United College: "To Illustrate Virtue and Renovate the People", the Merging of Five Schools, and the Guangdong Tertiary Tradition

Chung Chi was founded by the Church, New Asia by scholars — but United College was stitched together. In 1956, five privately run Guangdong tertiary colleges, each displaced south by the political tides and struggling to survive on its own, merged into one at the suggestion of a Columbia University president. This singular origin gives it a third temperament among CUHK's three founding colleges: the pragmatic, southbound spirit of self-reliance. This article surveys United College's origins, landmarks, traditions and notable figures: its motto "明德新民" ("to illustrate virtue and renovate the people"), and its pioneering role at CUHK in launching electronic engineering, biochemistry and social work.

This is the consolidated profile for United College, far more detailed than the United section in the volume overview. For the wider context of the University's founding and restructuring, see Chung Chi · United · New Asia: The Three Founding Colleges and The Fulton Reform and College Autonomy. This article focuses on the College itself.

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# 1. At a Glance

According to the official United College page^※, United College was formed in 1956 from the merger of five tertiary colleges: Guangqiao (Canton Overseas), Guangxia (Kwang Hsia), Huaqiao (Wah Kiu), Wenhua (Wen Hua) and Pingzheng (Ping Jing). Among the three founding colleges, United has the most unusual pedigree: it is not the continuation of a single institution but the "united self-strengthening" of several Guangdong private tertiary colleges closely tied to Hong Kong, in the 1950s.

According to official sources, United College was historically the first at CUHK to launch electronic engineering, biochemistry and social work, giving it a pioneering role in academic development. The College also emphasises innovation and entrepreneurship, moral education, environmental protection and physical and mental well-being.

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# 2. Founding History: From Five Colleges to Ma Liu Shui

# The Five Predecessor Colleges

According to Wikipedia's United College entry^※ and the official United College history^※, the five colleges that merged were all private universities or tertiary colleges based in Guangzhou and its vicinity with close ties to Hong Kong; each moved south to Hong Kong around 1949 as the political situation deteriorated, and each had its own founding year:

The founders of the five predecessor colleges were for the most part senior administrators or department heads from mainland private universities (the private Canton University, Great China University and Sun Yat-sen University). United College's faculty and educational philosophy were thus, in effect, the continuation and regeneration in Hong Kong of mainland private higher education from the 1930s and 1940s. According to Wikipedia, in the 1950s eight private tertiary colleges discussed merging, and during negotiations three withdrew — per the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, the three that pulled out were Chu Hai College, Heung Kong College and Kwong Tai College. Chu Hai chose to continue as an independent institution (it still operates in Hong Kong today) and never joined United. Ultimately the five colleges named above merged to establish United College in June 1956. This process of "uniting" is precisely the origin of the College's name — self-strengthening through union, keeping alive the flame of Guangdong private higher education.

The "overseas Chinese" and "commerce" character: Of the five names, "Guangqiao" and "Huaqiao" both contain the character 侨 (overseas Chinese), reflecting the colleges' ties to the overseas Chinese community and to Lingnan-style community-founded education; "Ping Jing College of Accountancy" points directly to a pragmatic orientation toward commerce and accountancy. This underlying character of overseas-Chinese community education, pragmatic and applied gave United a practical temperament that from the start distinguished it from Chung Chi (Christian humanism) and New Asia (Chinese cultural humanism). The founders' résumés show this "pragmatism" was no idle claim — Chan Ping-kuen, Wang Yuk-kai, Ng Hong and Wong Man-oi had mostly held senior administrative posts or chaired departments at mainland institutions such as the private Canton University, Great China University and Sun Yat-sen University. They were seasoned administrators who carried an entire body of mainland private-higher-education management experience to Hong Kong during a period of upheaval — not self-made scholars starting from scratch (a point of contrast with New Asia's founders Ch'ien Mu and Tang Chun-i, who saw themselves as bearers of a cultural mission).

# The Catalyst: The Asia Foundation and a Columbia President's Suggestion

Why would five small colleges merge? According to the English Wikipedia entry, "United College of Hong Kong"^※, the immediate catalyst was a visit: in early 1956, Grayson Kirk, president of Columbia University and head of the Asia Foundation, visited Hong Kong. Learning of the difficult circumstances under which these colleges were each trying to operate, he suggested they merge; that June, the five institutions announced they were joining forces to form United College of Hong Kong. This episode confirms a theme of 1950s Hong Kong higher education: the deep involvement of North American foundations. The Asia Foundation not only funded education but played a decisive role in consolidating fragmented small colleges — the five-in-one merger was a product of external matchmaking and internal integration. Chung Chi stood on its joint board of trustees, New Asia on the Yale-China Association and the Ford Foundation, while United was born of the Asia Foundation's "matchmaking" — the three colleges' differing foreign-patronage routes are covered in The "Foreign Support" Networks of the Founding Era.

# 1956–1962: Registration at Caine Road, Borrowed Premises on Bonham Road

According to Wikipedia, United College was initially housed at 147 Caine Road (the former west campus of Chung Chi College). In 1957, the College was formally registered under ordinance, with a board of trustees as its governing body, and Dr. F. I. Tseung became the first Head and board chairman; the College already had more than 600 students at this early stage, per the source. That same year, United joined Chung Chi and New Asia in forming the "Hong Kong Chinese Colleges Association," laying the groundwork for what would become CUHK. In May 1962, it moved into premises on Bonham Road. From the urban campus on Caine Road to its eventual relocation to the CUHK campus in Sha Tin, United College travelled from "urban patchwork" to "settlement in the hill town."

# 1963: Joining Forces in CUHK

According to the English Wikipedia entry^※, in 1963 The Chinese University of Hong Kong was formally established, with United College, Chung Chi and New Asia as its founding member colleges.

# 1971: Moving to Ma Liu Shui, Sha Tin

According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, in December 1971 United College moved to its present site in the middle of the CUHK campus at Ma Liu Shui, Sha Tin. The CUHK University Archives hold a historical photo collection, "The United College Under Construction"^※, documenting the building of the Sha Tin campus.

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# 3. The Motto: 明德新民 ("To Illustrate Virtue and Renovate the People")

According to official sources and Wikipedia, United College's motto is 「明德新民」, from the Great Learning chapter of the Book of Rites: "The way of the great learning lies in illustrating illustrious virtue, in renovating the people, and in resting in the highest good." As Wikipedia glosses it, 「明德」 refers to the Confucian conviction that every person is endowed with an innate luminous virtue, while 「新民」 holds that personal achievement is not confined to self-cultivation but lies in "extending oneself to others" — together the motto means "illustrate one's own virtue so as to renovate the people," valuing both personal cultivation and social responsibility. This motto shares its scriptural source — the Great Learning — with Chung Chi's motto 「止于至善」 ("rest in the highest good"), showing the common root the three founding colleges draw from the Confucian classics. According to Wikipedia, the melody of the United College song was composed by Susan Tan, with lyrics written in four-character verse by Professor Chan Chuen-cham (陈湛铨), the founding head of the College's Chinese Department — the involvement of scholars of literature, history and philosophy in shaping college identity being a tradition shared by all three founding colleges.

Three colleges, three temperaments: Looking back at CUHK's founding trio, each has a distinct spiritual hue — Chung Chi is Christian humanism, carrying on the tradition of Christian universities in China; New Asia is Chinese cultural humanism, carrying on the cultural mission of the southbound scholars; United is pragmatic and southbound, formed from the merger of five Guangdong private institutions, with the character of overseas-Chinese community education and commercial pragmatism. The coexistence of these three temperaments meant that CUHK was, from its very founding, a pluralistic university — the product not of a single tradition but of the convergence on a Sha Tin hill town of three forces: Christianity, Chinese culture and practical utility. This pluralistic gene is the key to understanding why CUHK has always "embraced all and tolerated all."

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# 4. Signature Buildings and Landmarks

United College occupies the central part of the CUHK campus and has many buildings. According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, its principal buildings and facilities include:

• Tsang Sin-tak Building (Block A teaching building) and Cheng Tung-choy Building (Block C teaching building; named in 1980 in memory of the third Head, Cheng Tung-choy).
• Wu Chung Library: the United College library, named for the philanthropist Wu Chung.
• Cheung Chuk-shan Amenities Building for Staff and Students and Cheung Hun Cheung Gymnasium: staff-student activity and sports facilities, named for the Cheung Chuk-shan and Cheung Hun-cheung families.
• Sze Yuen Hall: the student bar, opened in 2006, a small piece of United student culture in its own right.

The Wu Chung Library's three name changes: According to the official CUHK Library page^※, the United College Library moved with the College's premises from its founding in 1956 (from Caine Road to Bonham Road), then on 3 January 1972 relocated with the College to the present Sha Tin campus, where it was named "Wu Chung Library" after a donation from the businessman Wu Chung; in 2001 it was renamed "United College Wu Chung Multi-Media Library"; and after May–August 2018 renovation, when the multimedia collections were redistributed to other branch libraries, the library reverted to "Wu Chung Library," with the refurbished basement converted into a shared learning space. This name cycle — "Wu Chung → Wu Chung Multi-Media → Wu Chung" — neatly mirrors a small slice of the university library system's history: digitisation, then a return to shared physical space. According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry on Wu Chung the businessman^※, Wu Chung (1902–1991), a native of Hua County, Guangdong, started out driving taxis, then founded a taxi company and by the mid-1960s was the "Taxi King," owning nearly half of Hong Kong's taxis, while also dabbling in property. In later life he was a keen philanthropist: besides donating the United College library, he funded Po Leung Kuk Wu Chung College and the Yan Chai Hospital nurses' quarters, and served as chairman of Yan Chai Hospital and director of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.

Student halls (five in total): According to Wikipedia, United has Adam Schall Hall, Benjamin Franklin Centre, Hang Seng Hall, Chan Chun Ha Hall and Choi Kai Yau Hostel (opened in 2025). Names like "Adam Schall" and "Benjamin Franklin" reflect the College's cultural orientation of embracing both Chinese and Western traditions. According to Dotdotnews reporting^※, construction of Choi Kai Yau Hostel began in July 2022, on a site of about 2,805 square metres with four storeys, originally scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2025 and providing about 250 additional bed spaces once finished; the five halls together accommodate more than 1,000 students. The donor Choi Kai-yau (1928–2007), a native of Zhongshan, Guangdong, worked in fisheries in Guangdong in his early years, moved to Macau in 1954 to trade in seafood for re-export to Hong Kong, founded the Suncity Group in 1957, and later expanded his frozen-seafood trade to Southeast Asia and North America, earning the nickname "Seafood King." In later life he gave long-term support to education across the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong: besides the United College hostel, Nanjing University also has a teaching building named after him. For the residential system and the common tradition of college life across the nine colleges, see College Life and Hall Culture.

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# 5. Heads of College

According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, the successive Heads of United College are:

1. F. I. Tseung (蒋法贤) (1957–1959; first Council chairman and Head)
2. Ling Doo-yang (凌道扬) (1960–1963; noted forester and soil-conservation specialist)
3. Cheng Tung-choy (郑栋材) (1963–1977)
4. Hsieh Shou-sheng (薛寿生) (1977–1980)
5. Chen Tien-chi (陈天机) (1980–1988)
6. Lee Choh-yiu (李卓予) (1988–1998)
7. Wong Kwan-yiu (黄钧尧) (1998–2002)
8. Fung Kwok-pui (冯国培) (2002–2012)
9. Yu Jie-mei (余济美) (2012–2022)
10. Stephen Wong Heung-sang (王香生) (2022–present)

Ling Doo-yang and Cheng Tung-choy left deep marks on the College — in the naming of its buildings (Cheng Tung-choy Building) and in academic influence. Ling Doo-yang also served as Head of Chung Chi College, making him a figure spanning two colleges. The current Head, Professor Stephen Wong Heung-sang, was chair of the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education at CUHK before his appointment, specialising in children's physical activity and sports nutrition; he took up the Headship in 2022, per the official appointment announcement^※.

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# 6. General Education and College Life

United College's "whole-person education" is no abstract slogan — it is embedded in concrete curricular and activity design. According to the official United College history^※ and Wikipedia, the College's general education consists chiefly of the following components:

• College Assembly: held weekly, with invited speakers lecturing on cultural, scientific and social topics; a fixed programme in which all students participate.
• Introductory courses on university life: aimed at new students, helping them adjust to university and college life.
• Academic interest series on five themes: lectures and activities organised around different academic fields, broadening knowledge beyond the classroom.
• Social-enterprise internships and community-service programmes: taking students beyond the campus to practise the motto's spirit of 明德新民 through social-enterprise or community-service work.

This design is continuous with the dual-track arrangement described in the nine-college general-education overview — "departments manage the major, the college manages the whole person." According to Wikipedia, United's orientation camp is generally held in late August each year, lasting three to four days, and is new students' first lesson in joining the college community — resonating with the distinctive orientation cultures of each college covered in Orientation Camps and New-Student Adjustment. Sze Yuen Hall, the only student bar on the whole campus and operating since 2006, is an important corner of United student social life and is often seen as a microcosm of United's temperament of "in the world yet not estranged from it" — a college born of a five-school merger carries a student culture with a whiff of the city's streets, unlike the stillness of Chung Chi's chapel or the scholarly aura of New Asia's studies.

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# 7. Notable Alumni

According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, United College has produced a large number of alumni active in culture, politics, business and the professions:

According to the Chinese Wikipedia entry on Joanna Tse^※, when SARS broke out in Hong Kong in 2003, Tuen Mun Hospital's internal-medicine wards were desperately short of doctors; Tse volunteered to transfer to the SARS ward, was infected after intubating critically ill patients on multiple occasions, and died on duty on 13 May that year. She was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Bravery, the highest honour for medical staff. For the overall experience of the CUHK medical faculty and the Prince of Wales Hospital during SARS, see The Prince of Wales Hospital and SARS; for a horizontal comparison of notable alumni across the nine colleges, see Notable Alumni of CUHK.

United College alumni, rooted in the Guangdong tertiary tradition and guided by the motto 明德新民, span the worlds of entertainment, medicine, education, politics and media, with particularly outstanding contributions in social service and the professions.

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# 8. Anecdotes and Rumours (Low Reliability)

Reliability note: The material in this section is mostly street talk, campus hearsay or internet-forum lore. It has not been confirmed by authoritative historical sources and should be treated with caution. It is offered for cultural interest only and must not be cited as history. This site does not repeat subjective judgements about living persons; the rumours below correspond to no real individual.

The dramatised version of the "eight colleges negotiating, three withdrawing"

Folklore surrounding the "originally eight, three withdrew" process before United's founding includes several dramatic retellings, claiming that such-and-such a college withdrew over "distribution of interests" or "factional infighting." Note: the facts that eight colleges negotiated and five eventually formed United are well documented, but the specific reasons and personnel details of the withdrawals are mostly unattributable to any reliable primary source — they are later embellishments told from a particular standpoint, of low reliability and not to be taken as fact.

The fanciful gloss on "Adam Schall Hall"

One of United's halls is named for the Jesuit missionary Adam Schall, who came to China at the end of the Ming dynasty. There is a folk theory that reads this as implying "some religious origin of the College." Note: United College itself has no Chung Chi-style Christian background. Naming halls after figures from both Chinese and Western traditions such as Adam Schall and Benjamin Franklin reflects the College's culturally inclusive, eclectic orientation — not a religious lineage. Reading the names as a "hidden religious history" is folk embellishment, of low reliability.

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