The Philanthropic Families Behind the College Names: From S. H. Ho to the Morningside Foundation

This is a factual archive in the Reference Zone (08 Finances). It carries no credibility badge, and every item is sourced to official or secondary sources individually. It unpacks a distinctive feature of CUHK's fundraising culture — naming its colleges after philanthropic families and foundations. For an overview of the named-gift system, see 08-finances/finances.md; for the institutional background to the founding of the new colleges, see 10-colleges/college-expansion-334-reform.md. Deceased philanthropists are named on the record according to public sources; living individuals are treated briefly and without private judgement.

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# 1. Why So Many Colleges Bear Personal Names

Of the nine colleges at CUHK, a substantial number are named for philanthropists or their foundations: Shaw (Run Run Shaw), Morningside, S. H. Ho, C. W. Chu, Wu Yee Sun, and Lee Woo Sing (linked to Lee Woo Sing), among others. Behind this lies a well-established CUHK fundraising mechanism known as the naming gift:

The logic of naming gifts: the University offers "naming rights" as an honour in return for major donations — the donor's name (or that of the person they wish to commemorate) is permanently inscribed on a college, building, or chair. This is both a tribute to philanthropy and an institutionalised fundraising incentive. For CUHK, the construction of new colleges depends heavily on private donations (see college-expansion-334-reform.md); the naming mechanism is precisely what has levered those donations into being.

This article uses two cases with relatively ample documentation — S. H. Ho College / S. H. Ho and Morningside College / the Morningside Foundation — to show how this culture operates in practice.

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# 2. S. H. Ho College and S. H. Ho: The Legacy of a Hang Seng Bank Founder

The naming of S. H. Ho College points to a significant figure in Hong Kong financial history. According to English Wikipedia, "Ho Sin Hang"^※:

• Ho Sin Hang (S. H. Ho) was a Hong Kong entrepreneur, philanthropist, and financier;
• He co-founded Hang Seng Bank in 1933 and later served as its chairman;
• According to the source, he was chairman of Hang Seng from 1960 to 1983, steering the bank through key milestones including its public listing in 1960 and its 1965 sale to HSBC;
• In 1970, he established the S. H. Ho Foundation to support charitable causes; numerous buildings and institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China bear his name.

According to English Wikipedia, "S.H. Ho College"^※, CUHK accepted a donation from the S. H. Ho Foundation in May 2006 (HK$170 million, per the source) to found S. H. Ho College, which admitted its first cohort of students in 2010.

From banking to the college: S. H. Ho's legacy, channelled through his foundation, extended from the world of finance into higher education. S. H. Ho College, whose motto is 「文行忠信」("cultivation, conduct, loyalty, and good faith"; see 10-colleges/sh-ho-college.md), operates as a small, fully residential college. In that form, the financier's name is bound to an intimate, whole-person educational community.

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# 3. Morningside College and the Morningside Foundation

According to English Wikipedia, "Morningside College"^※ and official CUHK materials^※, Morningside College was established in 2006 through donations from the Morningside Foundation and the Morningside Education Foundation. It is one of the smaller, fully residential colleges among CUHK's new colleges, and among the most international in character.

Morningside College and S. H. Ho College were both endowed in 2006, making them the first two of the "third wave" of college expansion (undertaken to accommodate the extra students brought by the switch to a four-year curriculum) in 2006–2012 (see college-expansion-334-reform.md). The two names also represent two distinct naming modes — "the foundation" (Morningside) and "the individual" (S. H. Ho). One names an institution; the other a person. Together they illustrate the diversity of the naming-gift culture.

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# 4. C. W. Chu College and Chu Ching-wen: From Student Loans to the "C. W. Chu Model"

Dr. Chu Ching-wen, the namesake of C. W. Chu College, is among the college namesakes in the CUHK system whose philanthropy spanned the longest period and the widest geographical reach — across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. According to the official C. W. Chu College page on Dr. Chu^※:

• Chu Ching-wen (1906–1996) was born in Jiangsu and died in Hong Kong in 1996;
• From the 1960s to the 1980s, he funded a scholarship programme that supported more than 700 young people from Hong Kong to pursue higher education in the United States;
• From the late 1980s onward, he shifted the focus of his aid programmes to mainland China, funding university students through the Chu Ching-wen Education Foundation, concentrating particularly on the provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui; according to records, more than 30,000 mainland students benefited.

Chu's model of giving differed from Run Run Shaw's approach of "building hardware (physical buildings)": his donations always centred on "people" rather than "bricks and mortar." Whether funding Hong Kong youths to study in America in the early years, or mainland university students later on, his support took the direct form of scholarships and bursaries. This charitable orientation — "people over buildings" — in a sense foreshadowed the educational positioning that C. W. Chu College would later adopt.

According to public sources, C. W. Chu College was established in 2007 through private donations, offering residential places and a fully residential, communal-dining model for roughly 300 students. It began formal operation in 2012, admitting its first cohort. From Chu's personal scholarship initiatives to the naming of a full college at CUHK, this donation continued his core concern with "supporting students' education" — but at a far greater scale and with a far greater degree of institutionalisation.

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# 5. Wu Yee Sun College and Wing Lung Bank: A Bonsai Master's Educational Legacy

The namesake of Wu Yee Sun College, Dr. Wu Yee Sun, was another heavyweight of Hong Kong banking, and also an industrialist with a distinctly literary temperament. According to the Wikipedia entry for Wu Yee Sun College^※ and official college materials:

• Dr. Wu Yee Sun was the founder of Wing Lung Bank, which he led for many years; he is regarded as a representative figure in the development of Hong Kong's Chinese-owned banks;
• He was also a celebrated bonsai artist, known as a "bonsai master" — an identity that forms an intriguing counterpoint to his banker's career, and one that won him recognition in art and horticulture as well as commerce;
• In 2007, the Wu Yee Sun Charitable Foundation donated to CUHK (approximately HK$170 million, per the source) to found Wu Yee Sun College;
• The college is located on Shek Lin Path and admitted its first cohort in September 2012, with capacity for roughly 1,200 students, of which 600 are residential places.

The college's motto carries forward the spirit of 「敏求篤行」("diligently seeking and earnestly practising"), a strand of the 「博文約禮」tradition (the exact wording of the motto should be confirmed with official college sources). Its educational positioning stresses the social responsibility of individuals and the community, and its mission statement speaks of "manifesting innovation and bearing social responsibility." From the name of a banker and bonsai artist to a college that emphasises social responsibility, there is, in a sense, a metaphorical resonance between Wu Yee Sun's personal interests (the patient pruning and gradual cultivation that bonsai demands) and the college's educational philosophy — though this association is this archive's own interpretive observation, not an official position of the college.

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# 6. Lee Woo Sing College and Lee Woo Sing: A Memorial Gift in a Brother's Name

The naming story of Lee Woo Sing College is the most unusual of the five new colleges — it is named not for the donor himself, but for the donor's elder brother, giving it a distinctly familial, commemorative cast. According to the Wikipedia entry for Lee Woo Sing College^※ and public sources:

• The donor was Dr. Lee Ho-sun (a member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference), who donated to CUHK (approximately HK$150 million, per the source) to found the college;
• Yet the college was not named for Lee Ho-sun. Instead it was called "Lee Woo Sing College," in memory of his elder brother Lee Woo Sing — according to the donor's account, Lee Ho-sun wished to honour his brother's lifelong contribution to developing and improving education, and to cultivating talent for the country and for Hong Kong, and so named the college after him;
• The donation was supported by the Ping Wah Tong Lee Family Foundation;
• The college was founded in 2007 and admitted its first cohort in 2011.

Naming a college for one's brother rather than oneself is a rare design in CUHK's naming-gift history. It converts "naming rights" — a mechanism usually understood as a personal honour for the donor — into a form of intra-family sentiment and commemoration. This case reminds us that the motives behind naming gifts are not always about the pursuit of personal honour; they can also be about conveying respect within a family. It enriches the spectrum of answers to the question "why give?"

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# 7. Comparing the Family Backgrounds of the Five Colleges' Namesakes

Setting the four cases above side by side (together with S. H. Ho and Morningside from Sections 2 and 3) reveals some intriguing similarities and differences among the namesakes of CUHK's new colleges:

A note on the figures: the donation sizes in the table above are compiled from public secondary sources (Wikipedia etc.). Their precise basis (one-off gift / cumulative giving / whether subsequent top-ups are included) may not match CUHK's official published figures exactly. They are set side by side here for reference; for exact amounts, please consult the CUHK Office of Development & Alumni Affairs annual report or official college announcements.

This comparison brings out several notable patterns. First, of the five namesakes, two (S. H. Ho and Wu Yee Sun) were unequivocally bank founders — a reflection of Hong Kong's industrial structure as an international financial centre, where bankers were among the principal groups who accumulated great wealth and were therefore able to make major educational gifts. Second, donation sizes cluster in the HK$150–170 million range. This figure broadly reflects the fundraising target CUHK put to prospective donors around 2006–2007 for "founding a new college" (subject to CUHK's official fundraising plans). Third, the coexistence of "naming after an individual" and "commemorative naming" (in which the gift honours someone other than the donor) shows that the motivational spectrum of naming gifts — from simple personal honour to family sentiment and commemoration — can all be accommodated within this system.

For details on each college namesake's family background, motto, and architecture, see the in-depth college archives in 10-colleges. This article does not delve into the private lives of living individuals; it records the institutional culture of "naming gifts" as a whole.

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# 8. The "Chain Effect" of Naming Gifts

It is worth noting that naming gifts at CUHK are not isolated cases; they form a "chain effect" — one philanthropist's naming gift is often not confined to a single college but extends across buildings, professorships, scholarships, research centres, and more. Take Run Run Shaw as an example (see run-run-shaw-philanthropy.md): he not only funded Shaw College, but also gave his name to the Shaw Science Building and Sir Run Run Shaw Hall (a performing-arts venue) on campus. Similarly, the S. H. Ho Foundation's donations went beyond S. H. Ho College alone. This pattern of "one philanthropist, multiple namings" turns the CUHK campus into a dense "philanthropy map" — in nearly every direction you walk, you encounter a space named for a philanthropist.

Why the chain effect exists: For philanthropists, building a long-term, multi-layered giving relationship with a university of strong reputation expands the reach of their charity and secures a lasting memorial. For the university, deepening ties with an existing donor is often more efficient than cultivating new ones. This mutual interest drives naming gifts to expand "from a point to a whole surface." For the overall shape of CUHK's naming system, see finances.md.

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# 9. Two Sides of the Naming Culture

CUHK's culture of naming colleges after philanthropic families has two sides worth recording:

The positive side: it channels private wealth effectively into public higher education, allowing CUHK to secure resources for college building beyond public funding. The naming mechanism has inspired a generation of Hong Kong philanthropists to commit to education, leaving lasting legacies such as Shaw, S. H. Ho, and Morningside.

The side worth scrutinising: naming gifts also mean that parts of a public university's space bear private or family names, which in theory raises questions about the boundary between "public institutions" and "private naming." In CUHK's practice, however, named colleges have for the most part been long-term, transparent charitable arrangements, of a different nature from one-off commercial naming deals.

On balance, the named colleges are the most successful and most distinctive feature of CUHK's fundraising culture — they make the colleges of a public university double as a living archive of Hong Kong's philanthropic history. Behind the name of every college stands a philanthropist, or a philanthropic family.

Related reading: Run Run Shaw and Shaw College, The Shaw Prize, Finances and the Naming-Gift System, The Four-Year Reform and Five New Colleges, The College System: An Overview.

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