The “Foreign-Aid” Network of the Founding Era: Yale-China, the United Board, and CUHK’s Three Colleges in the Cold War

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was established in 1963 as a federation of three colleges: Chung Chi College, New Asia College, and United College (for the founding history, see 00-overview/history.md). This article does not repeat the individual histories of the three colleges; instead, it focuses on a side of the story often glossed over but deeply characteristic of the era: the network of overseas funding that sustained and expanded the three colleges during the 1950s and 1960s — a network that provided CUHK’s material foundations and also cast a Cold War shadow over Hong Kong’s higher education. All institutional names, dates, and funding relationships are cited to source; interpretations are juxtaposed using attributed statements; the museum does not adjudicate.

# 1. An Underappreciated Fact: All Three CUHK Colleges Were Built on Overseas Support

Around 1949, a wave of institutions and scholars moved south to Hong Kong as the mainland Chinese regime changed. The three colleges were founded almost simultaneously amid acute material scarcity, and what kept them afloat through the first dozen or so years was, to a very large extent, a network of funding from North America and Britain. According to each college’s official history:

This pattern means that CUHK’s “internationalisation” is not an issue that first appeared in the 2000s — it was written into the university’s founding DNA. The difference is that the “international” of that era meant the North American church and foundation network under the Cold War order.

# 2. Chung Chi College and the United Board

# 2.1 A Hong Kong Continuation of the Thirteen Christian Universities in China

According to Chung Chi College: Brief History^※, Chung Chi College was founded in October 1951 by representatives of Hong Kong’s Christian churches, with the aim of providing a local higher education institution that would be “both Chinese and Christian.” Chung Chi carried forward the tradition of the thirteen Christian universities formerly on the Chinese mainland — in the early 1950s, as those mainland Christian universities closed one after another, large numbers of young people came to Hong Kong eager to continue their studies, and Chung Chi was created in response. According to the same official history, the founders included the then Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Ronald Hall; Dr. Li Ying-lin, former president of Lingnan University; and Mr. Ou Weiguo, former chairman of the board of St. John’s University, Shanghai.

# 2.2 The Role of the United Board

According to the English Wikipedia entry on the United Board^※, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, previously known as the Associated Boards for Christian Colleges in China, was founded in New York in 1922, with the initial purpose of helping the Christian universities in China co-ordinate resources, recruit faculty, purchase equipment, and raise funds overseas. After the mainland Christian universities closed, the organisation shifted its support focus to Hong Kong and elsewhere. According to Chung Chi’s official brief history^※, Chung Chi’s expansion was made possible precisely by financial support from North America (channelled through the United Board and the Trustees of Lingnan University) and from Britain (via the British Association of Christian Universities in Asia); Chung Chi was formally incorporated under Hong Kong law in 1955.

# 3. New Asia College and the Yale-China Association

# 3.1 A Partnership Sparked by a Single Visit

According to New Asia’s official account, “The Link between Yale-China and New Asia”^※, in 1953, Professor Harry R. Rudin, chair of the Yale University History Department, visited Hong Kong and met with New Asia’s founder, Mr. Ch’ien Mu (錢穆). Rudin was moved by New Asia’s ideals and early achievements, and recommended that the Yale-China Association (Yale-in-China) provide support to the college. After months of discussion, Yale-China formally entered into a partnership with New Asia in early 1954.

According to the English Wikipedia entry on the Yale-China Association^※, the association was founded in 1901 by Yale alumni, faculty, and students, and operated for much of the twentieth century under the name “Yale-in-China,” with an early mission of promoting modern education and medicine in China. Its relationship with New Asia, as the official history states, was one of “support and assistance, not direct management” — a departure from Yale-in-China’s earlier model of directly running institutions in Changsha.

# 3.2 The Concrete Forms of Funding

According to New Asia’s official history^※, Yale-China’s support for New Asia was multi-layered and long-term:

• Subsidising annual operating expenses to ease the college’s financial pressure during its start-up years;
• Posting Teaching Fellows (Yale Bachelors): from 1956 onwards, Yale-China sent recent Yale graduates to live at the college, teach English, and assist with extra-curricular activities;
• Campus and library: in conjunction with donations from the Ford Foundation and others, the partnership helped New Asia relocate to its permanent campus on Farm Road (1956–60) and build up its library collection;
• Subject expansion: the official history notes that an Arts Department was established in 1959 as Yale-China’s funding increased, and between 1960 and 1961, science departments such as Mathematics, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry were founded in succession;
• Language centre: in 1963 (the same year CUHK was founded), the New Asia–Yale-in-China Chinese Language Centre was set up (later evolving into a related Yale-China Chinese teaching body);
• Long-term continuity: according to the official account, a Yale-China scholarship was established in 1989, and the Yale-New Asia (YUNA) student exchange programme began in 1993.

The Yale-China/New Asia connection is regarded by both sides as one of Yale-China’s most enduring partnerships, now spanning more than sixty years. The Yale-China representative office in Hong Kong is housed in Cheng Ming Building on the New Asia campus (see 10-colleges/new-asia-college.md).

# 4. United College: Sustaining Five into One

According to the official history of United College^※ and English Wikipedia^※, United College was formed in 1956 by the merger of five private colleges tied to Guangzhou and its surrounding region — Guangqiao, Guangxia, Huaqiao, Wenhua, and Pingzheng College of Accountancy. It was incorporated under the relevant ordinance in 1957 with a Board of Governors as its governing body, and its first head and Board Chairman was Dr. F. I. Tseung. United College was subsequently folded into the same overseas funding system that served the three colleges, and together with Chung Chi and New Asia became one of the three founding member colleges of CUHK in 1963.

# 5. Cold War Context and Competing Interpretations

The network of foreign aid to CUHK’s three founding colleges cannot be understood apart from the Cold War landscape of the 1950s and 1960s. Given the “support, not management” framing described in New Asia’s official history^※ and the extensive involvement of various foundations, scholarly circles hold differing interpretations of this period:

Interpretation one (cultural continuity): The funding from North American churches and foundations allowed émigré scholars to preserve the lifeline of Chinese culture and higher education in Hong Kong — a material safety net for “carrying on the lost teachings of past sages” in an age of upheaval. Yale-China’s principle of “support, not management” safeguarded the college’s academic autonomy and cultural integrity.

Interpretation two (Cold War geopolitics): Some research places the 1950s–60s American foundation support for Hong Kong higher education within the framework of Cold War “cultural diplomacy” and “Free World” camp-building, viewing it as one piece of a larger geopolitical picture.

The two interpretations are not mutually exclusive — a single grant could well be motivated by cultural concern and simultaneously embedded in geopolitical calculation. The museum juxtaposes the two views and endorses neither; readers should be aware that from its very inception, CUHK has stood at the intersection of the tension between “Chinese cultural identity” and “international funding networks.”

This long through-line of tension between “Chineseness” and “internationality” runs through many of the controversies that have marked CUHK’s subsequent half-century — from the 1976 Fulton reforms (see 13-governance-and-reform/fulton-reform-and-college-autonomy.md) to the great language-of-instruction and internationalisation debates of the 2000s (see 13-governance-and-reform/bilingualism-and-internationalisation-2004-2007.md). The overseas-aid network of the founding era was the wellspring of that through-line.