and 1980 respectively. The first is called the Higher Level Examination and the second the Advanced Level Examination. Since there were then no regulations in Hong Kong restricting the English matriculation course
_ students from attending more than one of the two examinations, the majority of the students wrote both. They naturally would not miss any opportunity to enter a university_ The resulting situation was that within
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the transition period from secondary school to post-secondary school, there were three examinations in three years. Those were the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination in Form 5, Higher Level Examination in Form 6, and Advanced Level Examination in Form 7. This unreasonably demanding situation was openly loathed by most people in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the coverage of subjects in the Higher Level Examination and Advanced Level Examination was not exactly identical. The result was that English secondary school students attending two-year matriculation courses who wished to apply for ad-mission to CUHK would have to devote their attention to CUHK matriculation syllabuses in Form 6. Those who were accepted by CUHK after passing the Higher Level Examination, often quit Form 7 midway. These two situations annoyed English secondary schools con-ducting two-year matriculation programmes, and they constituted a major force in pushing for the reform of the academic year system in CUHK.
On 2 September 1976, a report in the Wah Kiu Yat Po stated that due to the serious shortage of university places in Hong Kong, CUHK was about to match the University of Hong Kong by changing from its four-year programme to a three-year academic system. Soon after, CUHK authorities released a declaration stating that the report was inconsistent with the facts. On 8 December of the same year, while discussing the 1976 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ordinance in the Legislative Council, Sir S. Y. Chung, the chief unofficial council member, raised a proposal to change the degree programmes in CUHK from four to �Pthree years, in order to unify the systems of the two universities, and so adopt common admission examinations. By November of 1977, the government officially released the The Green Paper on Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education. Paragraph 10.5 of the Paper pointed out that, "If The Chinese University were to decide to reduce its undergraduate course (except in the Medical Faculty) from four to three years, the same course length as obtains at the University of Hong Kong, following the proposed development of a common two-year sixth form course, then the number of university students in Hong Kong could increase further."
After the declaration by the government of its intention to change the four-year programmes to three-year programmes in CUHK, there were extremely strong negative reactions from both the teachers and
students of the University. They held common views on the issue and showed unprecedented unity. From December of 1977 to February of 1978, the student unions of CUHK and the three member Colleges all strove to make clear their reasons for objection through discussions, seminars, publication of special issue journals, and even press conferen-ces. The senior administrators and teachers of CUHK did not miss any opportunities in their public or university speeches to point out the irrationalities of the proposal for changes. On 15 February 1978, CUHK Students Union held a mass rally in opposition to "the change from four to three" in the Science Centre of the university campus. According to the reports appearing in Ta Kung Pao the following day, CUHK teachers and students had been discussing the issue of "the change from four to three" enthusiastically for days befo.e the rally. Banners, slogans and posters in opposition to the change were posted all over the campus. On the afternoon of that day, most teachers dismissed their classes early in order to allow the students to attend the rally. Although the tempera-ture was below ten degrees celsius, nearly three thousand teachers and students came to the site braving cold winds and a light drizzle. The one thousand or so chairs were taken very early, and people just jammed the spiral staircases on both sides of the Science Centre and the perimeters of the assembly hall. Students crammed into the classroom windows of the Science Centre, and many people stood for more than an hour in the light rain. Senior staff of the University all attended the .ally, including CUHK Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li, Vice-Chancellor Designate Ma Lin, Pro-Vice-Chancellors T. C. Cheng and T. K. Cheng, Head of Chung Chi College S. W. Tam, Head of New Asia College Ambrose King, Head of United College S. S. Hsueh, Dean of Faculty of Arts J. Gannon, Dean of Faculty of Social Science T. B. Lin, Dean of Faculty of Business Administration Y. T. Chung, Dean of the Graduate School
M. H. Hsing, Secretary Nelson Young, and Registrar John Chen. Repre-sentatives from the Hong Kong Chinese Middle School Assodation and student unions of post-secondary institutes like the University of Hong Kong and Baptist College, and officers of CUHK Alumni Association all attended the rally and expressed their opinions. On 17 February, CUHK Council held a meeting and studied the change "from four to three" in detail. The presidents of CUHK Alumni Association and the student unions of the three member Colleges all attended the meeting. It was decided at the meeting that CUHK should maintain the four-year
Institutional Changes
system. But arguments regarding the change did not end there. On 10 March a professor who had been with CUHK for a long time confirmed that a letter was received from Lord Fulton expressing the view thatthe University should maintain the four-year system. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 10 March 1978) On 16 March, CUHK administration officially released its opinion paper on the The Green Paper on Senior Secondary and Ter-tiary Education, and cited the issues of concern in the Green Paper one by one for discussion. The reasons put forth against the change from four to three are given below.
Firstly, CUHK' s statement of opinions pointed out that recommen-dations to conduct common university admission examinations and unify the degree programmes were based on two principles attractive to society at large, namely, to alleviate the pain of having three examina-tions in three years, and to expand university enrolment without cor-responding increases in funding. The statement made it clear that although CUHK was in agreement with these principles, it did not support the methods recommended in the Green Paper. The statement then reiterated the necessity of maintaining the four-year academic system in CUHK from educational and financial points of view. The statement pointed out that CUHK had always shouldered dual educa-tional missions. These were the provision of opportunities for Chinese middle school graduates to further their education, and the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. Should CUHK academic system be changed to three years, not only would Chinese secondary school stu-dents encounter more difficulties. in enrolment opportunities, but also there would not be sufficient time to attain the educational goal of integrating the Chinese and Western cultures. Moreover, CUHK had always put emphasis on general education. As specialization of knowledge is unavoidable in contemporary society, a well conceived and properly implemented system of general education has certain practical benefits in overcoming the tendency towards narrow-minded-ness in knowledge brought about by specialization. But to conduct general education under a three-year system would be extremely dif-ficult, if indeed it were at all possible. The statement reminded the government that the four-year system was the international standard, and that the British three-year system was "practically an exception in the world." (Report of the Robbins Committee on Secondary Education, Section 121). The statement asserted that the government was forcing
CUHK to adopt a system that was not based on international standards, and furthermore did not match the educational goals of the University. Such a policy was contrary to any rational assessment of the situation. Lastly, Hong Kong society would need well-trained personnel in differ-ing areas, and therefore it would require the coexistence of universities with two different systems to enhance diversity and development. In fact, there were no actual recommendations to shorten the under-graduate course in the 1976Fulton Report. The commission members must have realized that any drastic changes such�P as shortening the undergraduate programmes to three years would obstruct the implemen-tation of "student-orientated" teaching, a method of teaching strongly recommended by the Commission.
From the financial point of view, the statement queried the money-saving method suggested in the Green Paper. Paragraph 10.5 of the Green Paper argued that if CUHK would agree to shorten its course by one year, more students could be admitted without incurring additional expenses. But it did not point out that after changing the system, the number of students attending Form 7 would surely increase, and the government would have to increase its subsidies to Form 7 education correspondingly. The University listed figures in detail showing that, based on the market prices of 1977-1978, the savings incurred by shortening the university programmes would be 25 .9 million dollars, but under the two-year matriculation system, the government would have to increase its subsidies in Form 7 by 41.6 million dollars. Even from the financial point of view, changing the system from four to three years would not be a prudent move.
The statement then listed defects of the two-year matriculation system and brought forward alternate methods that might be imple-mented. It stressed that Form 7 was definitely not an equivalent for the first year in a university, because the ultimate purpose of matriculation was still to achieve excellent results in an open examination. The study environment in Form 7 was correspondingly filled with examination pressures, and was very different from the first year of university. The freshman year was a time when new students could adapt to and probe their way through a new environment. They oriented themselves in order to experience the excitement of academic discovery and the happiness of associating with teachers and friends. CUHK would also object to anything that could jeopardise the chance for students from
Institutional Changes
poor families to enter university. The two-year matriculation education would deter many students coming from families with financial difficul-ties. Moreover, under the two-year matriculation programme and an integrated admission examination system, the Chinese secondary schools and th.ir students would be placed in a disadvantaged position. The University agreed that three examinations in three years was too much, but that involved the overall problem of the education system of Hong Kong. As middle school education took a period of five years, students would have to take an examination at the end of Form 3 and two years later, they would have to take the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. Aside from preparing for the examinations, the students had no time to deal with other things. To remedy this situation, it was suggested to extend the period of senior secondary school educa-tion to three years. This meant conducting the Certificate of Education Examination at the end of the third year in senior middle school. The examination results could then be used as standards of the academic achievements of the students, as well as the basis for selecting can-didates for enrolment in post-secondary institutions. Although CUHK felt that this design was ideal, it nevertheless was realistic enough to be aware of the financial consequences, and proposed a more practical and flexible scheme. A complete step-by-step, progressive programme was proposed for the four-year period between Form 4 and Form 7. The purpose was to ensure that the majority of the students would take part in only one, or at the most two, of the three open examinations in the Form 5, 6, and 7 years, thereby attaining the goal of reducing the number of open examinations.
On 5 July 1978, an ad-hoe committee, composed of members of both the Legislative and Executive Councils, with Sir Q. W. Lee as the convener, was formed to study the Green Paper on education. The committee concluded that the system of CUHK should not be changed from four to three years at that time. The main reason for this recom-�P mendation was that the University had just been reorganized. But it also stated that the issue should be brought up again in a few years time. In February 1981, The Chinese University obtained a government guarantee not to request a change of system from four to three years within the following six years. The issue was temporarily put aside until it was again dragged in with the establishment of the Faculty of
�P Medicine.

(2) The Faculty of Medicine Episode
Earlier in 1968, an Urban Councillor Dr M. H. Huang had already strongly advocated the idea of establishing a Faculty of Medicine in CUHK, to help solve the problem of a lack of medical doctors. Those opposing the idea contended that it would be more cost-effective to expand the Medical Faculty of the University of Hong Kong. In May of the following year, a spokesperson for CUHK declared that since it had only a five year history, it would strive to strengthen its existing programmes, and therefore did not plan to establish a Faculty of Medicine. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 25 May 1969) In December of 1974, the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC) recommended to the government that CUHK should establish a Faculty of !'-'1edicine to meet the urgent needs of society.
In 1980, the Faculty of Medicine was officially established, and Dr Gerald Choa was appointed the Dean. The first batch of students was scheduled to be admitted in 1981. In its deliberations with CUHK, the UPGC suggested that if the Faculty of Medicine in CUHK wanted to be recognized by the British Commonwealth countries, the teaching methods and systems stipulated by the General Medical Council of United Kingdom must be followed. These standards were already adopted by the University of Hong Kong. Generally the requirements covered several areas. The first was the use of English as the medium of instruction. The second was the recruitment of Form 7 students who had passed the Advanced Level Examination to the first year of the five-year medical programme. The UPGC did not object to the acceptance of Higher Level Examination students by the Faculty of Medicine in CUHK, but these students would then be required to complete the first year curriculum in the Faculty of Science before they could apply for admission to the Faculty of Medicine. These requirements were con-sidered by CUHK authorities to be no more than incidental to the establishment of the Medical Faculty. The UPGC, however, stressed that these were the conditions it would like to see. Although under-standings and interpretations may differ, the real situation was the same. If CUHK were to establish the Faculty of Medicine, it would be hard for it not to proceed according to the wishes of the UPG.C. Consequently, a change was created in the student recruitment process in CUHK through the establishment of the Medical Faculty, such that the University could
Institutional Changes
no longer admit students on the results of the Higher Level Examination only, as in the past. It was also going to be difficult to maintain the tradition of CUHK in using Chinese as the main medium of instruction. Furthermore, as the Medical Faculty had an extremely tight programme it would not be an easy task for one to complete this programme within five years, while trying to squeeze out extra time for general education which had always been highly regarded by CUHK. The last but also the most sensitive issue was the number of years of study in the Medical Faculty. The medical programme required five years of study, two more than their other programmes. The five-year requirement undoubtedly made people think about the issue of changing from four years to three.
After the news broke, some students and teachers of CUHK were overwhelmed with indignation. They set up the Faculty of Medicine Review Committee, urging the university authorities to begin new negotiations with the UPGC on the academic system of the Medical Faculty. On 3 December 1980, CUHK Administrative Planning Com-mittee held a meeting to discuss issues concerning the Medical Faculty. During the meeting, nearly a thousand students sat outside the meeting venue for six hours waiting for the results. It was decided at the meeting to set up an Ad Hoe Committee on the Academic Structure of the Medical Faculty, to be responsible for gathering data and opinions on the academic system and related issues of the Medical Faculty, for the reference of the university authorities. The Sub-Committee was com-posed of ten members, with teachers and students accounting for half the total, and chaired by Dr Gerald Choa, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. After several consultation meetings, the Sub-Committee completed its report at the end of February 1981, and submitted it to the Vice-Chancellor for consideration and approval. The contents of the report consisted mainly of the following points. First, the Medical Faculty should have a six-year programme, with the first year to be a conditional major. Second, the admission standards of CUHK Faculty of Medicine should be the same as other faculties, which were based on the results of the Higher Level Examination. Thus the dual method of admitting students from inside and outside the University would be abolished. However, these recommendations were not accepted by CUHK Senate. In June of 1981, the University Senate decided that the Faculty of Medicine should maintain the two channels of admitting students. The only difference being that Form 6 students�Pwith Higher
Level Examination results would be directly admitted by the Faculty of Medicine and placed in the pre-clinical class. Aside from this, CUHK authorities were willing to compromise on other issues related to the Medical Faculty such as teaching conducted in two languages, and the requirements for medical students to take general education courses.
(3) Controversy over the Provisional Acceptance Scheme
The "pre-clinical class" set up in compliance with the academic system of the Medical Faculty actually implied "provisional acceptance." In other words, a candidate would be provisionally accepted on the basis of academic achievement, although he or she might not yet be qualified for being officially admitted. Such a student would have to achieve certain basic academic requirements within a specified period of time. By fulfilling these requirements, the student would then be officially ad-mitted into thefaculty. The advantage of this arrangement was to reduce examination pressure to a minimum, and allow students to divert all their energy and attention to their studies.
All along, it had been the pressure generated by students taking three examinations within three years under the secondary school education system in Hong Kong that worked upon CUHK to change its curriculum from four years to three. To alleviate this pressure, CUHK put forward a Provisional Acceptance Scheme for student admission in October 1982; The University also broadened the student admission policy, that was originally only applicable to the Medical Faculty, to cover the whole university. In explaining this new method of admitting students, the University made it clear that it had always been its wish to have a six-year secondary school and four-year university system of education implemented in Hong Kong. Not only was this an internation-ally recognized system, but it could also reduce the number of public examinations from three to just one, namely the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. At that time, however, the possibility of implementing such a system was remote. Thus CUHK came out with the Provisional Acceptance Scheme, hoping to reduce the number of competitive examinations the students had to take. Under this scheme a Form 5 student could apply to the University for "provisional" admis-sion by virtue of results obtained in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and a letter of recommendation from his or her
Institutional Changes
school. After being admitted, . the '!provisional student" still had to complete the Form 6 curriculum and participate in the Higher Level Examination. If the academic results of the student did meet with the basic requirements,�P the student. could then be officially accepted by CUHK. The Chinese University felt that this new scheme of admitting students could achieve the objectives of (1) reducing the number of competitive examinations required of students to enter a university; (2) providing equal opportunity for all students to apply for admission to a university; (3) separating the curriculum between the one-year and two-year Form 6 systems; and (4) enabling students to receive a more meaningful education in Form 6.
The publication of the new admission scheme brought with it both supporters and opposers. The supporters held that with a few amend-ments, together with the coordination of the Colleges and faculties, the scheme could provide a good remedy for the problem of too many examinations at the senior secondary school level in Hong Kong. Those in opposition were vociferous and numerous. They included the Council of Grant-in-aid Secondary Schools representing all grant-in-aid secon-dary schools in Hong Kong, and the Association of Subsidized Schools representing all subsidized schools. They indicated that such a scheme could not be accepted. Many wrote as individuals to. the newspapers raising their objections to the scheme. Their reasons are summarized and listed as follows: (1) The proposed scheme would not alleviate the pressures of examinations as CUHK would only accept a thousand or so students every year among a number of almost 20,000 participants in the Higher Level Examination. Aside from a small number of those ac-cepted under the scheme, the other students would have to compete for the remaining few places. The fact that tremendous pressure would be generated in such fierce competition did not need further elaboration. According to CUHK, the list of provisional students would be released in March, which was only a month away from the Higher Level Ex-amination in April. In other words, if from the beginning of the school term in September to March of the next calendar year, students would have to worry about their admission results, how then could they under-take their Form 6 education with the. peace of mind suggested in the CUHK proposal? CUHK could of course release the results of "provisional acceptance" earlier, but by doing so, two types of students would have been created in the same classroom -those who were
selected and . those who were not. This situation would create psychological pressures as well. (2) Using the results of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination�P as the only basis for admission would unintentionally exert all the pressures upon one examination.
(3) As far as the Chinese secondary school students were concerned, the number of open examinations was not reduced. Whether "provisionally" accepted or not, they still had to participate in the Higher Level Examination. The only difference lay in lowering the requirements for academic results of the "provisional students." On the contrary, English secondary school students could on the one hand enter CUHK with their Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination results in Form 5, and on the other hand they could also take the Higher Level Examination in Form 6. More than that, these students could kill two birds with one stone by making use of their Advanced Level Examination results in Form 7 to seek admission into both the Univer-sity of Hong Kong and CUHK at the same time. With such an additional advantage enjoyed by English secondary school students, the attractive-ness of the Chinese middle schools would diminish, to the point that they might be totally eliminated. Should this scenario occur, it would be contrary to the educational ideals of CUHK. ( 4) Aside from Chinese secondary school students, self-study students would also become vic-tims under the new scheme. The previous practice allowed students who had passed the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination to participate in the Higher Level Examination of CUHK as self-study students. Those who had passed the Higher Level Examination but were not accepted by CUHK would be given a chance to retake the examina-tion in the following year as independent students. Under the new scheme these students could never be accepted as "provisional" because they did not have a school as a base. Previously, self-study students only competed with graduates of that particular year. The new scheme threw an extra obstacle, namely, the Provisional Acceptance Scheme, in their way, and made their chances of entering the university even more remote. (5) The Provisional Acceptance Scheme used the results of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination as the basis for entry, which implicitly shut out "late developers" from entering the gates of a university.
On 2 February 1983, local newspapers in Hong Kong reported that according to a poll conducted by the City and New Territories
Administration Department of the Hong Kong government regarding the Provisional Acceptance Scheme of CUHK, the majority of the respondents were against the scheme. The Hong Kong Education Research Group sent a letter to local Chinese and English newspapers, expressing its surprise and concern about this government action that was contrary to common practice. The letter pointed out that there were many other issues of great concern to the public, including telephone and electricity rate increases, governance of public undertakings, the Form 3 evaluation examination, and the assignment of Form 1 places. These issues profoundly affected every family in Hong Kong. The letter asked why was it that the Administration Department never conducted any surveys on these issues, while focusing on the admission scheme of CUHK, which was beyond its jurisdiction. The letter also concluded that the action of the Administration Department was a challenge to and sabotage against Hong Kong's higher education. The respect for the independence and autonomy of a university, and the recognition of a university's authority over its student admissions, course design, academic year system, examination and the recruitment of teachers were foundation policies in all democratic societies. Such was the case in the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong should be no exception. Finally, the letter disagreed with the methods used by the government in gauging public sentiment. Although the government had conducted a survey, it should also make public the number of people interviewed, and the actual number of people that accounted for the "majority." This simple expedient would allow the figures to be com-pared with those obtained by CUHK. (Ming Pao, 7 February 1983; South China Morning Post, 17 February 1983) On 20 February 1983, a spokesperson for the Education and Manpower Branch under the Government Secretariat declared that the Provisional Acceptance Scheme of CUHK would have a deep and profound influence on Hong Kong secondary school education, and therefore the government should have the legal authority to broadly solicit public opinion and reactions to the scheme.
Actually, after proposing the Provisional Acceptance Scheme, CUHK authorities had sent letters to more than 400 Hong Kong secondary schools to broadly solicit their opinions. The University held meetings with more than 90 secondary school principals, and Conducted a survey among 500 secondary school students through
questionnaires. After gathering opinions from these various sources, CUHK decided to moderately amend the original scheme. On 14 April 1983, the University officially declared that the new admission scheme would be implemented in the academic year 1984-1985. Students attending Form 6 of the one-year matriculation course in September of 1984 could use the results of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination of the same year to apply for "initial evaluation" at CUHK. After going through procedures such as interviews, the suc-cessful applicants would receive in March of the following year a notice confirming their status as "provisional students." These students would take the Higher Level Examination in the same year. Upon getting passing grades in at least five subjects (including Chinese and English Languages) in the examination, the students ,could then be officially admitted. Similarly, Form 6 students attending two-year matriculation programmes could use their Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination results to apply for admission as "provisional students." Atthe end of the Form 6 school year, the University would evaluate their academic progress and language standards. Those who were qualified could then be officially enrolled. While implementing the new scheme, CUHK also reserved a certain number of places for non-provisional students. Students from the one-year matriculation programmes that failed in their first try for provisional admission could re-apply upon completion of their Form 6, using their results in the Higher Level Examination as the basis for application. If two-year matriculation students were not successful in their first application they could remain in their school to complete Form 7. After participating in the Advanced Level Examination, they could use the results to apply to CUHK. When announcing the new admission scheme, CUHK Registrar, Dr P. W. Liu, pointed out that it was the belief of the University all along that the best way to simplify the complicated examination system in Hong Kong was to implement a unitary educa-tional system of six years of secondary school, followed by a four-year university programme. Students would participate in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination after completing Form 6, and then decide whether to continue studying or to seek employment. As CUHK could not change the whole system of education, it could only reduce the pressure of examinations on students through its own admission system.
After its implementation, arguments over the Provisional Accep-tance Scheme of CUHK increased unabatedly. On 12 November 1985 the Education Department issued an announcement stating that the provisional admission scheme had drained the schools of their Form 7 students to a large extent. Out of 189 schools that offered Form 7 courses, students of 112 schools entered CUHK after completing one year of the course. The drop-out rate of these students was between 5 to 20% in 103 schools, and more than 20% in 9 schools, which the Education Department considered a waste of public resources. A spokesperson for the Department added that the whole problem of Form 6 education and examin'ations could hopefully be resolved in the next report of the Education Commission. CUHK rebutted the accusations of the Education Department the following day, arguing that the figures listed by the Education Department were misleading. CUHK pointed out that the size of a Form 6 matriculation class was limited to ap-proximately 30 students so the loss of several students would account for a substantial ratio. Moreover, there were many reasons for the drop-out of matriculation students. Some students might go abroad to further their education, others might transfer to other institutions of tertiary education in Hong Kong, and still more might leave school for work. CUHK' s Provisional Acceptance Scheme was but one of many reasons for the drop outs. Later, Dr P. W. Liu, who had just vacated the post of University Registrar, indicated that vacancies occurring in Form 7 was the price to be paid for the maintaining of two matricula-tion systems and for freer choice on the part of students, therefore it should not be considered a waste of resources. On 6 January 1986 at a regular meeting of the Tsuen Wan Rotary Club, Legislative Councillor Mr Y. T. Lee pointed out that the Provisional Acceptance Scheme enabled students who failed to be accepted under the scheme to make earlier plans for alternatives. If both universities in Hong Kong would adopt this scheme, the number of matriculation students would surely decrease, and resources could be re-directed towards developing tertiary education. What was worth noting in this entire debate was that the government made no secret of its opposition. At the same time, the �P�PEducation Commission was reviewing the system of education in Hong Kong, particularly issues concerning the structure of tertiary education
'as well as the problems of private schools.
(4) The No. 3 Report of the Education Commission
For quite a long period, the chaotic condition of matriculation education in Hong Kong was caused by the different academic systems in the University of Hong Kong and CUHK. While this problem could not be solved easily, the University of Hong Kong came up with a proposal. The proposal, announced through a press release on 14 November 1986, revealed that the University Senate had, in principle, approved extend-ing undergraduate degree programmes from three to four years of study. A working panel chaired by the University of Hong Kong Vice-Chancellor, Dr Wang Gungwu, was set up to design the specific details of the conversion. At first, it seemed that this proposal by the University of Hong Kong would easily solve the long-drawn out e?ucational problems. However, the government had other ideas. Mr Fung Kwok Keung, Principal Assistant Secretary for Education, openly stated that the main policy of the Education and Manpower Branch was to increase the number of university places, as well as the funding for research, in the university. If the change of system in the University of Hong Kong should result in the reduction of the number of students, it would violate the main educational policy of the government at that time. (Ming Pao, 18 November 1986)
In May 1988, the government announced that, in principle, it had no objection to the unification of matriculation curricula, and had agreed to set the term for matriculation at two years. In June of the same year, the Education Commission released its No. 3 Report proposing that all subsidized tertiary education institutions should recruit students upon completion of a two-year matriculation course at Form 7. The number of years of study for undergraduate programmes would also have to be made uniform. The recommendations of the No. 3 Report on Higher Education were controversial, as commented on in an editorial of a local newspaper. The leakage of information prior to the release of the Report in no way minimized the explosive effect of its publication. On 16 June 1988, the CUHK Senate issued a declaration, stating that the Senate, after serious consideration, had . unanimously rejected the two main recommendations set forth by the Education Commission, namely, the common requirement for �P all tertiary education institutions to accept students upon their completion of Form 7, and the standardization of the number of years of undergraduate studies in all tertiary education
Institutional Changes
institutes. The requirement designating Form 7 as the point of admission for all institutions of tertiary education was considered by CUHK as extremely unfair to Form 6 students who might decide to attend local institutions with a four-year undergraduate programme, or go abroad to further their education in North America. The declaration also stated that standardizing the duration of studies for the various programmes would completely neglect the educational purpose in establishing these programmes. Lastly, the declaration pointed out that if the government were to adopt the two recommendations as policy without a detailed study of their feasibility, CUHK would view them as disrupting the autonomy of the University (through administrative measures). Not only would CUHK not cooperate with the implementation of the recom-mendations, but it would steadfastly maintain its predeterminate stand. The following day, the University Senate issued a further declaration, elaborating its educational ideals and reiterating its determination to keep the existing academic system, which was to adopt a four-year undergraduate studies programme and admit both Form 6 and Form 7 students. These two declarations were confirmed and supported by the University Council at its meeting on 4 October. On 26 June, a peaceful rally against the No.3 Report of the Education Commission was or-ganized by the Joint-Conference concerning the Academic System of Tertiary Education composed of teachers, students and alumni of CUHK. There were between three and four thousand participants in the Run Run Shaw Hall which was packed. Speakers included: Professor
S. W. Tam, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Education, CUHK; Professor
S. H. Liu, Department of Philosophy, CUHK; Dr C. Y. Chung, Presi-dent of Shue Yan College; Dr Y. K. Luk, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Hong Kong; Mr K. C. Lee, Principal of Kung Sheng Tang Middle School; Mr K. 0. Ho, President of the Educational Workers' Alliance, and Mr Szeto Wah, an elected Legislative Council-lor from the education sector. Everyone basically reiterated their stand objecting to the use of administrative measures by the government in undermining the autonomy of a university, in matters of student admis-sion and academic programme development. It was proposed from the perspective of educational ideals, long-term benefits to society and the
�P quality of education, that Hong Kong universities should adopt a six-year secondary school and four-year university system that went with ' the current of the times.
Intense public arguments on the recommendations of the Education Commission continued. Those in support of the Commission's recom-mendations were of the opinion that since the government had already made it a policy of accepting a two-year matriculation programme, CUHK should base its considerations on the collective welfare of society, and change its academic system from four years to three. The unification of entrance examinations and the reduction of public ex-aminations were the main issues that had long pressed CUHK to re-con-struct its academic programmes. Now that these issues had been largely invalidated by the proposal of the University of Hong Kong seeking to change its undergraduate programmes from three to four years to match the academic system of CUHK, only two other reasons for change still remained. One was the opinion that two-year matriculation programmes were better, while the other was that three-year university programmes were more money-saving. According to a member of the Education Commission, who requested anonymity, the explanations given to adopt the policies of the report were largely based on these two arguments. Firstly, the nine-year compulsory education system had undoubtedly caused a decline in the quality of education and it was very difficult to find a good solution that would completely solve this problem. One remedy might be to strengthen the two-year matriculation programme, as a one-year matriculation system would actually cover a period of only six months. However, while it would be a preparation period for examinations, it could hardly compensate for the inadequacies of the nine-year compulsory education system. Secondly, society needed matriculation graduates of better quality. If general education and fun-damental education were to be offered only at university level, fewer students would benefit, and society at large would have to wait for three more years before students of calibre became available. There were economic reasons why the Education Commission did not approve the retention of a four-year system in CUHK, and there were political considerations too. Politically, if CUHK were to keep the four-year system, other government subsidized post-secondary institutions would follow suit. The four-year system, whether working in conjunction with one-year or two-year matriculation programmes, would still be costly. According to the calculations of the Education Commission, if other subsidized post-secondary institutions were to follow CUHK and adopt the four-year system, the government would have to spend 700 million
Institutional Changes
dollars more every year. Funding for education in Hong Kong was already rather limited, accounting for only 19% of total government expenditure. Compared with other countries this was a relatively low figure. However, the number of Hong Kong students who could avail themselves of post-secondary education accounted for only 5% of the population of that age group. This figure was low when compared with the averages of between 10 to 15% in other developed countries. The target of the government was to increase the ratio to 10% by 1995. If the post-secondary education system was to be standardized to four years, this plan would probably have to be delayed.
Those who opposed the recommendations of the Education Com-mission argued that matriculation education was provided to prepare students for entering a university, and university education should there-fore be the primary object, with matriculation education just secondary. The Education Commission's requiring the universities to accom-modate themselves to, and coordinate with, the matriculation courses was simply a case of allowing the secondary to supersede the primary. Simply, it was a case of putting the cart before the horse. In an article entitled "The Hong Kong System of Education Should Be Reviewed in Its Entirety," Dr S. C. Cheng, Assistant Dean of the CUHK Faculty of Education, refuted an argument that a two-year system was better than a one-year system in matriculation education. He wrote that although this argument had certain points in its favour, the whole issue was being tackled in a piecemeal manner and no overall consideration had been given. While a total period of five years required for matriculation and university education was never in dispute, the main focus of the argu-ment was whether it should be a one-plus-four or two-plus-three com-bination. That more people could benefit from a two-year matriculation was the main reason for those who supported it. But Dr Cheng pointed out that matriculation education was just the continuation of grammar school, and that grammar schools were elitist education in nature. This was because they operated with the sole purpose of preparing students for higher education. Ignoring the nature of matriculation education, while arbitrarily "broadening" the Form 6 curriculum to introduce prac-tical subjects designed for a larger cross-section of students would result in failure to meet objectives at either end and would thus be wasting taxpayers' money. (Ming Pao, 23 June 1988) In an article entitled "It Is Better to Abolish Matriculation Courses Than to Reform Them," the
author Siao Na pointed out that at the end of 1977, the government published the Green Paper on Senior and Tertiary Education, in which it was mentioned that: "The government held that, only students suitable for studying rigorous academic curricula should be allowed to enrol in Form 6." (Paragraph 6.6) This statement was in conflict with the recom-mendation of the Commission to broaden the matriculation curriculum, indicating that the government was contradicting its own position. (Ta Kung Pao, 8 August 1988) Other people considered that the arbitrary requirement specifying that students should take a two-year matricula-tion programme before entering the university was not only an infringe-ment of the students parents' right to choice, but, it would also contribute to speeding up the "brain drain." Those unwilling to spend two years in a matriculation course could have no choice but to go abroad for their education.
There were four arguments put forth by those who opposed the statement that a three-year degree programme was more cost effective than a four-year programme. Firstly, it was pointed out that if the foursyear system was adopted for tertiary education, the increase in annual expenditure would be 200 million dollars, and not 700 million as alleged by the Education Commission. The calculation in the No. 3 Report was obtained by adding an extra one-third over the regular 1986-1987 funding for post-secondary education and this method of calculation was questionable. There were certain programmes like Medicine, Dentistry, and Engineering that had a five-year period of study. To add one basic year would mean an increase of one-fifth, and not one-third of the expenditure. In addition, the purpose of adopting a four-year system in a university was to increase courses in language and general education. The facilities and expenses required for these courses were far less than for courses in science, engineering, medicine and the social sciences. Therefore, the introduction of one more year did not necessarily represent a one-third increase in expenses. If the four-year system were adopted by a university Form 7 would become unneces-sary. Secondary schools could then employ 5-plus-1, 4-plus-2, or 3-plus-3 systems and savings from such programmes could amount to between 100 and 300 million dollars each year. In other words, post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong could adopt the four-year system without incurring any additional expenses. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 12 July 1988) Secondly, it was pointed out that the No. 3 Report only focused on
Institutional Changes
the financial aspects of the issues, and not on "economics." The system could indeed save money. But if the decision-makers were not clear about their objectives and sought for short-term coordination at the expense of long term benefits, defects could arise in their design that would cause a failure to meet the needs of the parents and students, and this would bring about misallocation of resources. The long-term effects of such a waste in economy could well exceed savings in administrative expenses. (Pai Shing Bi-monthly, l July 1988, pp. 11-12) Conversely, if the one-year matriculation system was implemented, students who failed to be admitted by the university could join the work force without wasting their time. This arrangement would be better aligned with social economic principles. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 17 July 1988) Thirdly, even if extra funding were needed for the implementation of a four-year univer-sity system, this still should not be a decisive factor, because Hong Kong was an affluent society. (Ta Kung Pao, 14 July 1988) Fourthly, No. 3 Report used only administrative and economic reasons to demonstrate the advantages of the three-year system and ignored the educational ideals of the university reflecting the Committee's shortsightedness. (Ming Pao, 23 July 1988) However, Andrew R. Wells, Secretary or the Education Commission, later averred that finance was not the Commission's main consideration. (Wah Kiu Yat Po, 11 July 1988)
On 2 December 1988, the student unions of the three Colleges of CUHK called for a half-day sit-down strike demanding that the govern-ment drop the No. 3 Report. The strike started at 12:30 p.m. Many students gathered in the University Square. Under the direction of monitors, they sat down along the University Mall. All kinds of slogans and posters were plastered around the Mall. By 1 :00 p.m., an estimated 4000 students had arrived, and several hundred teachers from. the various faculties also attended. On that day, The CUHK Teachers' Association also issued a statement, supporting the students in their strike.
On 27 January 1989, the government announced that the Executive Council had already accepted the recommendations of the No.�P 3 Report of the Education Commission. The recommendations required all sub-sidized post-secondary institutions to standardize their admissions at Form 7, and to adopt uniform academic years of studies in similar undergraduate programmes. But for those post-secondary institutions
using a four-year system at the time, a transition period of six to nine years would be allowed, to enable them to gradually standardize their admission systems at Form 7 with other institutions.
On 31 January, the CUHK Senate issued an announcement express-ing its profound disappointment at the acceptance of the No. 3 Report of the Education Commission by the Executive Council. It also stated that the proposals in the report did not have specific grounds of support to show their applicability. Further, the report brought about unresolved debates in society, and were severly criticized by people in the field of education. The announcement reiterated that the most suitable academic system for Hong Kong would be the six years of secondary school and four years of university. This system, when compared with the "5.2.3" system, would not necessarily be more costly in terms of funding. Further, when secondary school students had reached a level at which they were ready to receive university education, they should not be deprived of the freedom to pursue such education at an earlier date. For these reasons, the Senate held that it did not have to change its consistent standing; and refused to accept the two Executive Council policies conveyed to CUHK by the Secretary for Education and Manpower on 27 January 1989. The announcement also stated that the University would exert all its efforts to admit students and establish new degree programmes in conformity with legal ordinances and regulations and its own educational objectives.





(5) Abolition of the Degree Examination and Adoption of a Flexible Credit Unit System
On 1 February 1989, Andrew R. Wells, Secretary of the Education Commission and Principal Assistant Secretary for Education and Man-power, announced in an open forum that, in spite of CUHK insistence on taking Form 6 as a point of admission before 1994, he believed that this would not affect the progress of the reform of the academic system, and the standardization of university admissions. Funding procedures dictated that CUHK had to discuss with the UPGC by 1991, at the latest, on funding for degree programmes after 1994. He also declared thatthe government would not use legislative procedures to press CUHK to change its system, but would impose economic sanctions through the directions of the UPGC. However, as an editorial in Ming Pao on 28
Institutional Changes
January 1989 pointed out, Hong Kong universities relied heavily on government grants, and so there was little difference between legislative enforcement and economic sanctions. In these circumstances, CUHK had only two alternatives. One was to halt developments and allow other post-secondary institutions to overtake the University. The other alter-native was to follow the directive of the UPGC, which stipulated that additional degree programmes introduced through extra funding must use Form. 7 as the point of admission. In order to extricate itself from this plight, CUHK proposed the adoption of a Flexible Credit Unit System. On 8 February 1989, Vice-Chancellor Charles K. Kao in a speech at a degree conferring ceremony, revealed that the University was studying a proposal for adopting an Improved Credit Unit System. This proposal hoped to devise a new set of programmes that would allow students of differing levels and abilities to complete the required
. creclit units for a degree progran:une within three or four years, or even a shorter period of time. In this way, the issue of the number of academic years would become meaningless, and arguments over it would be unnecessary.
Rather than saying that circumstances pressured CUHK into proposing the flexible credit unit system, it would be better to view it as a reasonable outcome of natural developments. To understand this point, it is necessary to review the changes in the examination systems throughout the history of CUHK. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, a combination of a degree examination system, an academic year system, and a credit unit system was adopted soon after its founding. The first degree examination was held in 1964. There were nine examination papers, six on major and three on minor subjects. From 1968 this was changed to seven papers, five on major and two on minor subjects. In their third year, the candidates could take Part I of the degree examina-tion, consisting of three papers (usually including two major papers). In the fourth year, students had to take Part II, consisting of four degree examination papers. Beginning in 1967, CUHK students were required to take an intermediate examination after completing two years of study. The examination was conducted by the University Central Office and consisted of two parts. The first part included a paper on Chinese Language and another on English. The second part of the examination included a paper on the major subject, one on the minor and another on an elective subject. Students must pass all five papers before proceeding
The Quest for Excellence
to their third year, and there was no arrangement for make-up examina-tions.
The examination system of CUHK was rather complicated in the sixties. Students had to take part in joint examinations conducted by the University Central Office every year, in addition to examinations in other subjects. Finding such pressures too excessive, the student unions of the three Foundation Colleges initiated in May 1968 a request to reform the intermediate examination. The request was accepted by the University, and it was decided that those who failed the intermediate examination would be allowed to take a make-up examination in Sep-tember of the same year. In 1969, the University appointed an Examina-tion System Review Ad-hoe Committee, chaired by the University Vice-Chancellor. After discussions at various levels, recommendations were drafted and submitted to the Senate for-approval. Finally, it was decided by the University Senate that the Chinese and English (the language tests) of the intermediate examination would be handled by the individual colleges. The paper on elective subject would be cancelled, but the major and minor subject papers would be retained. Furthermore, following the recommendations of the Degree Classification Ad-Hoe Committee, bachelor's degrees awarded by the University were hence-forth classified as Honours and General. Honour degrees in tum were classified into the categories of First, Second Upper, Second Lower and Third. In 1973, the University Senate moved to abolish the i.ntermediate examination, effective 1974.
At the end of 1983, University Vice-Chancellor Ma Lin appointed an ad-hoe committee responsible for reviewing the curriculum structure of undergraduate programmes, chaired by Professor Ambrose Y. C. King. Committee members included Professor D. C. Lau, Dr Kenneth Young, Dr K. H. Lee, and Dr P. W. Liu (who also acted as Committee Secretary). After working for more than six months, a report was sub-mitted to the Vice-Chancellor in November 1984. Recommended reforms in the report covered three areas. The first was the adoption of the credit unit system, to be used as the basis for evaluation of student academic achievements and degree classification. At the same time, the legal status and jurisdiction of the External Examination Committee were retained. The second recommendation was a complete overhaul of curricula. Minor subjects originally made compulsory were changed to voluntary elective subjects. General education was strengthened, and
Institutional Changes
flexibility of subject selection by students was enhanced. The objective of all this was tnmake the curriculum more balanced. The third was to raise the demands'i1{the general education curriculum and language training. After mirt9r amendments, these reforms were adopted by the University Senate and implemented in the academic year 1986-1987. For CUHK, this was a major reform as the degree examination which had been in force ever since the founding of the University was now abolished. (Note: Certain faculties and departments still retained one comprehensive examination paper until 1993 to 1994.)
Even before the release of the No. 3 Report of the Education Commission, CUHK had shown a tendency towards developing the credit unit system. But as yet the reform had not touched the issue of the academic year system. By February of 1989, three years after the implementation of the credit unit system, Vice-Chancellor Charles K. Kao appointed a panel to be responsible for a complete review. The panel was chaired by Professor Ambrose Y. C. King, and members included Dr P. W. Liu and Ms Linda Hu. After six months, the Panel came up with a new set of recommendations, making the credit. unit system even more flexible, so that it was called the Flexible Credit Unit System. The recommended amendments covered many areas, but the most important was the absence of yearly promotion demarcations. Instead, credit units obtained would be the only basis of evaluation. Furthermore, the Panel also recommended that the University admit both Form 6 and Form 7 students at the same time. Form 7 students would be given exemption from certain credits, so that it would be possible for them to complete their undergraduate programme in three years.
As this stage, the academic system of CUHK, originally a combina-tion of degree examination, academic year and credit unit system, has developed into a simpler and more flexible credit unit system after years of metamorphic changes. This is the result of adapting to the realities of the day, and may also be seen as an expression of maturity and con-fidence.

4


Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Sze-kwang LAO

An international conference hosted by the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre, June 1984
Background: The Institute of Chinese Studies
History in Retrospect
(1) Environment in Which the University Was Founded
Before the immense political and social changes of mainland China in
1949, Hong Kong did not embrace a strong academic tradition, or hold
learning and culture in high regard. The only institute of higher educa-
tion in Hong Kong then was the University of Hong Kong, and its main
function was to cultivate well-trained professionals to serve local
society. The Department of Chinese in the University of Hong Kong
was more like an organization for Sinological Studies. Its curriculum,
and teaching staff, were divided among various courses in literature,
history, philosophy and fine arts.
Political changes in mainland China brought about sudden shocks and changes to the system of education and academic studies in Hong Kong. After 1949, a large number of scholars and educational workers left the mainland, some of these people settling in Hong Kong. Among . the political refugees were also youths who, upon arriving in Hong
Kong, needed further secondary and post-secondary education.
In response to these new demands for higher education, the exiled
educational workers were able only to establish post-secondary colleges
with crude and simple facilities. However, as these scholars were en-
thusiastic in carrying on the traditions of Chinese liberal education, they
fought to maintain their colleges in spite of economic and political
hardship, and thus sowed the seeds for a new system of higher education
in Hong Kong.
Among these colleges, New Asia College, Chung Chi College and
United College were to become the Foundation Colleges of The Chinese
University. New Asia College was jointly established by renowned
historian Ch'ien Mu, philosopher Tang Chun-i, and economist Tchang
Pi-kai along with many other exiled scholars. Funds for the College
were obtained through soliciting donations, and the College endured
tremendous hardship in the early years. Professors Ch'ien, Tang and
their colleagues hoped to revitalize Chinese traditional culture,. and to
provide a new resource for the Chinese people. The spiritual unity
among the teachers and the students reflected a strong idealism, which
eventually brought about an unprecedented change of the old customs of
Hong Kong society.
Chung Chi College was jointly sponsored by Christian Churches
that were originally conducting tertiary education in China. The College
was established to continue the traditions of these now defunct Christian
universities. In the study of Chinese and Western cultures, the College
emphasized the introduction of Western traditions into China and the
East, showing a striking contrast to the traditional fundamentalism of
New Asia College.
United College was established in 1956 by the merging of five
smaller post-secondary colleges, which had moved from Canton to
Hong Kong. These colleges were Canton Overseas, Wen Hua, Kwang
Hsia, Wah Kiu and Ping Jing. They were provided with financial assis-
tance by the Asia Foundation and the Mencius Foundation. The five
colleges jointly concentrated on addressing the needs of the unique
situation of Hong Kong, by promoting the integration of Chinese and
Western cultures, and, at the same time, adapting to the changing trends
of the world.
At that time, there were many other so-called "refugee schools," with differing standards. The lack of a set of common stan.dards was reflected in areas like teachers' qualifications and programmes of studies. According to B. Mellor, in the 34 private post-secondary schools at that time, one-quarter of the teachers were part-time, and 2 out of every 5 teachers did not have a university degree. The program-mes offered varied in length from only three to eighteen months. Longer
�P.
programmes were also available, but these were mostly determined by individual teachers. (Bernard Mellor, The University of Hong Kong, Vol. 1, 1980, p. 117) All these presented an extreme and abnormal situation for higher education in Hong Kong. As a solution, the estab-lishment of a Chinese university was proposed.
The Chinese University uses Chinese as the principal medium of instruction, this being its fundamental difference from the University of Hong Kong, which uses English as its official language. This difference naturally affected the attitudes of the two universities towards Chinese and Western traditions. In addition, since The Chinese University is composed of three colleges, the individual traits of the Colleges natural-ly have had great influence on the characteristics of the University as a
�P whole. The following section is a brief description of the attitudes and
research work of the Colleges on the issues of Chinese and Western
cultures.

(2) Cultural Background of the Foundation Colleges and Their Cultural Work
As mentioned above, the founders of New Asia originally embraced the ideal of promoting Chinese culture which they infused into their teach-ing and research. The philosophies of Ch'ien Mu and Tang Chun-i carried the most significant influence upon this basic orientation of the College.
In his early years, Ch'ien Mu wrote the Outline of Chinese History, in which he made the point that Chinese history and culture contained in themselves unique characteristics which were part of a tradition that must be preserved. When discussing the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, Ch'ien insisted that such activities should be based on Chinese culture. Through teaching and writing, this position of Ch'ien Mu formed an important part of the New Asia Spirit. But Ch'ien was basically an historian, and his arguments were based on his under-standing of Chinese history. In the elucidation of the principles of traditional philosophy and the study of issues in universal theories and thinking, the predominant figure representative of New Asia was Tang Chun-i.
Tang was a great master of neo-Confucianism, who had published numerous books. After participating in the founding of New Asia, he put further energy into his work. Not only was Tang uniquely well versed in Confucianism, Taoism, and doctrines of other masters in traditional Chinese philosophy, he also had a profound knowledge of traditional European philosophic theories, especially the Hegelian sys-tem in German traditional idealism, which Tang admired. During the period of Tang's lecturing in Hong Kong, a constant stream of new ideas arose out of his deliberations in culture and philosophy, forming new ideological trends.
The influence of the work of Tang was not confined to Hong Kong or to New Asia, in particular, though before the establishment of The Chinese University, New Asia had indeed been the base of Tang's work and thought. On the issue of the synthesis of Western and Chinese cultures, the main points of New Asia Philosophy, under the influence of Ch'ien and Tang, are briefly discussed in the following paragraphs.
First: Ch'ien was a scholar solely devoted to his national heritage, to the extent that he did not pay much attention to modern culture, yet his
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
opinions about upholding cultural traditions kindled the admiration of a
great many people. This is a basic characteristic of the traditions of New
Asia.
Second: Tang's learning was as profound as it was broad. His
methodology was derived from both the Hua Yen Sect of the Buddhist
religion, and the thorough-going idealism of Hegelian philosophy. As a
result, he had an appropriate understanding of the characteristics of
Chinese and Western cultural traditions, and had no intention of
obliterating the achievements of the West. But when comparing
Chinese, Western and Indian cultural traditions, Tang still ranked the
achievements of Chinese Confucianism as the highest of the three. Tang
was aware of the problems of limitation inherent in Chinese culture, but
promotion of the merits of Chinese culture was ultimately the main
theme of his writings. In this sense, Tang should be viewed as a
traditionalist, and in this way did his thinking contribute to the style of
study in New Asia College.
Third: Since traditionalism was the basic style of study in New
Asia, not much attention was directed to the study of modern culture.
Although the New Asia students and faculty had no objections to the
modernization of China, their true concern still lay in the preservation of
traditions. This emphasis was even more obvious in New Asia College
before amalgamation, and was evident again when the New Asia Re-
search Institute later remained independent from The Chinese Univer-
sity.
The characteristics of the New Asia spirit and style of study are so
distinct that their substantial influence on The Chinese University in
subsequent years is evident.
Chung Chi College inherited the traditions of Christian universities,
and in orientation and style, it was not traditionalist. Before the estab-
lishment of The Chinese University, the style of study in Chung Chi was
largely influenced by Church authorities. The most obvious example of
this influence can be seen in its general education programme.
Chung Chi was modelled after American universities from the outset. It placed emphasis on the idea of liberal arts education as against excessive specialization. In fact, however, the courses on Philosophy of Life offered in Chung Chi in early days were largely based on Christian doctrines. (see Chung Chi Academic Calendars before 1964) Its intro-" duction of Western philosophical ideologies also laid more stress on
those of ancient times. Furthermore, in search of the characteristics of scientific and historical knowledge, only the writings of Church scholars were used as references, resulting in an estrangement from modern and contemporary Western culture. Almost no programmes were specifically established in the area of Chinese culture and philosophy (with the exception of the Chinese Language Depart-ment).
After the release of the Fulton Report, the three Colleges all proceeded to restructure according to its recommendations. Chung Chi set up the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and overhauled the design of its general education programme, resulting in the introduction of a four-year general education programme, later renamed Integrated Basic Studies. This new programme included the following courses. First Year, Idea of a University and Methodology; Second Year, Essentials of Chinese Culture; Third Year, Introduction to Selected Famous Modern Western Writings; Fourth Year, Special Topics. With the introduction of the above courses, this programme then became a General Education Programme in the normal sense.
As a matter of fact, the General Education Programme is closely related with the issue of the synthesis of Western and Chinese cultures. The problem related to cultural trends was basically an ideological one, and there were no programmes addressing such issues in the various academic departments except for the General Education Programme in which the elucidation and study of these problems and.questions come into the picture. The reform of the General Education Programme thus had a great influence on the attitude of the students towards cultural issues. Chung Chi College did not change its original practice of attach-ing more importance to the introduction of Western culture, and em-phasizing demands for the modernization of China. What was really changed was the strengthening of liberalist inclinations. By reforming the General Education Programme, the Department of Religious Studies was changed to the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and courses in pure philosophy were gradually added into the curriculum. The lecturers encouraged objective understanding and independent thinking, and the students began to engage themselves in various theoretical investigative studies. The re-recognition of Chinese culture, and the study of issues on Chinese and Western cultural communication were all conducted under the principle of free and liberal thinking. Ideas and
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
systems of Chinese Confucianism and Christian doctrine no longer created any limitations on research and thinking.
The change of the style of study in Chung Chi occurred during the initial establishment period of The Chinese University. It is obvious that its changed direction exerted influence on the attitude of the University towards cultural issues.
United College was not a continuation of Christian universities, nor did it inherit the idealism of the traditionalists. It was able to break new ground, and assumed the mission of promoting the interchange of Chinese and Western cultures. Among the seven major goals summed up in the conference of College founders in 1956, the sixth goal of the College was "the promotion and interflow of Chinese and foreign cul-tures;" (United College Board of Governors: Organizational Regula-tions, paragraph 2)
As one of the founders of the College, Dr P. K. Chen recalled that the aims of establishing the College were to "cultivate talented people of combined general and specialized skills, to promote the interflow of Chinese and Western cultures, to elevate the standard of higher educa-tion, and to develop studies of advanced learning." (P. K. Chen, 50 Years in University Education, Volume II, p. 124) Although United College indicated that the interflow of Chinese and Western cultures was one of its goals, it is clear that more emphasis was placed on the introduction of foreign cultures and academic subjects. In its early ( 1963-1964) General Education Programme, nothing related to Chinese culture and learning was included in its six academic courses. (United College Calendar 1963-1964) This situation was similar to that of Chung Chi.
(3) The Aims and Ideals of The Chinese University
Since its founding, The Chinese University has had a clear stand on university education. It firmly believes in a balanced development of liberal and professional education. The first Vice-Chancellor, Choh-ming Li, clearly stated that:
There can be no doubt that more highly trained professional people are needed to run Hong Kong's sophisticated economy which has reached formidable dimensions. But the community needs leaders as well as highly competent technicians. While professional education
provides technical competence, liberal education develops leadership qualities .... In fact, The Chinese University believes that the liberal arts should be part of everyone's education and should therefore be included in the educational programmes of all students at all levels. (The First Six Years 1963-1969, p. 6)
Based upon this guiding principle, The Chinese University decided to attach importance to the study of macroscopic cultural issues. Dr Li further pointed out that liberal education did belong to Chinese cultural traditions, leading to the University's concern and responsibilities for Chinese culture. Li said:
The concept of liberal education is not necessarily a foreign one. It has grown from the native soil of Chinese culture and has always been a part of the Chinese philosophy of education. The name of The Chinese University, in Chinese, may mean the use of Chinese as the principal language of instruction. It may also mean a university with a firm background in Chinese culture. (Ibid.)
Dr Li then pointed out that in this context, The Chinese University assumed a unique mission:
In addition to the twin aims of achieving excellence in teaching and research in the sciences ahd liberal arts and enriching the Chinese cultural tradition in a modern academic setting, the University strives to become a major centre of research and teaching for regional studies, particularly studies of China. (Ibid.)
Furthermore, Li indicated that The Chinese University should as-
sume the mission of bridging the past and the present as well as Eastern
and Western cultures:
The goal will be the application of modern methods of investigation and analysis, particularly in the social sciences, to the study of the development of China and East Asia. More specifically, the University encourages its students and scholars to cultivate a new "sensitivity" and "methodology" in order to secure a fresh vision of the fundamen-tal values of traditional cultural heritage as well as the problems that are uniquely regional in nature. Those values, furthermore, are to be explored and assessed in relation to the modern world and expressed clearly and forcefully as part of the entire scene of cultural interaction. Thus, The Chinese University should be a two-arched bridge between the past and the present, the East and the West. (Ibid.)
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
From �Pthis it can be seen that one of the aims of The Chines. University is to adopt actively a progressive and mediatory attitude towards the relationship of Chinese and Western culture. This aim has become the most important basis of liberal education in The Chinese University. As mentioned earlier, member Colleges like New Asia and Chung Chi originally held different positions on Chinese cultural development. But since its founding, The Chinese University has em-phasized cultural synthesis in order to bring all the research achieve-ments of the Colleges together to achieve further advancement.
Since both mediation and synthesis are held in high regard, the main guiding principle of The Chinese University has always been attaching equal importance to Chinese and Western cultures. Even in teaching, the principle of attaching equal importance to both Chinese and English languages is emphasized. But the preservation and development of Chinese culture is still regarded as the basic mission of the University itself. In 1978, Dr Li received an honorary q.egree from The Chinese University upon his retirement. In the ceremony, Li mentioned this special mission. He said:
This special mission is of tremendous importance �Pto us, for it will enable our teaching staff to render teaching materials more relevant to our social needs, to advance the existing frontiers of knowledge, and to make original contributions to the theories and principles of various sciences. In a nutshell, The Chinese University of Hong Kong is the university that seeks to include a Chinese dimension in all academic disciplines. (Address of Choh-ming Li at the 19th Congregation of The Chinese University of Hong Kong on 2 October 1978)
The connotations of the terms "introduction," "development," and "inclusion" that were used here are not precise from a theoretical point of view. But the message is obvious. It expresses the intention of integrating the achievements of Chinese culture�P with other modem learning in order to bring about a synthesis of Chinese and Western culture. This idea remained unchanged after Professor Ma Lin assumed the Office of Vice-Chancellor.
One may find it difficult to make comments from a theoretical point of view on the success of this aim of the University as the above is only a general guideline. But by observing the actual work ac-complished, it is apparent that the efforts of The Chinese University have achieved success in some fields. In the following sections, we will
give a description of the research and academic activities of The Chinese University in the synthesis of Chinese and Western culture.
Research and Academic Activities
In carrying out research relating to the synthesis of Chinese and Western culture, the regular work is shared among the various relevant depart-ments and faculties and in addition, special institutes have been created for some programmes. Two of these are the Institute of Chinese Studies, in charge of overall promotion, and the Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Centre, conducting special�P topic studies by using scientific methods to analyze the chemical composition of Chinese medicinal materials. This section will summarize the work and achievements of these two institutes as examples of research carried out by The Chinese University in the study of Chinese and Western culture. A broad outline will be given as supplement to the curricula and research of the relevant departments and faculties involving the synthesis of Chinese and Western culture.
(1) The Institute of Chinese Studies
The Institute of Chinese Studies was established in November 1967 by Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li who also became the first Director of the Institute. In 1970 the building of the Institute was completed, with �P the Art Gallery as part of it. Under the federal system, the constituent Colleges maintained their departments and original education policies, so that the aims proclaimed by The Chinese University could only be put into practice by the University Central Office. In this context, the importance of the Institute of Chinese Studies was even more
pronounced.
As the name implies, the main mission of the Institute of Chinese
Studies is to promote Chinese culture and to reformulate traditional
ideas. But in its conceptud basis there is a big difference from the
attitude of traditionalism. In his 1975-1978 Report, Vice-Chancellor
Choh-ming Li had the following explanation of this difference:
The Institute, therefore, has accepted the following basic principles to promote Chinese Studies. (1) to adopt a broad and interdisciplinary
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
approach; (2) to create a new synthesis between the East and the West and; (3) to search for continuity from early to contemporary periods in the development of Chinese culture. (A New Era Begins 1975-1978, p. 63)
In conducting Chinese studies, the general direction is guided by emphasis on modernity, internationality, and objectivity. The three prin-ciples quoted in the report above correspond with these three concepts. The first concept implies the adoption of the methods of modem social sciences and humanities. The second calls for the establishment of a new position for Chinese culture in facing the various cultural traditions of the world, in other words, the search for a certain kind of synthesis. The third concept refers to objective research in cultural history. Ob-viously, issues concerning the concepts of Chinese traditional values were avoided on purpose. There was a marked difference between the attitudes of the University and New Asia towards traditional Chinese culture. In accordance with New Asia traditions, the promotion and expansion of the concepts of Chinese traditional values had always been their main objective.
In line with these basic concepts, Vice-Chancellor Choh-rning Li further enumerated concrete work plans in the course of n;ientioning the "aims" of the Institute of Chinese Studies. Dr Li said:
The Institute has, therefore, the following objectives:
(1)
to promote the Chinese Data Programme so that every Re-search Institute/Centre in the University will start its own storage and collection of relevant data in its own field to support research projects and enrich its teaching programmes;

(2)
to encourage the exchange of knowledge and expertise in Chinese studies through its well.planned exhibits, seminars, lectures, conferences, exchange scholar programme and publi-cations;

(3)
to promote scholarship in Chinese studies in Hong Kong and overseas by serving as an international centre for Chinese studies capable of effectively rendering research facilities to other research institutes and maintaining mutually beneficial cooperation with them and;

(4)
to assist the University in developing Chinese studies programmes at both the undergraduate and the graduate level


by means of a well-integrated interdisciplinary approach, so that a Chinese dimension can be added to all disciplines. (Ibid.)
Among the kinds of work cited here, the most worthy of attention is item 3, for it puts forth plans in support of other organizations in their research work. The Institute of Chinese Studies is not just an internal research organization, it has also the intention of becoming a "promoter." The term "Hong Kong and overseas" obviously included mainland China and this point has much to do with the situation in later days when the Institute has stressed its contacts and communication with mainland Chinese scholars.
The work conducted by the Institute of Chinese Studies over the years can be classified into five categories:
Research Plans and Publications Visiting Scholar Programmes Seminars International Conferences The Art Gallery
Research Plans and Publications
The Institute of Chinese Studies employs research fellows and assistant associates to engage in special topic studies. The Institute also supports other departments in their research projects, achieving abundant results every year, for example, the Research Centre for Translation, the Art Gallery, the Centre for Chinese Archaeology and Art, and the Chinese Language Research Centre. The Art Gallery and the other centres all carry on research projects and produce publications. Detailed records of data on research results can be found in the annual records of the various centres. Here a brief description of the research results of the Institute in the academic year 1976-1977 is taken as an example.
Chou Fa-kao and Chang Teh-chang assumed the post of Senior Research Fellows in 1976, and other Emeritus Professors have since been taking such positions to conduct special topic researches on their own. Research projects completed within this year included: Professor Chuan Han-sheng's "Economic History of Modem China," Professor Ambrose King's "A Study of the New Sociology of Communist China,"
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Professor Jao Tsung-i's "An Anthology of Tzu Poetry of the Ming Period," and Dr Lee Yun-kuang's "A Study of K'ang Yuwei's Life and Thought of His Late Years with Special Reference to His Unpublished Manuscripts Dated between 1813-1927."
There were several publications including Appendixes to an Etymological Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions and A Concordance to Kuang Ya, edited by Chou Fa-kao and others, all important works of philological interest. In December of the sameyear, the Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies was published. It con-tained a number of important articles, including those by Yen Keng-wang and Wang Teh-chao.
In the areas of research and publication, special attention should be directed to the activities of the Research Centre for Translation and the Art Gallery, two of the centres with a longer period of develop-ment.
The Research Centre for Translation was established in 1971. In 1973, it started the publication of a semi-annual translation magazine called Renditions in which Chinese literary writings are translated into English. On the one hand, it upgrades translation techniques and puts forward translation theories; on the other hand, it introduces Chinese literary writings to the Western academic world. Of the 38 issues pub-lished, 21 were on special topics. The selected translation materials cover a wide range of topics including philosophy, history, biographies, novels, poetry, and fine arts. Both the China Quarterly and the Times Literary Supplement in London have a high opinion of the English translation works of Renditions.
Aside from conducting translation from Chinese to English, the Centre also publishes Renditions Books, in hard cover editions and Renditions Paperbacks. These books have often been selected by European and American universities as teaching materials. The various Renditions publications are being distributed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Africa through professional agents, and have been well received.
Other than running its operation in publications, the Research Centre for Translation has also set up a Computer Data Base for long-term studies on literary translation topics. The objectives of the base are: (1) to help translators in discovering blank areas in translation; (2) to provide them with complete translation data information to avoid
unnecessary repetitions and; (3) if possible, to include annotations to the collected data for the reference of scholars in translation studies.
The research topics of the individual members of the Centre usually concentrate on Chinese literature and the integration of Chinese and Western cultures.
Also established in 1971, the Art Gallery has published more than 40 books and catalogues, falling broadly into three areas. In the first, are printed descriptive catalogues, the products of each special exhibition, as well as relevant research results, numbering about thirty. The exhibits of the Art Gallery cover a broad range, details of which will be elaborated in the Art Gallery section of this chapter. The second area is that of special journals on items collected by the Gallery, including publications on Calligraphy and Paintings by Guangdong Artists in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bronze Seals of the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, and the Hua Shan Stone Tablet Rubbings of the Song Dynasty. All these reflect the characteristics of collections in the Gal-lery. The third area is the study of cultural objects, such as records of seminars on research into the seals of the various dynasties, or the calligraphy and paintings of the Ming dynasty remnant scholars. Details of the work of the Art Gallery will be given in the Art Gallery section of this chapter.
In 1978, Professor Cheng Te-k'un returned to Hong Kong from Cambridge University and establishedthe Centre for Chinese Archaeol-ogy and Art, to promote this study in the University and in other places of the world. Since its inception, the Centre has been striving to develop a library, data bank and an indexing system for its collection of books, magazines and documents from both China and abroad in the fields of Chinese archaeology and art. In its early years, the Centre concentrated on the arrangement and study of archaeological documents. Many jour-nals on special topics have been published, including the works of Professor Cheng Te-k'un like Studies in Chinese Archaeology, Studies in Chinese Art, Studies in Chinese Ceramics, and the works of other scholars such as Professor Jao Tsung-i, Dr Chang Kwang-chih and Mr Shou-chin Lin.
Since Professor D. C. Lau took charge of the research work in Chinese Language in 1980, more emphasis has been placed on the semantics and grammar of the texts of classics and the social applica-tions of language. Recently, with donations from UPGC and the Chiang
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Ching-kuo Foundation, documents from the Qin to the Six Dynasties have been stored in the computer data base. From these data, twelve volumes of The /CS Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series have been published. As Dr F. C. Chen, the current Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies pointed out:
The building of a systematic and comprehensive database of ancient texts is a basic and essential task for classical Chinese studies, as it would then have made the powerful method of electronic processing available for such research, and its potential for development is practi-cally unlimited. (From Tradition to the Present: The Institute of Chinese Studies 1967-1992, p. 17)
The Institute bought in the collections of letters and telegrams of Sheng Hsiian-huai, a famous industrialist in the late Qing dynasty, in 1983, and since then a long-term research and publication plan based on these materials has been devised. The first series of nine volumes entitled Letters of Prominent Figures in Modern China were published in 1986. More will be published during the 1990s, including telegrams and correspondence concerning industries and business agreements in the Qing dynasty.
These activities and publications of the Institute of Chinese Studies are just a few examples of its achievements since its establishment. It is sufficient to show the general standard and .orientation of the research and publication work of the Institute. By 1992, twenty-two issues of /CS Journal had been published. In spite of occasional delays caused by the collection of articles and printing problems, the publication of the /CS Journal has never been interrupted.
In addition to the academic journal, other periodicals of the Institute include the Chinese Language Newsletter and Twenty-first Century Bi-monthly. The publication of Chinese Language Newsletter, also a bi-monthly, began in March 1989 and by March 1992, nineteen issues had been published.
The Chinese Language Studies appeared in its first volume in 1979. Both the Chinese Language Newsletter and Chinese Language Studies are sponsored by the Ng Tor-tai Chinese Language Research Centre of the Institute of Chinese Studies, and their contents are mainly concerned with the promotion of a meticulous study of the Chinese language.
The Twenty-first Century Bi-monthly is a publication covering ideological issues and had its first volume out in October 1990. Academics from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas areas have been invited by the Institute to form an editorial board, and the editing and compiling are taken on by the Institute staff. Contributions are often submitted by Chinese scholars from the mainland. This journal is cur-rently one of the few Hong Kong periodicals allowed to enter China, where it is highly regarded.
Visiting Scholar Programmes
Over the years, the Institute of Chinese Studies has invited academics from all over the world to come and deliver lectures and carry out short-term research projects in Hong Kong. The Institute provides of-fices and accommodation for the visiting scholars, and extends research subsidies to some of the projects.
The number of visiting academics delivering lectures is quite large, more than ten each year. These academics come from the United States, Great Britain, Western Europe, Japan and other regions. The Institute also receives visiting scholars from mainland China and Taiwan. During the 1970s and 1980s the number of visiting scholars from China steadily increased. To take an example, for the academic year 1979-1980, among twelve visiting scholars, only three were from China and one from Taiwan; the rest were from the United States, Europe or Japan. But in 1985-1986, among the thirteen visitors to the Institute for one or two-week periods, only one was from Japan, and the other twelve were all from mainland China. This has followed the general trend of the Institute of Chinese Studies which from the 1980s placed special em-phasis on academic exchange activities with mainland China. This policy was not in conflict with the original principle of The Chinese University, which emphasized giving equal importance to both Chinese and Western culture. It also indicated the direction the work of the Institute of Chinese Studies was taking.
The Research Centre for Translation provides funds for the Rendi-tions Visiting Scholar and the Renditions Honorary Visiting Scholar. Every year, internationally-renowned translation experts are invited to the Centre for long-term visits, conducting literary translation projects and giving lectures. Scholars that have been invited include Professor
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Burton Watson, Professor Goran Malmqvist, Professor Cyril Birch, Mr Frederick C. Tsai and Professor Lucy Zhau.
The visiting scholars often conduct special topic seminars. This activity is different from individual research, and will be discussed later. Usually each visiting scholar will deliver at le.ast one public lecture, an exhaustive list of these, however, cannot be given here.
Generally speaking, the functions of the visiting scholar programme are not just a superficial social activity; the programme brings about positive results in strengthening the understanding of Chinese culture, and in promoting academic research.
Seminars
The emphasis of a seminar lies in the discussion amongst the par-ticipants. It is different in nature from a public lecture, although the moderator may first deliver a special topic report. Participants can put forward comments from different angles and at different levels on the propositions and arguments of the speaker. The end result is helpful in advancing mutual understanding. Seminars conducted by the Institute of Chinese Studies in its early days were mostly moderated by scholars in the University, or those related with the University, and only on a few occasions did visiting scholars deliver reports on special topics. Later on, seminars gradually came to be dominated by visiting scholars. In the academic year 1976-1977, a total of eleven seminars were conducted. The speakers were Wang Teh-chao, Chang Teh-chang, Hideo Nishioka (Japan), Liu Ts'un-yan (Australia), Liu Chun-jo (United States), Li Fang-kuei (member of The Chinese University Humanist Advisory Committee), Chou Fa-kao, Chen Ching-ho, Jao Tsung-i, James Watt and Cheng Te-k'un. In addition to the three visitors from Japan, the United States and Australia, the remaining eight speakers were Chinese University professors, and the other two were connected with the University. It is obvious that emphasis has been placed on the Univer-sity staff.
During the 1988-1989 year, a total number of thirteen seminars were conducted. The speakers were Fang Li-zhi, Stephen H. West (United States), William H. Nienhauser (United States), Zhu Zhong-bin, Chang Zhong-pei, Hu Chao-xi, Ji Xian-lin, Wang Yao, Chao Chung-fu (Taiwan), Su Bai, He Yao-hua, Huang Jia-jiao, Liu Xin-wu, Wang
Chung-fu (Taiwan), Wu Zhao and others. Except for the four speakers from the United States and Taiwan, all were from mainland China, and none from the University staff. This evolution reflects a strengthening of ties with the research and academic developments of the People's Republic of China. Although the seminars covered a very wide range of topics, the focus was generally on Chinese society and culture.
International Conferences
The Institute of Chinese Studies has on many occasions organized and sponsored various academic conferences either by itself or with other organizations. The most important of these were the Hong Kong Con-ferences on East-West Comparative Literature sponsored by the Com-parative Literature and Translation Centre.
The Comparative Literature Panel conducted a total of four interna-tional conferences. Participants included academics from Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and overseas. Topics of the conferences in-cluded: "Eastern and Western Cultures and Comparative Literature"; "The Orientations of Eastern and Western Cultures and Comparative Literature"; "Looking at Descriptive Literature through Eastern and Western Lines of Thought" and "Issues of Comparative Drama."
The topics of the first two seminars involved the characteristics and integrations. of Eastern and Western cultures. The last two dealt with more specialized topics, but the emphases were comparing Chinese and Western literary work. The papers read by the academics were compiled and published afterwards and these volumes have become important reference materials for the study of comparative literature in the con-temporary period.
The Institute of Chinese Studies has also conducted a great number of other international conferences and seminars. In December 1979, the International Conference on Sino-Japanese Cultural Interchange was held. Forty overseas scholars from the United States, Canada, Europe, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea attended the conference, together with sixteen local academics. Forty papers were presented and compiled for publication by the Institute.
In September 1983, the "International Conference on Ancient Chinese Scripts" was co-sponsored by the Ng Tor-Tai Chinese Lan-guage Research Centre of the Institute and the Department of Chinese
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Language and Literature of the University. Thirty-eight scholars at-tended in all, coming from China, Taiwan, Japan, the United States and Hong Kong producing a total of thirty-eight papers.
In November 1988, in the Symposium on Painting of the Ming Dynasty sponsored by the Art Gallery, about forty local scholars and academics from China, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, and Australia attended and presented twenty-one papers.
The Research Centre for Translation conducted an international seminar on classical Chinese literature entitled "Paradox of Virtue in Traditional Chinese Literature" from 10 April to 12 April 1989. Par-ticipants included renowned scholars from Hong Kong, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Taiwan.
In July 1989, the "International Conference on the Challenge of Modernity and the Prospects of Chinese Culture" was jointly sponsored by the Institute and the Hong Kong Oriental Humanist Studies Society. Participants included American, Taiwanese and Singaporean academics and mainland Chinese scholars who were residing in Hong Kong at the time. This was the first international conference in Hong Kong attended by mainland Chinese scholars after the June 4th Incident. The papers and speeches were arranged and compiled for publication.
In October 1991, the Institute organized an international seminar entitled "Hu Shih and Modern Chinese Culture," to commemorate the 100th birthday of Dr Hu Shih. Between thirty and forty academics from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas attended and presented almost thirty papers. The contribution of Dr Hu Shih to modern Chinese culture was enthusiastically discussed in the seminar.
31 October 1992 was the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Chinese Studies. A silver jubilee banquet was held and a brief history entitled From Tradition to the Present: The Institute of Chinese Studies 1967....c./992 was published to commemorate the oc-casion. The principle of the Institute "to combine tradition with the present and to synthesize China and the West" as proposed by Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li at its founding, has been met.
The Art Gallery
The Art Gallery was established under the Institute of Chinese Studies in 1971. The Gallery serves both as the centre of research on Chinese art
and archaeology and as a teaching museum for the fine arts programme of the University. Research and promotion of education are deemed to be of equal importance.
As a museum, the Gallery has been actively collecting a.ll kinds of �Part objects over the years. Items which form the nucleus of the Gallery's permanent collection include paintings and calligraphy of Guang-dong artists of the Ming and Qing periods, paintings and calligraphy of the Y angzhou artists of the Qing dynasty, Chinese ceramics and porcelain through the ages, bronze seals, carved jades, stone rubbings, stone sculptures and other art objects. A considerable collection has been established. Except for a few items of the collection which were directly purchased with university funds, the collection came from donations given by local supporters of the Gallery, the greatest of which were the Bei Shan Tang Foundation and the B. Y. Lam Founda-tion Ltd.
The routine work of the Gallery has been the mounting of exhibi-tions, and working closely with overseas museums and collectors. Many large-scale special exhibitions have been held. The contents of these exhibitions included Chinese calligraphy and paintings, handicrafts and the latest archaeological achievements. In terms of regional contents, the exhibits of calligraphy, paintings and art objects of native Guangdong artists are one of the major features of the Gallery.
In the past twenty years, more than a hundred exhibit_ions have been mounted, too many to cite them all. However, descriptive catalogues with accompanying research papers were published for all special ex-hibitions. Within the five years from 1988 to 1992, thirteen special exhibitions were organized by the Gallery, and fell into the following three types:
1. Exhibitions mounted in collaboration with mainland China museums: Paintings of the Ming Dynasty from the Palace Museum (1988) Archaeological Finds from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Periods in Guangdong (1989) The Art of Su Liupeng and Su Renshan (1990) Lacquerware from the Warring States to the Han Periods Ex-cavated in Hubei Province (1990)
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
The Quintessential Purple Stone -Duan Inkstones through the Ages (1991) Jades from the Tomb of the King ofNanyue (1992)
2.
Exhibitions on loan from local collectors: Chinese Ceramic Pillows from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Yeung Wing Tak (1989) Chinese Ivories from the Kwan Collection (1990) Dr S. Y. Yip Collection of Classic Chinese Furniture ( 1991)

3.
Exhibitions from the Gallery collections: The Art of Gao Jianfu (1988) Paintings of Ju Chao and Ju Lian (1990) The Art of the Gao Brothers of the Lingnan School ( 1991) Selections from the Art Gallery's Permanent Collection (1992)


In addition to the involvement in the research projects of the Gallery by its own staff, experts from Hong Kong and abroad have often been invited to participate. Special topics studied included: Art and Culture of Guangdong in the Late-Ming and Qing Periods, Su Liupeng and Su Renshan, Ceramics with Studio Marks, Yi-Xing Zisha Wares, and An-cient Bronze Seals. Artifacts in the gallery collections have been used as materials of reference in these studies, and special journals have been published in connection with them.
The Gallery often conducts academic forums and international seminars in its efforts to promote the study of Chinese art and artifacts, and the interchange of Chinese and Western learning. The Yeung Shui Sang Laboratory for Thermoluminescence of Ancient Ceramics was established to provide ceramic dating services. The Friends of the Art Gallery Association was established in 1981 to recruit art lovers as members, and to strengthen the contact between the Gallery and society.
The discussions mentioned above represent the work of the Institute of Chinese Studies, in summary, over the years. Neither The Chinese University nor the Institute has as yet proposed a clear theory on the integration of Chinese and Western culture. But in practical work such as the exchange of talents, communication of opinions, studies of spe-cial topics, and the collection of data, the Institute has carried out many long-term efforts in accordance with its plans.
(2) Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre
When it comes to combining scientific methods and traditional ex-perience and knowledge, the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre provides a splendid example of success. Herbal medicine has been used through the ages in China to treat all types of illnesses, but the composition of the medicinal materials often lacks scientific analysis, and the effectiveness of treatments lacks modem scientific rationales and proofs. For many years critics equated. the efficacy of herbal medicine with plac..bos, and this created misconceptions about Chinese medicine. In order to conduct scientific research on Chinese medicine, The Chinese University established a research unit under the Institute of Science and Technology in coordination with many other departments. This unit was named the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre.
The basic aim of the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre is to establish scientific knowledge about the composition and the therapeutic effects of Chinese medicinal materials. The Centre aims at objectively sorting out Chinese clinical experiences accumulated over more than two millennia, with the purpose of strictly verifying factual clinical effects of Chinese medicine, in the hope of dispelling any prevailing misconceptions, or misinformation, about herbal medicine. The research started with specially selected topics, hoping to help make Chinese medicine more scientific an:d up to date.
In 1975, originally called the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Unit, it was elevated to the status of a Centre in 1979. In the university organization, it falls within the jurisdiction of the Institute of Science and Technology, but research fellows who participate in the work of the Centre are invited from the Faculties of Science and Medicine and other disciplines. The Centre is headed by a director, and staffed by several research technicians. The research fellows have formed collaboration committees to promote interdisciplinary research projects. In 1984, building for the Centre was completed and opened for operation. It houses research and supporting facilities including laboratories of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology, and Tissue Culture and Animal Observation Rooms.
Financial Support and Facilities
The baseline support for the Centre is provided by The Chinese
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
University, but funding for research facilities and programmes general-ly comes from donations from international and local organizations and philanthropists. Donations from international organizations can be ear-marked for the research activities of the Centre, or to support certain contract projects. For instance, the World Health Organization has provided financial support for research projects on female and male contraceptives. Funds have also been provided by other international organizations like the International Foundation for Science, the Ford Foundation and IBM in support of specific research projects.
Aside from international organizations and local organizations, local philanthropists over the years have also contributed a huge amount in donations. For example, from 1979 to 1982, the Centre received a total of 4.2 million Hong Kong dollars in donations for Construction Funds. From 1978 to 1983, donations for the Research Funds reached
5.3 million dollars. Furthermore, donations for research collected through direct solicitation also reached 4.8 million dollars by the end of 1983. These were donations made during the initial stage of the Centre. The amount of later donations has continued to increase. (see Report of The Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre, June 1984)
The Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre has been able to improve its research facilities every year through donations and the support of the University. The major facilities are:
1.
The building for the Centre was constructed entirely through private donations by local philanthropists, and completed in 1984. In addition to the laboratories in the building, there is a Museum of Chinese Medicine, an Information Room contain-ing books and journals, and a Computer Database Room.

2.
Major research instruments and facilities in the Science Centre of the University that can be used in research into Chinese medicine include the high resolution mass spectrometer, high performance liquid chromatograph, X-ray single crystal diffractometer, electron microscopes, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer and others.


The laboratory building of the Centre, the various departments of the Science Faculty, and the pre-clinical departments of the Medical Faculty are all located close to one another. The Centre and the various departments can thus make use of one another's instruments
conveniently. This kind of coordinated environment is instrumental in allowing the Centre to carry out its research activities smoothly. The Panacea Lodge constructed by the Centre through private donations provides accommodation mainly for its own staff, and visiting research scientists from mainland China coming to the Centre.
Research and Achievements
The basic aim of the research efforts of the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre is to establish scientific knowledge about Chinese medicine. The needs .f society are taken into consideration in selecting priority research subjects. Broadly speaking, the research activities of the Centre fall into two groups, basic study and special study. Concrete achievements have been attained in both areas since the establishment of the Centre. In the area of basic study, the following three topics are perhaps most important:
(1) The Establishment of the Chinese Medicines Database
With the support of IBM, the Centre has established a computer database on Chinese medicine. Relevant information on pharmagnosti-cal, chemical, pharmaceutical and clinical reports is summarized and translated into English and stored in the computer using IBM ST AIRS software. Electronic communication link-ups have been established with existing Western databases. Because of this arrangement, vast amounts of information related to Chinese medicine have been made available to the world for scientific studies. This is an epoch-making project in the interchange of Chinese and Western medicines. IBM Corporation has been very satisfied with this collaboration, and has published special advertisements about it in Time and Newsweek magazines.

(2) Authentication of Medicinal Herbs
Chinese herbs include many varieties, which often causes confusion. This problem has been handled by the Centre through the establishment of the Museum of Chinese Medicine. The method of authenticating specimens of Chinese herbs is a combination of traditional experience, plant taxonomy and anatomy, as well as the analysis of chemical
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
components. So far more than two thousand samples of Chinese herbs have been authengcated. This work of standardizing Chinese medicine provides an objective basis for the quality control of the medicine, and exerts great impact on the cultivation and trading of the materials, as well as on clinical applications and scientific research. The standard samples of the Museum have been of great help in determining the medicinal materials in poisoning episodes, which occurred in Hong Kong and overseas in recent years, due to the abuse or misuse of Chinese medicine.

(3) "Fingerprinting" Herbal Compositions
A_ further study in the standardization of Chinese herbs involves the authentication of chemical compositions of the materials. By making use of instruments like the high performance liquid chromatograph, nuclear magnet.c resonance spectrometer, multi-scan infrared chromatograph, and mass spectrometer, the Centre has been able to authenticate the complex analytical data of the various medicinal materials, and directly feed the information into the computer. By com-paring the fingerprinting patterns of standard Chinese herbs and the pure chemical substances extracted from them versus that of unknown herbs, a reliable scientific identification at molecular level can be established. Another more recent breakthrough in drug authentication by the Centre is the success in the application of Arbitrarily Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction (AP-PCR) techniques in the genomic-fingerprinting of Chinese medicines. This work makes the identification and quality control of these medicines more accurate.
The three topics mentioned above all belong to the basic study area, and they have a long-term and universal impact on the task of making the knowledge of Chinese herbs more scientific. In addition, there are also areas of special research sponsored by the Centre, includ-ing:

(I) Contraceptives
Since 1976, the Centre has been conducting research on contraceptives as one of its international collaborative projects. For this project, the �P Centre received the financial support of the World Health Organization.
The aim of the research is to extract from Chinese herbs non-steroidal components active against implantation, and contraceptives to be used by males.
(2) Abortif acient Proteins
For over two thousand years, Radix Trichosanthis has been used in Chinese medicine for the purposes of "heat-clearing, sputum-eliminat-ing, thirst-arresting, and secretion-promoting." In recent years, it is used in China as an abortifacient agent, and an abortifacient protein (trichosanthin) has been isolated from this herb. In the process of study on Cucurbitaceae, a research team of the Centre has also discovered four new abortifacient proteins. An in-depth study of these proteins has demonstrated their effectiveness in controlling the proliferation of many kinds of cancer cells and also the proof that trichosanthin can effectively and selectively kill HIV-infected lymphocytes and macrophages. Trichosanthin has now been approved by the FDA of the United States for clinical evaluation.

(3) Liver Diseases
In China and Southeast Asia, hepatitis is still a prevalent disease. In order to meet the needs of society, the Centre is looking_for an effective medicine from Chinese herbs for hepatitis. The Centre is studying Chinese herbs used in the treatment of hepatitis, guided by the two main principles in Chinese medicine for "increasing bile secretion to enhance detoxification," and "promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis." The research team is exploring the effectiveness of Chinese herbs in treating hepatitis, and conducting scientific analysis of the traditional medical prescriptions.

(4) Toxicity of Chinese Medicines
The Centre is conducting in-depth research into the toxicity of Chinese medicines. Coverage of the research include authentication, quality control of processing techniques, and identification and toxicological study of toxic components. The Centre has compiled a book entitled An Atlas of the Potent Herbs Common in Hong Kong in collaboration with
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing. Recently, with the support of the Croucher Foundation, the Centre has proceeded to estab-lish "The Computer Database on Toxicity and Adverse Effects�P of Chinese Foods and Chinese Medicines." This work will be helpful in providing more protection to average citizens.
(5) Ginseng
There has always been a marked lack of scientific research on the efficacy and pharmaceutical components of ginseng. Some medical professionals in the West even hold that ginseng is just a placebo, without any medical efficacy. In order to clarify such misconceptions, the Centre has conducted several studies on the components and func-tions of ginseng, including a comparative study on the saponin contents in different types of ginseng. Research projects sponsored by the Korean Ginseng Centre, Hong Kong Consumer Council, and Ginseng Board of Wisconsin involved analyzing commercial ginseng and gin-seng teas to determine their ginsenoside contents and authenticity. Sponsored by Pharmaton, a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland, a systematic research has been conducted on the effects of ginseng on immunity, on neurotransmitter metabolism, and on cellular respiration. All these studies have already yielded results.

(6) Tissue Culture of Medicinal Plants
In order to develop new sources of medicinal materials, the Centre has conducted studies on plant tissue cultures of ginseng, Salvia miltior-rhiza, Gynura divaricata, Momordica cochinchinensis, Trichosanthes cucumeroides and Gardenia jasminoides, and succeeded in inducing callus formation and subsequent differentiation of such tissues.
Other than these basic and special studies, there are also studies in progress on Chinese medical works and medical sociology. Special mention should also be made of the "Vasoactive Agents and Sedative Agents" research project, conducted from 1985 to 1992. This large-scale project was funded by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. It was launched in 1985 and completed in March 1992. Below is a brief description of the results:



(I) Sedative Agents
The sedative agent studied in this project was the compound "miltirone" isolated from the Chinese herb Salvia miltiorrhiza. The function of this drug is similar to the popular "valium" in W estem medicine, as both are oral sedatives. However, the chemical compositions of the two are totally different, and "miltirone" was found to be non-addictive. Twenty-two related compounds have been synthesized by the research team and a comparison between their chemical structures and therapeutic activities has been made.
The Chinese University signed an agreement of cooperation with Abbott Laboratory of the United States in 1989 for promoting research and development of this non-addictive sedative. Although it is still uncertain if this drug will reach the market, the Centre has successfully completed the necessary activities funded in this programme.
(2) Vasoactive Agents
The research team has isolated various compounds showing therapeutic effects for coronary heart disease from Chinese medicinal materials like Leonurus artemisia, Angelica sinensis, Salvia miltiorrhiza and Crataegus pinnatifida. It has also confirmed the therapeutic functions of hawthorn for lowering blood cholesterol. (Report of the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre, March 1992) Should studies in this respect continue to progress, the treatment of coronary heart dis-eases will benefit enormously.

(3) Scientific Methods in the Study of Chinese Medicines
The Centre designs and organizes its research based on clinical ex -periences accumulated over a very long time by Chinese herbal prac-titioners and aims to verify the actual therapeutic values of traditional herbal medicine through scientific evaluation. Since 1980, with the establishment of a database in collaboration with IBM, comprehensive information became readily available. As a result, specific herbs have been selected on the basis of a large number of clinical reports and the sources of herbs have been strictly controlled to ensure repeatable experimental results. Research personnel use high-sensitivity radio-receptors to screen the compositions of the herb being studied. The
presence of bioactivity is tested at the cell level or the molecule level, in
addition to the organismic level, in order to prove that the herb is not
just exerting a placebo effect. When the effective components have been
obtained, modern instruments are used to determine their chemical
structure. Attempts would be made to synthesize the active compounds,
in order to obtain large quantities of purified components for experi-
ments with animals. After achieving the initial results, further studies
are conducted by pharmacologists, aiming at the possibility of develop-
ing new drugs. The expenses required for this research in its later stages
were, and are, enormous, and so cooperation with foreign pharmaceuti-
cal companies is necessary.
The multi-disciplinary research methods mentioned above are suffi-
cient to separate myth from fact in Chinese medicine. This not only
establishes scientific knowledge about Chinese medicine, but also con-
tributes to the advancement of the entire field of medicine.
In summation; the utilization of scientific instruments and methods
by the Centre in establishing a body of scientific knowledge about
Chinese traditional medicine does not only have practical value, but also
objectively determines the status of Chinese medicine. The work of the
Centre is one of the highest achievements in fulfilling one of the guiding
principles of The Chinese University -the synthesis of Chinese and
Western cultures.
International Collaborations and International Conferences
The Centre has always been in collaboration in its research activities
with scientific and medical experts from mainland China, Taiwan,
Japan, South Korea and other countries, and has kept close contact with
European and American pharmaceutical companies. It maintains good
collaborative relationships with China and other countries in the ex-
change of information, sharing instruments and organizing clinical and
laboratory studies.
The Centre sponsored an "International Symposium on Chinese Medicinal Material Research" at the Hong Kong Regal Meridien Hotel in June of 1984, an event which more than three hundred Chinese and foreign Chinese medicine research experts attended. In September 1992, the Centre co-sponsored the "Symposium on Research in Chinese , Medicine" with the National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine in
Taipei, at The Chinese University. About a hundred experts participated in the symposium. It marked the first grand gathering held specifically for Chinese medicine researchers from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. These conferences were of high significance in accelerat-ing the modernization of Chinese medicine, promoting the study of Chinese medicine worldwide, and encouraging collaborations among scholars in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Furthermore, two open forums on Chinese medicine were held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in June 1991. In the forums on "Present Status and Prospects of Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong," reports were delivered by profes-sionals including Hong Kong government officials, members of the Legislative and Executive Councils,, representatives from academic circles, and Chinese medicine experts.
External Services
In 1990, the Centre began to establish the Service Development Unit, responsible for improving the technologies and instruments of the Centre, and providing external consultations and services. Within the following three years, clients served by the Unit included government departments, industrial and business units, medical and nursing profes-sionals and individual citizens. Services have also been extended to overseas clients in the medical field.


Research and Teaching in Faculties and Departments in Relation to Cultural Synthesis
Aside from concrete achievements obtained by the Centre of Chinese Studies and the Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre in the area of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, there have been a number of research projects of other departments and faculties through their own long-term efforts involving this field.
To facilitate synthesizing Chinese and Western cultures, the University logically demonstrates its efforts in the teaching and cur-riculum development of the various departments and faculties other than the activities of special organizations mentioned above. But the history of The Chinese University is unique, because each of the
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Foundation Colleges has its own predetermined direction and cur-riculum design. Although The Chinese University has adopted a certain position on the issue of Chinese and Western cultures, this position has not always been directly reflected in curricula. After converting from a federal to an integrated system, the curricula started to become stand-ardized. But in the study of Chinese and Western cultures, there is still a lack of "common principle" to be adhered to by the faculties and departments. Sorting out the data in detail over the years, we could probably discover all the changes, developments and recommendations concerning this issue, but that is beyond the scope of this chapter. This section will only give a brief description of the research activities of the faculties and departments that are obviously related to issues embracing Chinese and Western cultures.
(1) Ph.D. Programme in Chinese Studies
The Chinese University established the Graduate School in 1966 to undertake research training leading to master's degrees, in its initial period, and later advancing to doctoral degree programmes in 1980. The first two programmes established were doctoral degrees in Chinese Studies and Electronics. The Ph.D. programme in Chinese Studies had three divisions: Chinese Language, Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy. Representatives were nominated by the Departments of Chinese, History and Philosophy to form the Academic Board of Chinese Studies. The Philosophy division put more emphasis on the comparative study of Chinese and Western philosophy. Thus although the name "Chinese philosophy" was used, in reality issues in both Chinese and Western philosophy were being studied. Theses submitted by the students generally exhibited a broad knowledge of philosophies of the world, and the ability to handle ideological issues in Chinese philosophy from wide perspectives. This can be regarded as a concrete example of the work in synthesizing Chinese and Western cultures.
The Ph.D. programme in Chinese Studies was later replaced by the establishment of three Ph.D. programmes separately run by the divisions of Chinese Language and Literature, History and Philosophy. Despite the restructuring, the general direction of research remained the same for all these Ph.D. programmes.
(2) General Education Programme
In the previous section describing the historical backgrounds of the Colleges, the reform of general education in Chung Chi College was mentioned. In fact, this reform in Chung Chi aimed at the passive correction of the tendency to excessive emphasis on formal instruction and literacy; but actively, it enhanced the understanding of Chinese culture and modem Western thought. In the integrating and blending of Chinese and Western cultures, the influence of this programme cannot be ignored.
"The Essentials of Chinese Culture," was made a required course for all the students of Chung Chi, and so had widespread influence. This course was retained even after the University gradually took over the coordination of all general education courses. Since The Chinese University assumed certain obligations in the study and development of Chinese culture, retaining this kind of general education programme was one way of maintaining the educational objectives it had set out. Changes in the programme occurred frequently after the University took over planning general education. Under the current system, first-year students must select one subject within the scope of Chinese culture, an indication that the emphasis on Chinese culture has been retained in principle.
Chung Chi also originally offered a third-year course of readings in selected important Western writings. Under the new�P system of the Chinese University, courses like Methodology, Contemporary Western Thought and Philosophy of Social Studies are offered to provide basic knowledge of Western culture. These courses are intended to go side by side with Chinese culture courses so as to tally with the University's aim of placing equal importance on the promotion of both Chinese and Western culture.

(3) Related Programmes in Other Departments and Faculties
To meet its aim of synthesizing Chinese and Western cultures, The Chinese University has also caused various levels of coordination to be made in the programmes of the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Science and other departments and faculties. Details can be obtained
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
from the annual calendars of the University, and only some of the main points are mentioned here.
In the Arts Programme, the three Colleges did not have courses on the comparative study of Chinese and Western culture before the estab-lishment of The Chinese University. After establishing the Institute of Chinese Studies, the University also set up the Comparative Literature and Translation Centre to promote this kind of study, a brief introduc-tion of which has been made. Following the efforts of the Institute of Chinese Studies in promoting comparative studies in Chinese and Western literature, the English Department set up a course on "Special Topics in the Comparison of Eastern and Western Literature," to pro-vide basic training for its students. In the Graduate School, the course "Comparative Literature" has become a part of the scope of study in the English Language Division for promoting communication between Chinese and Western literary concepts. Many papers have been publish-ed by teachers and students over the years.
The balance in study of Chinese and Western art is among the basic considerations in the design of curricula for the Department of Fine Arts .. The introduction of courses like History of Chinese Art and History of Western Art among the basic courses aims at bringing about such a balance. Students may then be able to absorb the traits of Western art and make cross reference while they acquire a knowledge of Chinese art. A comprehensive and solid foundation can then be built, and a broad overview can be developed.
By considering the balance between Chinese and World history, the History Department is training students to study national and foreign history from a comparative research perspective, so that a balanced and comprehensive understanding of the history of the human race can be obtained. Curricula of the department include General Dynastic History, Regional History, National History, and other in-depth special topic history courses. Dynastic History courses number more than a dozen ranging from ancient to modern times; while regional and other national histories include the history of Japan, the United States, Germany and Hong Kong. The department has been encouraging students to conduct their study from different perspectives in various topics such as Chinese History, World History, and History of Chinese and Foreign Relations. Many brilliant papers have been produced and a number of the papers have received sponsorship for publication.
Equal emphasis on academic theories and practical applications have been built into the curricula of the Music Department. Students must take courses on Chinese and Western music such as History of Western Music, Chinese Instrumental Playing and Introduction to Chinese Music. Students also have to play two musical instruments in addition to these courses.
In the Department of Philosophy, equal emphasis had already been placed on both the Chinese and Western philosophies in its original curricula in the Colleges. Basic training has been particularly stressed in the curriculum of the Philosophy Department after implementation of the integrated system by the University. In addition to the offering of History of Western Philosophy and History of Chinese Philosophy as required courses in the second year, there are Special Topics: Chinese Philosophy and Special Topics: Western Philosophy in the third year, and Seminar on Chinese Philosophers and Seminar on Western Philosophers in the fourth year. In the Graduate School, Study of Com-parative Philosophy is also included in the scope of studies in the Philosophy Division. Generally speaking, the Philosophy Department attaches more importance to the study of traditional Chinese culture than the other departments, and it also maintains high standards in the teaching and study of Western philosophy in recent and modern times. Since the 1980s, although students theses have shown a tendency to emphasize Western philosophy, most have managed to cover the in-tegration and comparison of concepts of Chinese and Western prin-ciples. Techniques in modern Western philosophy are often employed in writings on Chinese philosophy. It is only natural that greater em-phases have been placed on the issue of synthesizing Chinese and Western culture, as this has always been the common concern of people in the field of philosophy.
Furthermore, in tutorials set up in the Philosophy Department under the "student-orientated" plan of education, philosophical issues in life constitute the general scope, guiding the students to apply philosophical principles in actual life. Such discussions adopt both Chinese and Western concepts of value and modes of thinking. This can be viewed as practical work in synthesizing Chinese and Western cultures.
In the curricula of the various departments under the Faculty of Social Science, courses related to Chinese cultural systems have also been offered. Examples include Chinese Culture and Society in the
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
Anthropology Department; Government and Politics of China, and In-
troduction to Chinese Law in the Dep.ment of Government and Public
Administration; Communication Patterns in Chinese Society in the
Department of Journalism and Communication, (which also emphasizes
the training of Chinese and English news editing and report writing);
and Chinese Society, and Development of Chinese Social Thought in
the Department of Sociology. Generally speaking, all these courses are
in conformity with the aim of emphasizing both Chinese and Western
cultures.
The above accounts illustrate some important facts regarding the
synthesis of Chinese and Western culture in the curricula of the various
faculties of The Chinese University. Aside from these, other depart-
ments also have similar curricula and research plans, an exhaustive list
of which is quite impossible to give here.
The Chinese University has been persistent in its efforts to integrate . Chinese and Western culture in both research and instruction since its
inception. Amongst its efforts, the achievements in the work of the
Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre and the Institute of
Chinese Studies are prominent. Yet the long-term teaching plans
adopted for general education by the various departments also have
profound influence on the students. A brief analysis will be given in the
conclusion section on the weaknesses of, and desirable improvements
for, the work in this area.







Reviews and Looking Ahead
Thirty years have passed since The Chinese University was officially established in 1963. During this period, the society of Hong Kong has experienced dramatic changes. As Hong Kong is now facing the prob-lem of the turnover of sovereignty in 1997, the lifestyles and attitudes of its people are all undergoing great adjustments. The issue of cultural synthesis naturally involves long-term effort, but concrete steps are inevitably restrained in length and breath by historical and social fac-tors. While reviewing the work of The Chinese University over the past thirty years, its record should be understood in terms of these cir-cumstantial factors, and the possible direction of its future development should also be considered from this angle.
The Chinese University laid its foundation with the amalgamation of three Colleges, and had to overcome the traditional differences of the Colleges to form a common ideal representing the University. These twin demands exerted great influence on the various operations of the University, and the efforts in the area of cultural synthesis were no exception.
As mentioned at the beginning of this section, the three Colleges that initially constituted The Chinese University all had their inherent characteristics, and each had its own particular bias in cultural con-sciousness. The University stressed the equal importance of both Chinese and Western culture, while at the same time having to reconcile conflicts in order to promote positive development. Taking an extensive assessment of the efforts of The Chinese University over the last thirty years, it is not difficult to judge the success and failure of the University in its implementation of this guiding principle and method.
Let us first look at the positive results. In the areas of instruction and research, The Chinese University has actually been able to eliminate some of the traditional deviations of the Colleges, and has at the same time achieved concrete results in the work of integration. For instance, New Asia used to place emphasis on Chinese in its language training, and had comparatively lower demands in English and other languages for the students, while Chung Chi attached more importance to the English language. After implementing the integrat!:!d system, the University struck a balance between Chinese and English in its language training programmes. Such programmes today are becoming more balanced. The scope of the teachers' publications and students' readings and discussions have obviously expanded, and they are in close coor-dination with modern trends of thought and academic developments all over the world. Even in the study of Chinese traditional culture, modern academic achievements have more or less been utilized without clinging to established practices of the past. It should be concluded that the guiding principle of the University in placing equal emphasis on both Chinese and Western culture while striving for synthesis, has been at least partially realized.
However, the biggest weakness lies in the lessening of idealism in the trends created by The Chinese University in the area of cultural synthesis. Hong Kong society has an inherent tendency towards utilitarianism and The Chinese University has failed to reiterate the
Chinese Studies and Cultural Integration
cultural ideals in its aims, and its teaching and research have therefore never been able to fulfil the function ofleading society. The relationship between the cultural synthesis and the currents of thought in society is intimate and as discussed before, the University has achieved a certain success in academic studies and exploration of new knowledge. Yet nothing has been achieved in terms of direct impact or guidance of Hong Kong society.
If The Chinese University is indeed committed to the cultural mis-sions as proclaimed by its founders, playing a more stimulating and guiding role in society must be viewed as an area that needs attention and renewed effort.
Finally, while looking ahead to the future, the basic position and aims of The Chinese University on the issue of the synthesis of Chinese and W estem cultures need not be changed, even after the turnover of sovereignty in Hong Kong. But new targets and focal points will have to be set with the change of circumstances. For instance, in understanding Chinese traditional culture, many views distorting history have been prevalent since the Cultural Revolution period in mainland China. This situation calls for certain efforts of clarification on an objective basis. Chinese intellectuals certainly should assume some responsibility for this issue. Since The Chinese University has inaugurated certain under-takings in promoting Chinese culture, it should be prepared for more active participation in such efforts.
Moreover, The Chinese University is an institution stressing the equal importance of both Chinese and Western cultures, and has consis-tently attached importance to assimilating the strengths of modem W estem culture. While the modernization movement is at its initial stage in China, and the return of Hong Kong to China is imminent within a few years, The Chinese University has the responsibility of providing impetus to this movement. In fact, The Chinese University has already attained some initial successes in its synthesis of Chinese and Western cultures. It follows that the University has to share this responsibility as a matter of course. At this new historical juncture, the University must devise new working plans to fulfil its historical mis-sion.
In conclusion, The Chinese University is a university of the Chinese people, and should therefore become a leading institution in the development of Chinese culture. This fundamental point should be
prevalent in all future activities of the University, and it should also 'be the main direction of the work of synthesizing Chinese and Western culture.

5


Moving with the Times: the University and Hong Kong
Chong Chor LAU

A symposium on technological cooperation among Hong Kong, Shenzhen and the mainland, 1990
Background: Hong Kong Island
I. Framework
On account of the closely interlacing relations between The Chinese University and Hong Kong society, it would require a book to provide a full and analytical study of their relationship. For a short description in a chapter, there is, perhaps, a need for a theoretical framework, serving as a guide for the selection of facts.
The Chinese University was already very complex at its inception. This was due mostly to its federal system comprising three Foundation Colleges. Today, after having developed for over thirty years, the University has become larger and more complex. There are, generally speaking, three ways in which to analyze such a complex system. The first is to study the University's "analytical properties," such as its socio-economic composition (an aristocratic academy or a university for the masses); ideology (conservative or liberal); values (religious, liberal arts or professional-oriented) and so on. The second is to study the University's "global properties," its curriculum, educational mis-sion, deployment of resources and public image. The third is to study the University's "structural properties" such as authority relationship (democratic or autocratic), teacher-student relationship (intimate or remote) and "campus climate" (whether there is a campus culture con-ducive to learning). Within this analytical framework, the second part, the global factor, is the main theme of this chapter. The changes in the structure and constitution of the University have been discussed by other authors in this book. This chapter aims at discussing the analytical attributes affecting the relationship between The Chinese University and Hong Kong, focusing on a study of the impact of the University on society, with its ambitions, values, programmes and research projects, as well as its adaptation to, and contribution to, Hong Kong society following a series ofrnpid changes over a period of thirty years.
The global properties of an organization are not based on the char-acteristics of its members, nor do they have anything to do with relation-ships among the members. For instance, the educational aims and ambitions of the University would not necessarily be accepted by some individual teachers and might differ from the objectives of certain students. For this reason, the choice of framework has inevitably ruled out a number of facts which are not included in this discussion. Moreover, despite the myriad changes in Hong Kong over these thirty
Moving with the Times
years, the research strategy of this chapter is to take The Chinese University as the main theme. Its main adaptive functions will be djscussed while those changes that do not concern these functions will not be included. Lastly, although the University is not different from other organizations in depending on the resources of society, it is at the same time constrained by society. A university has to adapt to environ-mental pressures and to comply with changing times while maintaining its inherent mission. In this sense a university is not simply an organiza-tion, but rather a unique institution. This special feature has been high-lighted by Edward Shils, an American sociologist. On the relationship between the University of Chicago and the City of Chicago, he writes:
It is imperative that they attend to local affairs, but they would not amount to much as universities if they attended largely to them. Universities are intellectual institutions, and intellectual activities have their objects everywhere in the world and beyond the world of time and space. A university which taught only about local�P phenomena, which did research only on local phenomena, and which did not transcend the vague but real boundaries of locality would not be a respectable university. ("The University, the City, and the World: Chicago and the University of Chicago," in The University and the City: From Medieval Origins to the Present, edited by Thomas Blender, 1988, p. 211)
In other words, the major contribution The Chinese University could possibly make to Hong Kong is to fulfil its own educational missions and become one of the noted universities in the world. That this chapter tends to devote itself to the description to local affairs does not mean that the author is not clear about the characteristics of a university system as mentioned above. Rather, other writers have men-tioned these basic responsibilities of the University in other chapters, and so only the roles played by The Chinese University in society need to be discussed in the chapter as a special topic.
To have a clear understanding of the University's contributions to society, one should know the societal needs. While societal needs are continually changing, a university should keep abreast with the times, and continuously integrate, innovate, and develop to satisfy the needs of society and even to anticipate what these needs are.
Integration is to readjust the structure to better fulfil the collective goals of an organization. Innovation is to establish a system to bring the
power of a university to its fullest. Development is to enable the Univer-sity to play its role in the development of society on the foundation of an intact structure and a perfect system with the utmost effectiveness and efficiency in regard to both quality and quantity.
The following paragraphs comprise the central themes of this chap-ter on the history of The Chinese University over thirty years, with the purpose of indicating the main trends and characteristics of develop-ment at different stages. A period of ten years has been assigned to each, for convenience of description and with the aim of highlighting the different stages of Hong Kong society in the past three decades, i.e. the social integration era from 1963 to 1973; the social innovation era from 1973 to 1983 and the social development era from 1983 to 1993. Such a division is of course theoretical since history does not have such distinct divisions. The above three models serving as the characteristics of mutual development between The Chinese University and Hong Kong (in terms of structure and society) will, it is hoped, be of help to us in clarifying the nature of the relationship between the two.
Located in Hong Kong, CUHK has developed as a societal laboratory at the crossroad of Chinese and Western cultures. To make full use of this advantage, the University has from its very beginning made the following special objectives, the mission of the University: "A deepened understanding of Chinese learning and culture as well as a mastery of western empirical methods and scientific knowledge"; "Bilingualism is therefore a fundamental functional requirement"; "to produce young men and women who can function effectively in the interface of these great cultures." (A New Era Begins 1975-1978, 1978,
p. 12) As a writer on organization history, one should not only assess objectively the roles played by The Chinese University in Hong Kong society, but also be able to examine how far it has gone towards this self-prescribed objective, in regard to other aspects, such as curriculum and research. Certain studies have been selected in this chapter as a yardstick of assessment because they are more suitable to this purpose. It does not mean that other studies are not of an academic nature or are of no importance at all.
II. Background
The Chinese University of Hong Kong was formally established with
Moving with the Times
legal standing on 17 October 1963. The idea of setting up a new university using Chinese as the principal medium of instruction ap-peared earlier than this when the Hong Kong government announced, in June 1959, its intention of putting such a plan into effect. An under-standing of Hong Kong society prior to the establishment of the Univer-sity will help us to understand the role played by the University in society.
Dramatic changes had taken place in the society of Hong �PKong from the end of World War II up to the establishment of The Chinese University in 1963. The figures in Table 1 are indicative of their direct bearing on university education. These changes over a span of eighteen years will be described briefly in the following paragraphs:
Table 1. Hong Kong Society Prior to the Establishment of The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Social Indicators 1945 1950 1953 1958 1963
1. Population at mid-600 2,237 2,242 2,854 3,504 year (in thousands)
2. Secondary school 26,298 41,977 61,325 131,055 student population University student 715 938 1,126 1,751(1) population
Per capita GDP (in $) 1,216 1,496(2) 1,939(3) 2,337 5. Total exports 3,716 2,734 3,278 4,991 (in million $) 6. Government revenue 292 397 665 1,394 (in million $)
Notes: 1. from 1962 to 1963; 2. in 1955; 3. in 1960.
Sources: Items 1 to 3: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Statistics, 1969, pp. 40, 84 and 186. Items 4 to 6: Tzong-biau Lin, Rance P.L. Lee, and Udo-Ernst Simons (eds.}, Hong Kong: Economic, Social and Political Studies in Oevelop-ment(New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1979), pp. 389-90.
A. Rapid Increase in Population
The population increased from 600,000 in 1945 to 3.5 million in 1963. Using 1946 with a population of 1.5 million, as the base for calculation, there was an increase of two million people, representing a growth rate of 126%, composed mainly of immigrants.

B. Industrialization
The mass influx of population brought with it capital and human re-sources. Hong Kong headed towards industrialization in the fifties. In 1950, factory workers numbered only 82,000, representing 3.7% of 'the total population. In 1960, the number had increased to 216,000, raising the percentage to 7%. The total value of exports amounted to $2.87 billion. The industrial system of exporting manufactured goods had begun to take shape in Hong Kong.

C. Living Standards
The average income per capita rose rapidly during the fifties. In 1963. the average national income was almost double that of 1949.

D. Government Role
The government's role had become more and more important with the increase in population and changes in economic structure. The national income grew 2.3 times to $10 billion during the fifteen years from 1950. Government revenue (as well as its expenditure) increased 4.6 fold to $1.63 billion.

E. Education Structure
Since the fifties, the Hong Kong education structure became more and more unbalanced. Between 1950 and 1963, the number of secondary school students increased the fastest, with a growth rate of 400%. University education could not keep pace with the changes of the time, since during the period from 1950 to 1962, university student population only increased by 145%. It was not until the academic year 1963-1964 when The Chinese University was established that the number of university students increased to 3,324, representing an increase of 465% over the number in 1950. A balance was then achieved on the education structure.
There may be quite a number of reasons for the setting up of a new university. The above mentioned changes in population, economic, social and political structure are only viewed in a relatively macroscopic
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sense. Even from this broad overview, we can see that The Chinese University has taken on a heavy responsibility and has a long way to go.


Ill. Integration
In the academic year 1963, The Chinese University was formed with three Foundation Colleges, 16 Boards of Studies, one Interdisciplinary Committee on Foreign Languages (French, German, Japanese and Italian) and a total student enrolment of 1,395.
The major challenge the University faced at that time was the development of structure. Notwithstanding that the University was formed through the amalgamation of three colleges, it lost no time in coordinating the three areas of teaching staff, instruction, and research activities in order to achieve the pledged aims of the University to integrate Chinese and Western cultures and to reach international academic standards. A brief description is given in the following para-graphs on the direction of efforts exerted by the University in the sixties.
A. Staff Development Programme
To achieve the mission of the University in serving as a cultural bridge between East and West, the University launched a policy to improve the quality of its staff, which proved to have a profound positive effect. Funds had already been granted to staff for further study abroad prior to the establishment of the programme in 1965. From 1963 to 1969, there were a total of 89 staff members receiving grants for further study; a quarter of whom took higher degrees. The importance of the programme was obvious, since at that time the full-time staff of the University was just between 100 and 200.

B. Integrated Teaching Method
As soon as the first Vice-Chancellor assumed duty in February 1964, he appointed a committee on teaching methods. The general trend of the entire teaching reform was to bring it in line with that of internation-al universities, and to gradually bring the methods of imparting knowledge up to the standard of other first-class academic institutions.
The integration of teaching methods consisted of the following special features: to overhaul the curriculum in the Foundation Colleges; to increase the number of inter-collegiate courses, and to reduce the teach-ing hours for teachers, so that more time could be used for research. These three measures were complementary and the success of the reform hinged on the second measure, i.e. the offering of inter-collegiate courses. Throughout the sixties, the University's student population each year was a little under 2,100 and the student enrolment in each of the three Colleges did not exceed 700. Each college had its own independent departments and the average number of students ad-mitted to each college department over the four years was 50. Therefore, in each academic year, there were about 12 to 13 students admitted to each college department. It was thus difficult to make use of resources efficiently even if all the courses were common courses. In the case where all courses became inter-collegiate (for students of all three Colleges), though the student number might still not exceed 40, efficien-cy would be greatly increased and teachers might then be able to reduce their teaching time and increase their research time. In the academic year 1964, there were only seven inter-collegiate courses. In 1969, the number had increased to 91, with the number of students taking these courses reaching 3,845.
C. Setting up Research Institutes
A period of 800 years has passed since the emergence of universities in the West. However, drastic changes in the idea of a university only took place less than a century ago. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a brand new idea of a university took shape in Germany. It was thought that "the function of a university is not just to provide liberal arts educa-tion, but also to promote knowledge. An ideal university should be a 'research centre' and the promotion of knowledge should adopt an ex-perimental method. This scientific method of doing research should not be confined only to the exploration of natural science but also to the understanding of the humanities." (See Ambrose Y. C. King, The Idea of a University, Taipei, 1983, p. 29). This idea had a great impact on univer-sities in Britain and the United States, particularly on the latter where only a research university would qualify as a first class university.
The educational mission of The Chinese University made the
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function of research a necessity. Without in-depth research, nothing could be achieved in "deepening the understanding of Chinese learning and culture as well as a mastery of Western empirical methods and scientific knowledge." To fulfil this educational ideal, the University set up, in 1964, the Institute of Social Studies, and the Institute of Science and Technology. At first, the chief functions of the institutes were to encourage and support the research activities of the staff. With the establishment of research centres, the institutes have become coordinat-ing organizations.
Before going into detail on the concrete work of research centres, we shall study Hong .ong society in the mid-and late sixties and the early seventies. An understanding of the societal changes and the needs thus produced may lead to an understanding of the work of the various research programmes. The intimate relationship between The Chinese University and Hong Kong society may thus be seen more clearly.
Table 2 shows a picture of the society of Hong Kong during the ten
Table 2. Hong Kong and The Chinese University 1963-1973
I. Hong Kong Social Indicators 1963 1968 1973
1. Population (in thousands) 3,504 3,803 4,160
2. Factory workers (in thousands) 277 472 626
Total exports (in million$) 4,991 10,570 25,999
4. GDP per capita (in $) 2,337 3,514 7,388 5. Government revenue 1,394 2,081 5,241 (in million $)
6. Industrial conflict 73,400 13,900 47,100 (work days lost)
Crime rate (per 100,000) 397 446 944
II. Chinese University Indicators
8.
Number of students 1,395(1) 2, 139(4) 3,13y(5)

9.
Number of full-time staff 135(2) 202 �P 255

10.
Number of EMSD students 4,717(3) 9,771 18,778


Notes: 1. Undergraduate students in 1963-64; 2. November 1964; 3. The academic year 1965-66; 4. The academic year 1968-69 (including undergraduate, research and part-time students); 5. The academic year 1973-74 (including undergraduate, research and part-time students).
Sources: 1. Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Statistics, 1947-1967,
p. 48; Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, 1978, p. 39; Hong Kong Social and Economic Trends, 1975, p. 30 and 1981, p. 105.
2.
Hong Kong Report, 1963, 1964 and 1969.

3.
Labour Department, Annual Reports.


years after 1963. The societal changes fall into the following main categories:
1.
The changes now were different from those of the previous ten or so years which had been brought about by a large influx of population. From 1963, the increases in population had be-come more steady. Societal changes stemmed from drastic changes in economic and occupational structures. These ten years could be described as an era of industrialization, propelled by exports. During these ten years, the population increased only 18%, while the number of factory workers more than doubled, exceeding 600,000, representing 40% of the Hong Kong work force. The total value of exports increased more than four times during this period. Social problems resulting from rapid industrialization had surfaced one by one, so that an objective scientific research project targeting these problems was very urgent.

2.
The structures of society, in many respects, underwent radical changes. Factories were set up in large numbers, many of them quite extensive. Labour relations had also experienced basic changes. The riots in 1967 were but an indicator of these problems, showing that society had not been able to redress the problems. The government administrative system was in very poor shape and the tensions between the government and the people heightened day by day in this city of three to four million. The five big problems haunting the government, namely labour, medical care, housing, education and hawkers were all the result of urbanization and industrialization.

3.
The Hong Kong economy grew by leaps and bounds in the sixties. The years 1963-1973, were eight years in which the annual growth rate well exceeded 9%. The consistent and long term growth in the economy resulted in a 316% increase in the average national product. Other consequences were more difficult to judge. For example, what changes had the structure of the manufacturing industry, considered the locomotive for economic expansion, undergone? Since trade has been closely connected with the welfare of Hong Kong, the structure of Hong Kong trade, the relationship between export and


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employment, as well as the characteristics of the export market, should all be put under scrutiny.
4. Factors altering the direction of politics, culture and policies in Hong Kong include the constant strengthened roles played by the government in society, industrialization and urbanization, drastic changes in social and economic structure, the rise of status of foreign trade, the presence of protectionism, and, in particular, the large scale social movements in 1966 and 1967. The government revenue increased by 378% over a span of ten years, higher than the growth rate of the average national products. An author has rightly pointed out that Hong Kong had entered an era of rising social investment. (Catherine Jones, Promoting Prosperity: The Hong Kong Way of Social Policy, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 209). However, the implementa-tion of a social investment policy should be taken more cautiously than business investment behaviour since the former could influence the pattern of distribution of benefits among all the strata in society.
The various drastic social changes mentioned above brought about turmoil in Hong Kong in the late sixties. Even though The Chinese University had been founded just a few years ago, it could not take its time to wait for the integration of its internal structure. Several research centres and other academic departments were established to carry out Hong Kong studies in various directions. These were the Economic Research Centre and the Mass Communications Centre in 1965; the Geographical Research Centre and the Social Research Centre in 1966; and the Centre for East Asian Studies and the Centre for Translation Projects in 1971. A brief comment will be made in the following paragraphs on the three areas of study in economic development, social structure and social policy to show part of the efforts scholars of this University had made during this period in understanding Hong Kong society.
a. Economic research
Before the establishment of the Economic Research Centre in April, 1965, the United States Department of Agriculture had already ap-pointed economists in the University to study and assess the agricultural
self-sufficiency of Hong Kong. This was a long term project. Research workers needed to understand the growth of population in Hong Kong, its national income, and long-term trends in local development. During the same period, other research projects had been carried out. These included:
i. Export and Employment -A Case Study of Hong Kong.
ii. A Study of the Chinese Strategy for Technological Transfor-mation in Agriculture, 1970-75.
iii. China's Model of Development: A Sectorial Linkage Analysis.
In the seventies, among the projects which could be compared in scale with that of the United States Department of Agriculture was the "Econometric Model for the Hong Kong Economy." This was a part of an international effort to study the world's economy using models for developed countries, developing countries or regions, as well as socialist nations. Thereafter, important data was provided to Hong Kong society through the use of the forecasting models.
Other projects closely related to the development of Hong Kong were the following:
iv. Hong Kong Management Styles-Chinese and Western Ways in Conflict Management.
This was a demonstration project for applying Western theories to Hong Kong society undertaken by the University in conjunction with the Hong Kong Management Association.
v.' A Study of Small-Scale Factories.
This was a part of Kwun Tong Studies, involving a study of all small factories in Hong Kong. It was of great help to understand the major role of industrialization in Hong Kong. It also started the University's studies on Hong Kong's enterpri_ses in later periods.
The University economists have since, from the sixties, completed a large number of research projects on Hong Kong' s economy. Many of the findings have been published by the Centre in monographs, books and journals.
b. Social research
Once the Social Research Centre was established in 1966 in the
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University, it received grants from the Hong Kong Government Lot-teries Fund, the Department of Social Welfare and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service to carry out a rriajor study on Hong Kong urban family life. The findings of the research became references for analyzing the welfare needs of the city which was undergoing in-dustrialization and urbanization. Under a grant from the Ford Founda-tion, the research was later extended to cover Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok, Singapore and Malaysia in the Urban Family Life Study. It was the forerunner of international cooperation in a research project among the developing countries.
The largest study the Centre had so far carried out was the K wun Tong Studies. This project involved almost all scholars in the Faculty of Social Science who made an interdisciplinary study of this industrial community. In-depth studies were taken and special topics reports were released on the community's industrial organization, politics and cul-ture, family structure, birth behaviour, urban and rural relationship, life quality, public housing facilities, medicine and health, religious customs and cultural patterns. Almost one hundred research monographs have since been published. No wonder Professor C. K. Yang, a noted sociologist, pointed out in the preface to the book reporting the findings of Kwun Tong Studies that "The major goal of establishing the Social Research Centre is to transplant social science into the soil of the East. Kwun Tong Studies is undoubtedly moving a huge step towards this goal." (See C. K. Yang, "Introduction," in Social Life and Development in Hong Kong, edited by A. King and R. Lee, Hong Kong, 1981, p. xxv)
In its early stages, the Social Research Centre undertook a study on a rural research programme. In the mid-seventies, the Centre conducted a long-term research programme regarding the "Communes and the Economic Development in Chinese Society." A lot of the findings of this project have become teaching materials in the Chinese Society course of the University.
In the late seventies, another project undertaken was the "Study of Bureaucratic Behaviour in Hong Kong." It was also an interdisciplinary project financed by the Canadian International Development Centre. The project was extended to cover eight regions in Southeast Asia. It helped make The Chinese University the centre of academic coopera-tion within these regions, in addition to strengthening the relationship between the University and Hong Kong. Special reports of this study
were published by The Chinese University Press in 1981. (See Corrup-tion and Its Control in Hong Kong, edited by Rance Lee, Hong Kong, 1981)
c. Policy research
Data relating to policy research has been provided by scholars at the University to Hong Kong policy-makers. Examples include:
i. A study on hawkers The rapid increase in population, with hawkers peddling everywhere, had brought about problems in urban management as well as conflicts between government officials and the public. The study was coordinated by the Social Research Centre and included the following topics: the hawkers' families, their consumption behaviour, education, temporal variation of the hawking population, moving patterns, medical behaviour, their life history, organizational pattern and com-munication and information network among the hawkers, as well as an analysis of their culture. Such a comprehensive and in-depth study had provided a foundation of sufficient knowledge for the Hong Kong government to determine its policy on hawkers.
ii. An in-depth investigation study on the "Social Factors of Violent Offences among Adolescents in Hong Kong," with the assistance of various government departments, had helped decision-makers further understand the social factors leading to problems of juvenile delinquency.
iii. A research project on "Socio-Economic Maps of Hong Kong" under the sponsorship of the Geographic Research Centre, was of great help to people responsible for making important decisions in Hong Kong.
There are still many other studies related to Hong Kong conducted by the Mass Communications Centre and the Public Affairs Research Centre. Even the small number of examples indicated above, should be sufficient to prove the abundant repayment made to Hong Kong society by the University staff. In a sense, Hong Kong society is really the "laboratory" of the University.
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IV. Innovation
The year 1973 was the year The Chinese University celebrated its tenth anniversary. The University enjoys a federal system composed of three constituent colleges, the Foundation Colleges. Each of these Colleges has its own historic past and each has its strengths. Against this background, the main objectives of the University have been to create an excellent educational environment through integration and coordination, to blend Chinese and Western cultures, and to make contributions to the international academic world, as well as to Hong Kong society. Undoubtedly this was a very difficult task to attempt. After ten years' effort, The Chinese University had at least achieved the following in facing the challenges of integration.
The first move was the integration of the University campus. The three Colleges were originally situated on the Hong Kong Island, at Kowloon and Shatin, respectively, being five to fifteen miles apart from one another. Other units such as the administration offices, research centres and classrooms were scattered throughout different districts. Within ten years, the University succeeded in bringing all the units together, one by one, to the new site at Shatin, and the University became an entity in terms of space, allowing better coordination and efficiency.
The second step was the change of educational objectives from college education to University education. The main purpose of a liberal arts college is undergraduate teaching. Once The Chinese University had been established, it put equal emphasis on instruction, research and social services. Furthermore, the blending of Chinese and Western cultures and the raising of academic standards up to international levels had also been made the aims of the University. Instruction has not been confined to undergraduate levels but extended to postgraduate educa-tion on an equal footing with noted international institutions. The job of changing educational objectives is a tedious one. What the University achieved in its first ten years was to set up new objectives for both teachers and students so that they could fully realize their ideals.
The third move was the integration of organizational functions. Since the University is an organic organization, it must aim at develop-ment in its entirety, to ensure the full use of manpower and resources. Education can then be reinforced and research carried out. The inter-collegiate courses described above are a very good example in this
respect. The method of sharing instruction among the three Colleges had doubled the effectiveness of resources, while enlarging the scope for discussion, and increasing research activities, had further im-measurably improved the quality of teaching.
Inducing wider ranging changes is enormously difficult, so it is indeed a great achievement of the University.to have accomplished all these three tasks within the short span of ten years. It is no coincidence to find that The Chinese University had performed its teaching and research work so enthusiastically and impressively. By their nature, the above reforms belonged to adjustments of organizational functions, the same as adjusting one's pace to meet new responsibilities. At the begin-ning of the second ten years of the Uni_versity, the numbers of teaching staff and students had more than doubled, while instructional and re-search conditions were fulfilling specific educational goals. After the bitter experience of the unprecedent riots in the late sixties, Hong Kong was undergoing intensive social reforms to meet new situations. As a member of society that was becoming more and more important every day, how could The Chinese University fail to take this opportunity of rebuilding a new structure for further developments?
In retrospect, the mid-seventies was the most important period in the history of the structure of the University. The institutional innova-tion was most observable in the basic changes in organizational struc-ture, affecting almost everything from authority relationship, emotional identity, role systems even to life style. Institutional reforms often influence human affairs. On the other hand, whether reforms are to be successful or not usually depends on the persons in charge. History has revealed that many reforms have hinged for their success on the persons concerned, and that the difference between success and failure is very slim indeed. The following pages sketch something of the charac-teristics of the institutional reforms in The Chinese University.
A. From Functional Integration to Structural Integration
The reforms in The Chinese University from the time of their concep-tion to their implementation covered a period of five years in the mid-seventies. The Working Party on Educational Policy and Univer-sity Structure, set up in early 1974, was responsible for making proposals for a new system concypt. At the end of 1975, the University
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Chancellor appointed the Commission on The Chinese University of Hong Kong which approved the proposals and proceeded to legalize them. The result of its work was the drafting of The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ordinance, 1976. After the dissolution of the above two Committees, the University implemented the proposed new system fully. During the eighties, the University's new structural system took root and laid the foundation for further developments.
To discover the main distinction between the 1963 and 1976 Chinese University Ordinances (both were based on the reports of a committee chaired by Lord Fulton, and were therefore called the first and second Fulton Report) one must look for the key point -the entire structure of the University has been changed from functional integration to structural integration. The second Fulton Report pointed out that:
The situation we have described in respect of the three College Boards seems to us an anomaly in the light of our endorsement of the impor-tance of academic participation in the governance of university institu-tions, since it appears that the Board of Governors/Trustees of the Colleges are given by their constitutions supreme responsibility for the general directio.n of their colleges and in particular are empowered to revoke decisions of their Academic Boards and Councils. It is all the more serious, if, as has been represented to us, the governing bodies of the Colleges are self-perpetuating. Our examination of their constitu-tions suggests to us that there is substance in this criticism. (Report of the Commission on The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Supple-ment of Chinese University Bulletin, March 1976, pp. 7-8)
On 23 December 1976, The Chinese University Ordinance came into effect and the structure of the University was reformed. As a1esult, the Boards of Governors/ Trustees of the three Foundation Colleges were dissolved. In the newly established Boards, the number of trustees from among the teaching staff of the University increased. Thereafter, the Boards and the teaching and administration of the Colleges were completely separated. The administration of the University was there-fore fully integrated.
B. The Implementation of the Principle of "Academic Participation in the Government of the University"
Under the new system, teachers were involved intensively in the
administration of various levels of the University. This adjustment in the role system was very important for the further development of the University. If the University was to be developed into an institute bridging Chinese and Western cultures, and having its academic stand-ards raised to match international levels, both the standard of its instruc-tion and of its research must be heightened. As cited above from the Fulton Report, the original College Boards of Trustees had possessed veto power over the College Councils and the College Boards of Studies, but choices involved in decision-making could never be under-stood by people outside the University. Should this veto power have been allowed to continue, one could not rule out the possibility that further development of the University would have been hampered.
C. From Integration of Courses to Integration of Departments
The inter-collegiate teaching programme was but an integration of courses. Since it was up to the Colleges to continue such a programme, it was only a measure or policy and was far from being a permanent institution. The new ordinance made integration of the organizational structure of the departments possible by investing in the Boards of Studies the recruiting of teachers, the designing of the curriculum and even the taking�P on of some administration. Hence, the status of the Boards of Studies had been heightened and the principle of academic participation in the governance of the University was basically imple-mented.
These three major measures taken by the University are charac-teristic of the innovation of its systems. In the meantime, Hong Kong society was undergoing reforms on all fronts.
In the early seventies, many scholars working on Hong Kong Studies had noticed that Hong Kong society was on the point of entering into a "structural reform" or "institutional innovation" stage. After more than ten years of sustained economic development, the demand for a
, social policy was insistent. Many critics blamed the Hong Kong govern-ment for doing very little for education, medical health, public assis-tance and social welfare. More scholars pointed out, optimistically, that Hong Kong society had reached adulthood and that a way of Hong Kong life had surfaced, so it was now time to increase social investment.
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Of course, the catalyst was the two riots in 1966 and 1967 which were still haunting the people of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong society did possess the clout to change and to innovate in the seventies and eighties. As shown in Table 3, the national per capita income in Hong Kong had increased 5.2 times after 1973 and government revenue also increased 6.9 times. It is almost unknown in history that a society should have been so affluent despite high inflation; The conditions were just ripe to increase social investment if the government had the determination to do so. The following paragraphs describe the new measures taken by the Hong Kong government in its social policy:
1.
Social welfare The public assistance scheme was introduced in 1971. In 1973, the White Paper on Social W,elfare was published. In the same year, a five-year plan of social welfare development was proposed. Three green papers and one white paper were issued in 1977: These were the Green Paper on Assistance for the Most Difficult Self-Help Persons, the Green Paper on Adoles-cent Personal Social Work Development, the Green Paper on Old Age Services and the White Paper on Integration of the Disabled into the Community. In 1977, the Traffic Accident Victim Assistance Plan was introduced. This year also saw.the introduction of a White Paper on Social Welfare in the Eighties and the government began to consider funding social welfare volunteer agencies. All these social welfare policies were im-plemented around the main theme of "community construc-tion."

2.
Labour services As the 1967 riot stemmed from industrial conflicts (labour disputes), the Hong Kong government learned a lesson and passed the Employment Ordinance in 1968, as well as setting up employment services organizations. In 1973, a labour tribunal was established and the Legislation for Sick Leave with Pay was implemented. The government passed the Or-dinances of Wages in Lieu of Notice in 1974 and Labour Relations in 1975. The Weekly Paid Leave was adopted in 1976. In 1977, Sick Leave Allowance was raised to 36 days per


Table 3. Hong Kong and The Chinese University 1973-1983
I. Hong Kong Social Indicators 1973 1978 1983
1. Population (in thousands) 4,160 4,597 5,345
2. Factory workers (in thousands) 626 817 855
3. Total exports value 25,999 53,908 160,699 (in million $)
GDP per capita (in $) 7,388 16,838 39,138
5. Government revenue 5,241 13,914 36,512 (in million $) 6. Industrial conflict 47,100 30,000 2,500 (work days lost)
Crime rate (per 100,000) 944 1,241 1,613
II. Chinese University Indicators
8 Student population 3,13i 1 ) 5,215(2) 6, 105(5) 9 Staff population 255 395(3) 495(5) 10 EMSD students 18,788 24, 144(4) 39,385(?)
Notes: 1. The academic year 1973-7 4 (including undergraduate students, postgraduate students and part-time students); 2. The academic year 1978-79; 3. ditto; 4. ditto; 5. The academic year 1983-84 (including undergraduate students, postgraduate students and part-time stu-dents); 6. ditto; 7. ditto.
Sources: 1. Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Social and Economic Trends, 1964-197 4, pp. 70-80, 1978-1988 and 1980-1990.
2. Labour Department, Annual Reports.
year, with each day earning two-thirds of the regular payment. In 1978, the government ruled that there should be seven holidays with pay in a year. The seventies can therefore be said to be an era of labour legislation.
3.
Medical and health In 1974, the White Paper on Further Development of Medical and Health Services in Hong Kong was published. The Prin-cess Margaret Hospital was established in Kowloon in 1975. In 1976, it was resolved that a Faculty of Medicine should be set up in The Chinese University, which eventuated in 1980. In 1984, the Prince of Wales Hospital was established.

4.
Public housing In 1972, the Ten-Year Building Plan was proposed, aiming at building public housing in the new towns to accommodate 1.8 million people. The Housing Authority was established in 1973 to coordinate all public housing services. In 1976, the Home


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Ownership Scheme was implemented. The period was one in which great development had been achieved in both the quality and quantity of housing.
5. Universal school education The Education Ordinance was passed in 1971 to enforce com-pulsory primary education. In 1972, the Hong Kong Polytech-nic was founded. In 1973, the Green paper on Expanding Secondary Education was published. In 1974, the Green Paper on Ten-year Secondary Education appeared. In 1979 compul-sory education was decreed and implemented with government funds. In 1978, the White Paper on Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education was published, in which it was decided that by stages over eight years 70% of all 15-year-olds could be provided school places. This decade can be said to be an era of expansion of secondary schools, which laid the foundation for later development of tertiary education.
The annual expenditure of the Hong Kong government in 1973 was approaching 5.4 billion dollars, less than 39% (about 2.1 billion, repre-senting 5% of the total national product) of which was used for the above social services. In 1983, the annual expenditure was 38.6 billion, of which almost 43% (about 16.5 billion, i.e. 7.2% of the total national product) was used in social services. Judging from this, Hong Kong was no _longer to be ridiculed as a "Forest of Social Darwinism"; it was not very much behind Britain, the so-called welfare state.
In this period, The Chinese University carried out reforms to its systems as well as its curriculum. Changes that had been introduced in accordance with the development of social services were the estab-lishment of the Department of Anthropology in 1979 and the Depart-ment of Psychology in 1982. The education offered in the social sciences was thus extended and made more complete. The most impor-tant development in this period was of course the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine. In 1981, the part-time degree programme was offered in the evenings for those in full-time employment. Furthermore, the establishment of the Department of Statistics and the expansion of the Graduate School were developments in accord with the needs of Hong Kong society.
The most important result of the institutional innovation of The
Chinese University was that teachers could use more time and effort in research and publications. This resulted, in the late seventies in many books being published. In the Appendix to the Vice-Chancellor's Report, 1978-1982, there are 87 pages (pp. 63-149) of the publications of the staff, with more than 4,000 articles. From this time on, The Chinese University entered into an era with more than a hundred projects and a thousand publications annually. The reforms of the
,
University in the mid-seventies had played an important role in bringing about more research publications, albeit with only a small increase in the number of its teaching staff.
It has to be pointed out that the above effect was more long-term than short-term. The proof is in the length of the Appendixes on staff publications. The four years from 1978 to 1982 saw the number of pages on publications reach 87. The three years from 1982 to 1985 increased the number of pages to 97. From 1985 to 1987, it required 83 pages for these two years alone. As the number of publications grew with the years, it soon came to the stage where the publication list was too long to be included in the Appendices. A separate report was called for. The number of pages of the separate report on publications of staff, in the Vice-Chancellor's Report, 1987-1990 reached 268.
The number of research items and the volume of publications only reflects one side of academic performance. The academic level of a university should be assessed on the quality of the publications of its staff. An analysis in this connection shows that many of these published articles appeared in top-class international academic journals in related professional fields. These journals are known to be very strict in the selection of papers. Once an article is published in one of these journals, its standard is guaranteed. Judging from this, not only has the quantity of the publications of the staff of The Chinese University increased over the years but also the quality has reached international standards, recog-nized by insiders in the various fields.
In its first ten years, The Chinese University set up the Institute of Social Sciences and the Humanities, the Institute of Science and Tech-nology and the Institute of Chinese Studies. In 1978, the Lingnan Institute of Business Administration was established to make contribu-tions to the development of Hong Kong' s economy. The research results of the various research centres, under the four Institutes, which enjoyed close relations with Hong Kong society were mostly published by the
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University Press, set up in 1977. The earliest institute entering into the closest relationship with Hong Kong' s social development and man-power resources was the School of Education, which was set up in 1965. It has since then played an important part in the rapid development of education in Hong Kong.
In summary, the characteristics of the development in both The Chinese University and Hong Kong society over the years 1973-1983 had been their efforts in bringing about innovations. The huge power released through the reforms of the system had laid a solid foundation for rapid development at later stages.
V. Development
In 1983, Hong Kong was facing considerable uncertainty following the Sino-British talks on the future of the region. On 12 July of that year, the two countries held their first talks, and the communique issued after the talks used such descriptive words as "beneficial and constructive." The word "constructive" disappeared in the second communique, and both the adjectives "beneficial" and "constructive" had vanished by the third communique, published on Friday, 23 September 1983. The next day, the Hong Kong dollar hit a record low, with an exchange rate of HK$9.50 to the US dollar. This represented a fall of almost 50% as compared with its highest exchange rate before the talks. Hong Kong residents began to panic, rushing to supermarkets for rice and canned food, apparently worried by the crisis.
But history is ironic. In retrospect, it was the beginning of great developments in Hong Kong society. A glimpse of the development can be seen from the figures of Table 4. The value of exports increased six fold over the next ten year., from 160 billion dollars to 1,000 billion, and the average national product grew by 375%. This achievement was arrived at through a stagnation in the growth of population, a shrinkage in the manufacturing industry, a movement of industry northwards to China, and a satisfactory state of law and order (the strike indicator remained at a low level, while the crime rate fell instead of rising) in Hong Kong society.
Matching the social development of Hong Kong, The Chinese University also made great headway during the third decade after its
Table 4. Hong Kong and The Chinese University 1983-1993
I. Hong Kong Social Indicators 1983 1988 1993
1. Population (in thousands) 2. Factory workers (in thousands) 3. Total exports (in million$) 4. GDP per capita (in $) 5. Government revenue 5,345 855 160,699 39,138 36,512 5,628 837 493,069 77,059 72,600 5,779(1 ) 500(2) 1,057,633(3) 146,700(3) 153,990(3)
(in million $)
6. Industrial conflict 2,500 2,300
(work days lost) 7. Crime rate (per 100,000) 1,613 1,410 1,523(4)
II. Chinese University Indicators 8. Number of students 9. Number of full-time staff 10. EMSD students 5,997 .. 495(5) 39,385(5) 7,910(6) 524<7) 53,303<7) 10,758(8) 801(9)

Notes: 1.Hong Kong Population Projection s, 1991-2011, p. 7; 2. By estimation;
3. Estimation of the 1993 Financial Estimates; 4. The year 1992; 5. The academic year 1983-1984; 6. The academic year 1988-1989 (including undergraduate students, postgraduate students and part-time degree students); 7. The academic year 1988-1989; 8. The academic year 1992-1993 (including undergraduate students, postgraduate students and part-time degree students); 9. The academic year 1992-1993.
Sources: 1. Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Social and Economic Trends, 1974-84, pp.11 and 32; 1978-88, p. 73; 1980-90, pp.1, 16, 25 and 68.
2.
David Roberts (ed.), Hong Kong 1992, p. 445.

3.
Labour Department, Annual Reports.

4.
HongKongAnnualDige stofStatistic s, 1991, p. rz.


establishment. The first development was in the scale of structure. While there was a four-fold increase in student population during the first twen-ty years, the third ten years doubled that figure, so that the total student intake has passed 10,000 at present. The total staff number well exceeds three thousand with 800 full-time teachers. The number ofEMSD cour-ses have gone beyond two thousand, with an annual intake of more than 50,000 students. Undoubtedly, The Chinese University has become an important educational organization in the development of society.
The courses provided by The Chinese University have followed closely the needs of a rapidly progressing society. At present, the University has a total of seven faculties, sixty academic departments, seven research institutes and more than ten affiliated academic units. The more important developments during this period include:
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A. The Faculty of Medicine admitted its first batch of students in 1981. Its teaching hospital, the Prince of Wales Hospital in Shatin was founded and put into operation in 1984. Today, the Faculty has 18 departments and a Clinical_ Immunology Unit. Full-time teaching and research staff exceed 180. In a short span of 12 years, the Faculty of Medicine has grown strong enough to provide adequate medical ser-vices for the new town of Shatin, to provide medical professional people for Hong Kong society, and earn a reputation in the medical world for its teaching and.research. The following pages cover just a part of the research and achievement of the Faulty of Medicine in recent years.
1.
The first case of child bone marrow transplant was successfully conducted by paediatricians of the University on 6 February 1991. A team of the University's surgeons took charge of the operation which took one and a half hours. The operation was a great success. The patient, having recuperated for 90 days in the hospital was released on 7 May after the functions of his marrow had returned to normal. Follow-ing the success of the first operation, several others were carried out on two children with cancer, in March and May respectively. This new group of paediatricians is providing a very real medical service to the public.

2.
The Surgery Department of the Faculty achieved a breakthrough in 1991 in the area of burns and scalds. Doctors in this department made use of a new medical technology to culture human epidermal cells as a skin substitute. In applying this technique, cultures of epidermal cells were propagated from small pieces of partial-thickness' skin harvested from the patient's body. Within about four weeks, these sheets of human epidermal cells expanded more than 200 times in size. They were then transplanted back to the patient together with autogenous skin grafts to cover the wounds permanently. The application of this technique prompted the Faculty of Medicine to set up a skin bank in Hong Kong, in 1992 in order to provide a perfect medical service for patients suffer-ing from severe burns. It is believed that this skin bank is the first comprehensive and multi-purpose skin bank in the world.

3.
A team of doctors from the University's Joint Hepatoma Clinic successfully developed in 1991, a new technique of selective internal irradiation to target radio active isotopes around liver tumours. This is a major breakthrough which will result in many lives being prolonged.

4.
In June 1990, surgeons of the faculty successfully performed the


first case of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Hong Kong. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is one of the revolutionary breakthrough operations in modem surgery. With successful introduction of this technique by the Surgery Department of the University, hundreds of patients have benefited from this new operation. To promote this new technique, the department organized a practical course in laparoscopic cholecystec-tomy in September 1991. More than 150 experienced surgeons from Hong Kong and abroad attended this course. At the end of the year, the department organized an international seminar on surgery in which more than 200 doctors from all over the world took part
5. Research projects completed and in progress in the Faculty of Medicine are many. The larger ones include: the role of nutritional supplementation after recovery from acute illness; the roles of phos-pholipase as activation and arachidonic acid metabolites in the activa-tion of human lung mast cells; the adult cerebella cells; construction of growth standards for Hong Kong Chinese children; the effect of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies on interaction between neutrophils and endothelial cells; the thyroid changes among Chinese psychiatric patients on long-term lithium therapy in Hong Kong; a study of nasopharyngeal cancer; the biology of the regeneration of osseous tissue under tension stress; a prospective study in sports medicine; a study of duodenal ulceration; the making and evaluation of a human skin substitute; the cytogenetics and clonality of hepatocellular car-cinoma; the morbidity and mortality from anaesthesia and intensive care in Hong Kong; the control of testicular blood flow; cancer incidence in Hong Kong, 1981-1988: mapping and epidemiological analysis. It is quite impossible to give an exhaustive list of all the research projects and medical achievements of the faculty. The projects listed above are those considered representative.
B. The part-time degree programme was established to meet the needs of societal development. The first students were admitted to take Social Work in 1981. Degree programmes in Chinese and English Languages, Music, and Business Administration were set up in the following year. A total of nine part-time degree programmes have been offered to students who have working experience and are more mature. Innovation has been introduced in both curricula planning and teaching methods in these programmes which can adjust rapidly in accordance
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with the changes in society. In terms of the idea of the University, this is considered a breakthrough measure. The spirit of the University to advance with society and the times and to enter new realms is demonstrated by innovations such as this programme.
C. The rapid development of the Graduate School is a charac-teristic feature.of this period. The only way for The Chinese University to keep abreast with noted international universities is to do what a modem university should do, i.e. put emphasis on research and strengthen both instruction and research. From its very first day, the University has always laid stress on graduate education. The year 1966 saw graduate students admitted into the graduate programmes. In 1980, the enrolment of Ph.D. students indicated that a higher level of graduate education had been reached. In 1982, the University offered 33 graduate programmes, with 16 Ph.D. students, 233 full-time master's students, 163 part-time .aster's students and about 500 diploma students. These figures have been more than doubled over ten years. In the academic year 1992, there were 99 Ph.D. students about half of whom were studying full-time. The number of master's students was 909, of this number 505 were full-time. The University has expanded its graduate education just when Hong Kong saw a growing demand for advanced technology administrators to meet her requirements in financial services during a period of economic changes.
D. The Faculty of Business Administration, once attached to the Faculty of Commerce and Social Sciences, became independent in 1974. Ever since then, it has made great headway in satisfying the needs of developing industry and business in Hong Kong. For more effective teaching and research, the existing Lingnan Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) was combined with the new Faculty of Business Administration. In 1977, the University first offered a three-year MBA programme. Entering into this decade (1983-1993), the most important development of the Faculty has been overhauling its curricular structure. At the beginning of its establishment, the faculty adopted a departmental system without separate disciplines. In the eighties, this structure was found inadequate to meet the ever-growing division of labour in Hong Kong society. It also failed to fit in with the modem structure of business schools in international univer-sities. With the increase in student intake and in the number of courses,
the effectiveness and efficiency of the faculty could not be raised without the introduction of a new system. In 1986, the Faculty of Business Administration was set up, consisting of six professional departments: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, International Business, Organization and Management, and Operations and Systems Manage-ment.
In the academic year 1992-1993, the faculty offered 42 courses and provided a number of research programmes. The addition of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Business in 1990 to the faculty has further enhanced its management education and made its research system complete so that the faculty is strong enough to face any challenge from society.
The Asia-Pacific Institute of Business is unique among the many research institutes in the University. It provides a large variety of train-ing programmes to meet pressing societal needs. For example, in 1991, short-term training programmes were provided for Philips, Coca Cola, the Swire Group, the Jardine Group, Hong Kong Telecommunications, the Advisory Committee to the Securities and Futures Commission and the Omni Hotels Group. The Institute also conducted a study on con-sumer images for the Consulate of the Netherlands in Hong Kong and offered, in coordination with Concordia University in Canada, an ad-vanced course "International Environment in Business" to students taking MBA programmes. In the same year, the Institute organized an international seminar on "The Development of Management Educa-tion" in cooperation with the Faculty of Business Administration of the University.
At present, a number of research and training programmes have been completed or are in progress. These include a marketing study for the US Meat Export Federation. An advanced management course titled "Challenges in the Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong and China" was offered in conjunction with Pittsburgh University, USA to administrators taking MBA courses. It also conducted a cross-cultural seminar for the human resources managers of Hong Kong.
With the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, the business education in the University has been much improved in both teaching and research. It can now provide better services to Hong Kong society and adapt to its changing needs.
E. The Faculty of Engineering was the only faculty established
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during the University's third decade. An Engineering Academic Ad-visory Committee was appointed in 1986 to establish the faculty. After carefully assessing the University manpower requirements, teaching standards, funding appropriations and other factors, the Committee made proposals to the University to offer a comprehensive Engineering programme, comprising four professional areas: electronics, computer science, information technology and computer supplementary system engineering. Starting from 1988, the above courses were offered. At present. the faculty provides four areas of studies and 77 courses. The establishment of the faculty has made the University a comprehensive university, not only in name but also in fact, gathering sufficient strength to provide comprehensive services to society and to make contributions to the international academic community.
F. The Institute of Social Studies carried on an abundance of inter-disciplinary research programmes in the eighties, involving an inves-tigation into the TV watching habits and leisure activities of teenagers in Hong Kong, a long term study on crime problems, a study on sex roles, and on social indicators in the development of Hong Kong, a study on China's open policy and on special economic zones as well as China's economic structure.
The Centre for Contemporary Asian Studies under the Institute of Social Studies carried out a number of research projects in the late eighties. These included: studies on Chinese law, overseas Chinese archives, a study on the economy of China and special economic zones, a population research programme and Japanese studies. The Centre has published more than 30 papers in the form of reports of research find-ings.
The Centre for Hong Kong Studies was set up in September 1982 to develop and coordinate interdisciplinary researches on Hong Kong's social, political and economic development.
G. The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies was formally established in September 1990, replacing the Institute of Social Studies and its tworesearch centres: the Centre for Contemporary Asian Studies and the Centre for Hong Kong Studies.
The large-scale research programmes of the Institute included:
1. China's economic reform and development Studies on the regional�P development of mainland China, the trends in
productivity and economic reform and the open policy of Guangdong province. More than ten monographs and books have been published in connection with the above studies.
2.
A policy study on China The study focuses on the formation process of public policy in mainland China, on corporate structure and management, as well as on urban administration and welfare. An international seminar entitled "Interna-tional Symposium on Informal Politics in East Asia" was held on 17-18 August 1992 at the University and quite a number of papers were published. A seminar called "Changes in Urban Administration" was held in May 1993, with about thirty academic papers presented. Books on special topics relating to housing reforms in China will be published by an American publisher.

3.
Gender research An investigative study, in cooperation with UCLA, is in progress. An international conference on "Gender and Society: the Pacific Rim Ex-perience" was held from 21-22 March 1991. A number of academic publications on gender study in Hong Kong and China are in press.

4.
Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific economy The focus of the study centres on immigrant phenomena in Hong Kong, and a study on the economic impact of immigration since the 1980s. Other studies include the industrial policy in Hong Kong which is an interdisciplinary study; analysis and recommendation on a pension scheme for Hong Kong; the immigration of international labour; a case study of inflation in Hong Kong, and the study of small and middle-sized enterprises in Hong Kong.

5.
Japan and Asia-Pacific development The focus of the study centres on the limitation and future of coopera-tion in the Asia-Pacific regions; its changing foreign policies and its influence on Chin,a and Hong Kong; Japanese investment in Asia; and Japan and the new international order. An international conference on the "Relationships among Countries of the Taiwan Straits: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong" sponsored by this project was held on 15-16 July 1992 at the University. More than sixty scholars from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait participated, more than ten academic papers on Japan and Asia-Pacific development have been published by this programme.

6.
Urban and regional development in Pacific Asia There are a lot of focus points in this study, the main ones being: "The


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Formation of a Middle Class in East Asia and Its Socio-Political Roles," and "Infectious Diseases and Alzheimer' s Disease among the Old People of Hong Kong." A conference entitled "China's Urban and Regional Development" was held on 2-6 December 1991. A total number of 21 papers have been compiled into a book. Another interna-tional conference entitled "Asia-Pacific City System: Towards the 21st Century" was held on 11-13 February 1992.
7. Political development of Hong Kong The nucleus of the study was the "1991 Elections," "Political Culture and Political Participation of Hong Kong Chinese," "A Study on the Non-Voting Behaviours of Hong Kong Residents," and "A Compara-tive Study of Political Culture and Political Participation in China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan." A number of seminars were held with several papers published.
8. Social indicators and social development of Hong Kong
This project is devoted to the measurement of social development in Hong Kong and has published sets of social indicators for Hong Kong.
9. South China study Coordination has been made with the East Asian Studies Committee of Yale University for promoting studies on China. The following topics have been targeted: "Linkages between Hong Kong and South China,"
"Lingnan Culture and History" and "The Restructuring of Chinese Society and Comparative Regional Studies." A number of studies are under way. These include "Cultural Formation and Social Changes in South China"; "The Reform and Open Policy of Shanghai and Its Influence on Hong Kong and Guangdong Province," "Municipal Management during . a Period of Reforms and Opening," "The Entrepreneurial Spirit in Guangdong," and "A Study of Communication Behaviour in Canton." The programme also undertook to subsidize Ph.D. and master's students from the University to study China. Such studies would have the effect of making teaching and research sup-plementary to each other, thus gives a boost to the University's graduate education.
H. The Universities Service Centre, formerly under the American Council of Learned Societies, stored newspapers since 1949 from inside China and academic journals on China studies. In 1988, the Centre entrusted The Chinese University to take care of its collections for three
years, on the expiration of which, the collections were then transferred to the University on 1 July 1991. From then on, this service unit, once called "the world's first-rated base for China study" became a part of the University. Hundreds of scholars from all around the world have for years made use of the information and services of the Centre to make contributions to their own academic fields. The running and manage-ment of the Centre have been made since its absorption into the existing resources of The Chinese University on China studies.
Located on the campus of The Chinese University, the Hong Kong-America Center was opened in April 1993, the thirtieth anniversary of the University. The Centre set up an American Studies Re.ources Library and a Student Advisory Unit of the Institute of International Education. The purposes are to establish an academic environment for cultural exchange. The unit holds international conferences and con-ducts exchange programmes between the teachers and students of universities in Hong Kong and the States to strengthen the connection between the two regions. It also aims at enhancing the understanding of Hong Kong people in regard to American society, culture and ru;t. To celebrate its establishment, the Centre held an international seminar "Hong Kong -the Cultural Bridge" for two days from 28 April 1993, to kick off an academic and cultural interflow between Hong Kong and the United States.
Inheriting its own educational mission, The Chinese University has not for a moment during its thirty years of establishment forgotten its objectives of bridging Chinese and Western cultures and serving Hong Kong. Due to its history, the University had to integrate its internal structure and establish new systems during the very early stages. Even during its reconstruction period, the University did not ignore the needs of society since the past three decades were a period in which Hong Kong society went through _great changes, great innovation and great development. It was during these thirty years that scholars in the University made full use of their knowledge of Chinese learning and culture, as well as their knowledge of Western scientific theories and . methods, to do in-depth investigative studies and research on local society with resulting contributions to the community of considerable worth. After the completion of the structural reforms and institutional innovation, the University continued its efforts to offer courses suited
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to local needs. Old curricula were renewed, graduate education strengthened, student enrolment increased and teaching methods renovated to meet the requirements of young people, both school leavers and those already in employment, as well as to keep pace with the development of Hong Kong.
Thirty years is not a very long time in the history of a university. However, The Chinese University faced great changes in Hong Kong society during these three decades with unprecedented problems and challenges. Looking in retrospect on the development of the University, two very distinct characteristics appear. The first is that the University has understood very well its main objective by its insistence on the blending of Chinese and Western cultures, the blending of general education and professional education, and the blending of teaching and research. This makes it clear that the University has not forgotten its own unique educational mission. The other special characteristic to be noted is the way. in which the University developed international stand-ard in teaching and research to satisfy the ever-changing needs of Hong Kong. These are the elements which the University has experienced in its development. Based on this experience, The Chinese University will continue to enkindle the spirit of blending Chinese and Western cul-tures, as well as keeping abreast with the times in order to continue serving Hong Kong, and encouraging the pursuit of learning so that greater developments can be hoped for in the future.

6
Overseas Academic Links and International Exchanges
WONG Kin Yuen

A lion dance performance by students of the International Studies Programme
Background: An international conference on Chinese traditional literature, 1990
The Quest for Excellence
1. Introduction
Over the last thirty years, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has been working earnestly, and successfully too, to establish
_, links with academic institutions overseas and to enhance the academic standing of the University with the international academic community. Apparently, then, this internationalism is a central focus of the University's development plan. Its roots can be traced way back to the time when the University was founded. To better appreciate this mission of the University, we must start with what our first Vice-Chancellor, Dr Choh-ming Li, mentioned on more than one occasion:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is not going to be a British university (though Hong Kong is a British Crown Colony), or a Chinese university (though Hong Kong is about 98% Chinese), or an American university (though I come from the United States). It is going to be an international university. (Chinese University Bulletin, No. 4, 1983, p. 6)
This ideal was reiterated in the Chinese University Bulletin celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the founding of The Chinese University. In the same article, Dr Li explained his basic philosophy, and defined what he saw as the standards for an international univer-sity:
We all know of the world community of universities, the world com-munity of scholarship, and the worldwide academic standard. We have to be part of all of them if we want to be a university of some standing. The world standard can only be defined in reference to the internation-al recognition accorded by the world academic community. It is all a matter of recognition. The world academic community know you only through the quality of your faculty, your research results, and the performance of your graduates. All these cannot be measured quantita-tively. (Chinese University Bulletin, No. 4, 1983, p. 6)
How The Chinese University has managed to achieve this lofty ideal of Dr Li's will be briefly summarized in the following pages. First of all, though, let us return to the two quotations above and to the unique nature of the University and the problems faced while establishing the close ties now enjoyed with international institutions.
Actually, Dr Li's reference to the internationally recognized
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academic standards in relation to the ultimate goal of the University has scant relationship with the first quotation above. Any British, American, or in fact any university in the world should take the achievement of this international standard as its academic goal. The Chinese University is no exception. Rather, Dr Li's expectations of The Chinese University should be gleaned from his insistence on what The Chinese University should NOT be, when he not once but thrice emphasized what road The Chinese University should not take. The historical background to these e2(pectations is obvious. Let us now look at how this unique background and the opportunities offered have allowed the University to develop ties with overseas institutions and enabled us to understand the sig-nificance and value of Dr Li' s groundwork.
Why did Dr Li have the idea of developing The Chinese University as an international university in the first place? The whole history of the establishment of The Chinese University, from its conception to its opening, showed that its charter was encumbered by restrictions and difficulties encountered by no other university in the world. It was governed by a set of principles that are as difficult to follow as walking a highwire, the extent of which is hinted in "Zhongwen daxue de benzhi" (The Nature of The Chinese University of Hong Kong) (from Zhongda shi nian, edited by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Students Union, 1974). The author, Wang Yu, wrote in "Zhongwen daxue de neizai maodun" (The Intrinsic Conflicts at The Chinese University), "It has been said that The Chinese University is nourishing little Americans and little Britons. This is not wholly true. Looking at the influences on the constituent Colleges before the founding of the University, it could be said that Chung Chi College nourishes little Americans and United College nourishes little Britons. But New Asia College hopes to nourish Chinese, judging from the spirit of its charter." This explains the urgency of Dr Li's plea.
Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li did not wish to see The Chinese University develop into a British university, working for the benefit of, and extending the cultural influence of, Britain. At the same time, Vice-Chancellor Li realized that neither would it have been beneficial to turn The Chinese University into an American university. After all, the University was supported by Hong Kong and it was evident that since the 1960s, the political, economic, social and cultural changes in Hong Kong should be closely reflected in its development. In brief, the
conception and development of The Chinese University was to meet the needs of Hong Kong as a whole.
For the same reason, The Chinese University should not be developed into a purely "Chinese" university. This issue is considerably more complex than the earlier two, as it seemingly goes against a key assumption for the development of The Chinese University. Here lies the true boldness of Vice-Chancellor Li. The educational philosophy reflected in Vice-Chancellor Li' s insistence has been significant from the sixties tothe nineties, and is still important, now, with the imminent return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. As can be ex-pected, this direction was strongly criticized in 1963, as well as during the student movements of the 1970s, since it directly affected the naming of the University and its motto. All these issues in turn are involved in the internationalism of The Chinese University. Let us re-evaluate them in the light of their historical antecedents and their development, so as to more clearly appraise the contribution of Vice-Chancellor Choh-ming Li.
Vice-Chancellor Li once explained the naming of the University, in an effort to clear up misunderstandings. At his reception speech of an Honorary Doctorate of Law in 1978, he pointed out that although the University Statutes stated that Chinese was the principal language of instruction, (and indeed three quarters of all classes have always been taught in Chinese) he hoped that students could "develop an adequate capacity to be at least bilingual." In other words, The Chinese Univer-sity was a bilingual university. He then went on to explain the chosen name:
Another common interpretation given to the name of our university is that the word Chinese means Chinese culture, thus implying that the University is a university of Chinese culture .... Then what is so uni-que about The Chinese University of Hong Kong? First of all it goes without saying that we are a modern university with all its necessary attributes. But what is unique is that we have dedicated ourselves to a special mission, namely, the introduction and development of Chinese data into each and everyone of the academic disciplines .... In a nut-shell, The Chinese University of Hong Kong is the university that seeks to include a Chinese dimension in all academic disciplines. The University motto reads "to broaden one's intellectual horizon and to keep within bounds of propriety" (Bo wen yue li ), a quotation from
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