Shaw College: Cultivating Virtue and Learning, Sir Run Run Shaw, and the Fourth College

Squeezed between the three founding colleges and the five new ones, Shaw is both CUHK's "fourth college" and the one with the largest student body of the nine. Founded with a donation from Sir Run Run Shaw, the film and philanthropy magnate, it was the first college not to have its own teaching facilities — a fitting embodiment of the post-1976 realignment in which "the University teaches, the college shapes the whole person". This article surveys Shaw College's origins, its naming and endowment, its landmarks, contemporary daily life and figures: its motto "cultivating virtue and learning" (修德講學), its hillside home in the western part of campus facing the sea, and its dormitories — from Kuo Mou Hall to the under-construction Mona Shaw Hall — which are set to bring nearly half its students into residential life.

This is the integrated dossier on Shaw College, far more detailed than the Shaw section in the overview of this volume. It covers the founding story alongside contemporary physical spaces, college general education, high table dining and traditional activities.

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# 1. At a Glance

According to CUHK's official "Our Colleges"^※, Shaw College was established in the "late 1980s", making it the fourth member college of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, after the three founding colleges — Chung Chi, New Asia and United. The college was founded with a donation from Sir Run Run Shaw, the film and philanthropy magnate, and is named after him. Shaw sits chronologically between the three founding colleges and the five newer ones: founded later than the original trio but earlier than the post-2006 colleges, which is why it is often singled out as the "fourth college".

According to the Wikipedia entry on Shaw College^※, Shaw was the first CUHK college without its own teaching facilities — an arrangement that neatly epitomises the colleges' repositioning after the 1976 reform: teaching authority was centralised at the University, leaving the colleges to focus on general education, residential life and whole-person development. Shaw sits in the north-western part of the campus, facing Tolo Harbour, and boasts some of the most open views of any of the nine colleges.

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# 2. Founding Story and Naming: Sir Run Run Shaw

# Sir Run Run Shaw and the Donation

According to the Wikipedia entry on Shaw College^※, in May 1985 Sir Run Run Shaw pledged HK$110 million to CUHK to establish a new college. Sir Run Run was one of the founding figures of Hong Kong's film and television industries (Shaw Brothers, TVB), and in his later years became renowned for large-scale philanthropic giving to education — the "Run Run Shaw Buildings" and "Run Run Shaw Science Centres" scattered across universities in mainland China and Hong Kong all trace back to his donations. Shaw College is his most enduring mark on CUHK.

# Legislative Establishment and First Intake

According to Wikipedia, on 30 July 1986 the Legislative Council formally passed the ordinance establishing Shaw College; in September 1988 the college admitted its first cohort of students. The foundation ceremony was held on 12 January 1987, with Sir Run Run Shaw and the then Acting Governor as guests of honour; 12 January has since been observed as the college's annual Founder's Day.

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# 3. The Motto: "Cultivating Virtue and Learning"

According to the Wikipedia entry on Shaw College^※, Shaw's motto is "cultivating virtue and learning" (修德講學), drawn from the Analects, Shu Er: 「德之不修，学之不讲，闻义不能徙，不善不能改，是吾忧也。」 ("To fail to cultivate virtue, to fail to practise learning, to hear what is right and not follow it, to see what is wrong and not change it — these are my worries.") Confucius holds "cultivating virtue" and "practising learning" together, insisting that moral self-cultivation and the pursuit of scholarship cannot be separated. Shaw took this as its motto in the hope that students would pursue virtue and learning in tandem. Together with Chung Chi's "to shine in resplendent virtue" (止於至善), United's "bright virtue and new people" (明德新民) and New Asia's "sincerity and clarity" (誠明), it forms a lineage of Confucian-derived mottos running from the founding colleges to the fourth.

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# 4. The Building Cluster of the Western Hillside

# Location and Layout

Shaw College lies in the north-western part of the CUHK campus, next to Tai Po Mei Hang and facing Tolo Harbour; according to the English Wikipedia entry^※, its approximate coordinates are 22°25′22″N 114°12′04″E. Compared with Chung Chi (south-east), New Asia (north) and United (south-west), Shaw sits at the far north-western corner of campus — a slightly longer walk from University Station, but with wide, quiet views across Tolo Harbour towards Ma On Shan, making it one of CUHK's most photographed spots. According to the official buildings and facilities page^※, the college's main buildings are Wen Lan Tang, Kuo Mou Hall, Student Hostel II, Nga Kwan House, Hin Ying Ming Building and the Large Lecture Theatre. The blocks are linked by a series of covered walkways along the hillside, with pronounced level differences between them — a typical slice of CUHK's mountain-campus topography.

# Wen Lan Tang: The "Heart" of the College

Wen Lan Tang (文澜堂) is Shaw's hub for student activities and administration, completed and opened at the same time as the first residence, Kuo Mou Hall. According to the official facilities page^※, Wen Lan Tang houses the College Office, the Lee Woo Sing Hong Kong History Resource Centre, the Fanny Fong Gallery for Sustainable Art, computer and multimedia laboratories, multi-function activity rooms, music rehearsal rooms and practice studios. The Ngok Kiu Gallery on the ground floor of the Large Lecture Theatre serves as a permanent space for arts and cultural exhibitions. Day-to-day administration, general education course registration and student society registration are all handled through Wen Lan Tang. The name "Wen Lan" suggests "cultural waves" (文化波瀾); the University has offered no further explanation, but it sits comfortably with the college's "cultivating virtue and learning" cultural stance.

# Student Residences: Kuo Mou Hall and Student Hostel II

Shaw currently has two student residences with a total of 1,211 places^※ (official introduction page, 2025/26 academic year):

Kuo Mou Hall was originally called "Student Hostel I" and was formally named in 1998 after its donor (sources differ slightly on its opening year — the Traditional Chinese Wikipedia says September 1989, English Wikipedia September 1990). Its ground floor houses an indoor multi-purpose sports hall and a hair salon, next to the college bus stop. The high block of Student Hostel II was named "Yat Sen Hall" in 2010, following donations from Dr. Lam Kin-chung and Dr. Ho Hau-hay, in commemoration of the centenary of the 1911 Revolution — "Yat Sen" being the courtesy name of Sun Yat-sen. According to English Wikipedia, the high block provides 487 places and the low block 148, with the two linked by an elevated pedestrian bridge.

# Mona Shaw Hall: A Third Residence Under Construction

Mona Shaw Hall is Shaw's third student residence, currently under construction. According to the CUHK official press release^※ (1 December 2022):

• Naming: Named after Mrs. Mona Fong Yick-wah, wife of Sir Run Run Shaw, the college's founder, in recognition of her contributions to the college;
• Donation: The Shaw Foundation (Hong Kong) Limited donated HK$100 million towards construction;
• Scale: Approximately 300 places, built on the former outdoor basketball court, Alumni Path and barbecue area;
• Completion: The official press release gives the second quarter of 2025, while the Campus Development Office notice^※ records the second quarter of 2026; the two figures differ slightly, and the latest official announcement (Q2 2026) should be taken as authoritative.

Once Mona Shaw Hall opens, Shaw's total bed places will rise from the current 1,211 to over 1,500^※, putting nearly half of the college's students within reach of a residential place.

# Facilities: The Most Complete Gym on Campus

According to the official facilities page^※ and the CUTSA college handbook^※, Shaw's ancillary facilities are the most complete of any of CUHK's nine colleges, with "the most extensive fitness equipment on campus". Daily dining is covered by Café Shaw (light meals) and SeeYou@Shaw (a fusion restaurant, for proper meals); sports facilities include an indoor multi-purpose sports hall, a gym, dance studio, squash courts, table tennis rooms and an outdoor basketball court; for study there is a 24-hour self-study centre (Hin Ying Ming Building), computer/multimedia laboratories and music rehearsal rooms. In 2023 the college completed the installation of a solar panel system, which, according to the University, generates around 314,700 kWh of clean electricity per year.

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# 5. College General Education, Communal Dining and Traditional Activities

Although Shaw is not fully residential, its resident community is lively. According to the CUTSA college handbook^※, the college operates a "guaranteed residence once in four years" policy — every undergraduate is assured at least one year of hostel accommodation over their four-year programme, but is not required to live in every year. The current 1,211 places serve approximately 3,400 students — a ratio of about 36% — which is expected to rise to around 44% once Mona Shaw Hall is completed. According to the official hostel life page^※, the college frames residence as "an experience, not merely a place to live", and resident tutors regularly organise inter-hall dinners, festive gatherings, cooking competitions and board game nights.

# College General Education and Service Learning

Shaw's College General Education (GESC) programme is separate from University General Education, offering about 40 courses^※ each academic year across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, business innovation and global issues. According to the official Shaw general education page^※, the requirements vary by year of admission: students entering from 2025/26 onwards must take one service-learning course (6 credits) plus one general education course; students admitted earlier must take two general education or service-learning courses (6 credits in total). There are three service-learning courses: GESC1230 (Community Care), GESC2330 (Reducing Inequalities, mapped to UN SDG 10) and GESC2360 (Environmental Justice in Action).

# A Signature GE Course: Appreciating Cantonese Opera

Alongside the GESC framework, Shaw offers its own college-specific general education course, "Appreciating Cantonese Opera" (粵劇欣賞). According to the official college GE course page^※, the course was introduced in the 2016/17 academic year and combines lectures, site visits to performance venues, and student performance, creative or research work; the stated aim is to "deepen students' understanding of Chinese culture and aesthetics and enhance their personal character". Since 2022, Ms. Fanny Fong has sponsored a dedicated scholarship promoting sustainable practices in the arts, and the "Fanny Fong Gallery for Sustainable Art" in Wen Lan Tang is named after her. Through the medium of Lingnan's traditional performing art, the course weaves moral cultivation and aesthetic education into the college's general education programme, in the same spirit as the "cultivating virtue and learning" motto.

# High Table Dinners and Communal Dining

The High Table Dinner is a local adaptation of the Oxbridge college tradition of formal communal dining, with students and staff sharing a formal meal and guest speakers addressing the table. Shaw holds at least one each semester; according to the official high table page^※, the dinners count as "non-formal educational activities within the college's general education programme", with speakers addressing topics such as community service, environmental protection, arts and culture, mediation and culinary appreciation. According to the official prospective students page^※, Shaw students must attend at least three college assemblies per semester, and high table dinners count towards this — formally embedding "communal dining" into the general education assessment system. Unlike fully residential, communal-dining colleges such as Morningside and S.H. Ho, Shaw anchors its communal dining tradition in the high table rather than daily meals; informal get-togethers in the hostels supplement it. There is no requirement to dine together every day, fitting the college's scale of around 3,400 students.

# The Four Signature Activities

According to the official introduction page^※ and the official prospective students page^※, Shaw holds four signature college events each year:

The most iconic of these is Shaw Lane, which, according to the English Wikipedia entry^※, grew out of an earlier joint booths-and-market event run by the hostels, later evolving into a college-wide carnival — now the highest-attended one-day college event of the year. Founder's Day (12 January) commemorates the college's 1987 foundation ceremony and remains the annual highlight.

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# 6. Heads of College

According to Wikipedia, Shaw's first Head was Professor Chan Kai-nai (Department of Psychiatry, 1987–1994); the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees was Professor Ma Lin (former CUHK Vice-Chancellor, 1987–2011). The line of Heads continues to the present incumbent, Professor Leung Yiu-kin (from 2020^※), who champions a whole-person education built on "soul and conscience". Ma Lin's decision to lend his prestige as a former Vice-Chancellor to the chairmanship of the new college's board gave its earliest years a deep institutional grounding. Mr. Fung Siu-to, Chairman of the college's Board of Trustees, said at the Mona Shaw Hall groundbreaking ceremony: "We look forward to the completion of Mona Shaw Hall so that more Shaw College students can experience hostel life."

For living persons, only neutral facts are recorded; the full list of Heads follows official and authoritative sources.

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# 7. Anecdotes and Rumours (Low Reliability)

Reliability note: The contents of this section are largely campus folklore, word-of-mouth stories or internet forum anecdotes, unverified by authoritative historical sources and of low reliability — included for cultural interest only, and not to be cited as fact. This site does not adopt subjective judgements about living persons; the following anecdotes do not correspond to any real individual.

"Run Run Shaw Buildings Everywhere" — a campus talking point

Because Sir Run Run Shaw donated "Run Run Shaw Buildings" to universities across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, students at Shaw College often joke among themselves about "how many Run Run Shaw Buildings are there in the country?" and "we're the original Run Run Shaw". For the record: Sir Run Run did indeed fund buildings named after him at many universities in mainland China and Hong Kong, but the many circulating figures about the exact number of "Run Run Shaw Buildings" at each institution are contradictory and unverified — mostly internet lore, not authoritative statistics. This site does not adopt any specific number and records this only as a campus talking point.

"No teaching facilities = a lesser college" — a misreading

One occasionally hears Shaw's lack of independent teaching facilities misread as a sign of "lower status". For the record: Shaw was founded after the 1976 reform, when the colleges' role had been redefined as general education and whole-person development, with teaching authority centralised at the University. This is a matter of institutional design, not of status; such a reading is a misreading, and of low reliability.

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