The true names of two landmarks: Ju Ming’s Gate of Wisdom (the Beacon Tower / Zhongmen) and New Asia’s Pavilion of Harmony

⚠️ This article belongs to the unorthodox history module (15 Campus Lore, Anecdotes & Voices). The official names, artists, donors, dates, and intended meanings of the sculpture and building have been verified against official and secondary sources; the graduation superstition surrounding the "Beacon Tower" is drawn from campus folklore and has been cross-referenced per §6.6. It should be treated as student lore, not fact. Where specific living individuals are involved, they are not named; artists, architects, donors, and deceased scholars are named according to public records. This article complements campus-legends-and-landmarks.md — the latter focuses on the legends themselves, while this one focuses on tracing the correct names and the donations.

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A sculpture that was originally called simply Gate, yet inspired an elaborate urban legend among CUHK students about whether you would graduate. A waterside pavilion that never had a fixed name, yet was declared "Hong Kong's second-best view" by a Vice-Chancellor for its homage to a late New Confucian scholar’s philosophical discourse. The Gate of Wisdom and the Pavilion of Harmony are two of the most fascinating landmarks on the CUHK campus when it comes to the relationship between a name and the thing itself.

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# 1. The true name of the "Beacon Tower": from Gate to Zhongmen to Gate of Wisdom

What CUHK students call the "Beacon Tower" (also known as Zhongmen) in fact has a different official name, a precise date of creation, and a documented donation story.

# 1.1 Background: the final branch of the Taichi series, the "Arch" series

According to the English Wikipedia entry on Ju Ming^※, Ju Ming (born Ju Chuan-tai, 20 January 1938 – 22 April 2023) was a Taiwanese sculptor from Tongxiao, Miaoli County. In the mid-1970s, he studied under the senior sculptor Yang Ying-feng, who also advised him to practise tai chi. This experience later evolved into the most important theme of his sculptural career: using the bodily movements of tai chi as a foundation, he created the Taichi series, which captured the forms of martial arts moves and the flow of qi. He is regarded as one of the major representatives of modern Chinese-language sculpture.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Zhongmen^※, the bronze sculpture in CUHK’s collection was completed in 1986. It is the first official work from the "Arch series", the final phase of Ju Ming’s Taichi series, and was originally titled simply Gate. The "Arch series" was Ju Ming’s culminating creative arc, interpreting the flow of tai chi qi in abstract form. According to biographical records, he concluded the series in 2000 with Taichi Series – Taichi Arch. CUHK’s Gate (1986) is the work that began that arc.

# 1.2 The donor: Szeto Wai, CUHK’s "chief architect"

The arrival of this sculpture on the CUHK campus is owed to a figure who contributed profoundly to the University’s physical form. According to the Wikipedia entry on Szeto Wai^※, Szeto Wai (10 April 1913 – 24 July 1991) was a Hong Kong engineer and architect. He served as the University Architect of The Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1963 to 1978, and subsequently as Honorary Architect until his retirement in 1987. He "single-handedly planned the layout and design of the new CUHK campus", levelling the hills at Ma Liu Shui into a three-terrace configuration. Many of the University’s early major buildings — the Institute of Chinese Studies, the University Administration Building, the University Science Centre and its extension, the University Library, the entire United College campus, the Humanities Building at New Asia College, and more — came from his drawing board. Even the two water towers at New Asia and United Colleges (the "Gentleman’s Tower" and "Lady’s Tower"; see more-landmarks-towers-mall-and-lakes.md) were his designs. One could say that the overall skeleton of the hillside campus was, to a large extent, the work of Szeto Wai alone.

According to sources, it was Szeto Wai who donated Ju Ming’s bronze sculpture Gate to CUHK. The work was eventually placed in the centre of the square directly opposite the University Library, at the eastern end of University Mall — a spot students later came to call the "Beacon Tower".

# 1.3 Unveiled in 1987, alongside the "Wai Garden"

According to sources, the sculpture was formally unveiled in December 1987. Per a CUHK in Focus feature^※, it has stood in the square in front of the library for nearly four decades. For the unveiling ceremony, Szeto Wai, by then retired and living in the United States, made a special trip back to Hong Kong to attend. It is worth noting that another feature was inaugurated on the same day: a small fountain square in a faux-Roman style called the "Wai Garden", adjoining the northern edge of the Beacon Tower square, also designed and donated by Szeto Wai. According to sources, a lift tower had originally been planned for the Wai Garden site, but a lack of funds prevented it. Szeto Wai turned it into a small fountain square as a gift to his alma mater. Gate and the Wai Garden — a sculpture and a garden — were unveiled on the same day, together forming Szeto Wai’s final bequest to CUHK in his later years.

A note on the name: The student nickname "Beacon Tower / Zhongmen" coexists with the work’s original title Gate and its later renaming to Zhongmen (English: Gate of Wisdom). This represents a dual track of a folk name and the artist’s formal title. This archive presents both: "Beacon Tower" when discussing the legend, and "Zhongmen / Gate of Wisdom" when discussing the artwork.

# 1.4 The 2008 controversy: making way for a library extension?

According to sources, in 2008, to facilitate an expansion of the University Library in preparation for the change of Hong Kong’s undergraduate system from three to four years (the "3-3-4 academic structure"), the then Vice-Chancellor (referred to here by position in accordance with BLP protocols) suggested temporarily removing the sculpture. The news sparked fierce opposition from CUHK students. Following the objections, the sculpture was preserved. This is one of the landmark cases of "landmark preservation / heritage conservation" on the CUHK campus. According to a compilation by the CUHK Student Press, the Beacon Tower square itself has historically been one of the platforms for student activism, which may explain why students were so sensitive to its potential removal: it is not just a sculpture, but also a physical vessel for the University’s space of public expression.

# 1.5 Ju Ming retitles it Zhongmen: turning a taboo into an approachable wisdom

According to the Wikipedia entry on Zhongmen^※, Ju Ming returned to CUHK in 2006 to carry out refurbishment and conservation work on the sculpture. During this period, he learned of the urban legend circulating among students that "walking through the gate will prevent you from graduating". Wanting students to feel that the sculpture was approachable and could be walked through, he thus renamed it Zhongmen and gave it the English title Gate of Wisdom. This was the artist’s own positive response to a folk taboo: rather than let the legend run unchecked, he chose to "set the name right" himself, steering the sculpture’s symbolic meaning back in a positive direction.

On 14 December 2011, Ju Ming gave a talk at CUHK entitled "Art as a Form of Practice", sharing the story behind Zhongmen and his personal artistic philosophy. The following day (15 December), he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by CUHK, in recognition of his distinguished contribution to promoting art and cultural heritage.

A correction: Some accounts loosely attribute Ju Ming’s response to the legend to his 2011 talk. According to the research for this entry, the renaming actually took place around the time of the 2006 refurbishment. 2011 was the occasion of his honorary doctorate and art lecture. These are two distinct events and should be treated separately, not conflated.

On 22 April 2023, Ju Ming was found dead at his home in Taiwan, aged 85. According to Hong Kong press reports, he had been suffering from a long illness and took his own life; the preliminary cause of death was given as asphyxiation. CUHK subsequently stated that Zhongmen (Gate of Wisdom) holds profound meaning for members of the CUHK community — a sculpture that has stood at the heart of the campus for nearly four decades has now also become a physical memorial where CUHK members can mourn the Taiwanese master sculptor.

# 1.6 The "no graduation" legend (⚠ campus folklore)

The most famous campus legend at CUHK revolves around this sculpture. As compiled in an HK01 report on campus culture^※ (details in campus-legends-and-landmarks.md), multiple versions exist. The core claim is that "walking through the gate will affect your graduation". One version holds that passing through from the library side towards the Science Centre guarantees a first-class honours degree, while the reverse direction results in failing to graduate. What is intriguing is this: the work’s original concept was simply a "gate"; after re-titling, its formal name is Gate of Wisdom, signifying "to pass through a portal towards wisdom/success" — which is the exact opposite of the folk taboo about not graduating. The artist intended an auspicious omen; student legend turned it into an inauspicious one. Ju Ming himself even tried, through renaming, to dissolve this contradiction. This tension between a formal name and a folk reading is the most captivating aspect of campus unorthodox history: an object is invested with one meaning by the authorities, and a completely different one by the collective imagination of the students. Even when the artist steps forward to clarify, the legend persists, following its own logic.

The prevalence of the legend is documented (recorded multiple times by Hong Kong media), but its truth cannot be verified. It is typical campus folk culture and should not be cited as fact.

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# 2. New Asia’s Pavilion of Harmony: built for Ch’ien Mu’s "Union of Man and Nature"

At the other end of the campus stands New Asia College’s Pavilion of Harmony, a landmark whose name and meaning are equally well-matched, and whose history is documented with greater certainty than the Beacon Tower’s.

# 2.1 Date of completion, donor, and designer

According to the Wikipedia entry on the Pavilion of Harmony^※ and the official New Asia College campus tour^※, the Pavilion of Harmony is situated between the two student hostels, Xuesi Building and Zhixing Building, at New Asia College. It faces Tolo Harbour and looks out towards the Pat Sin Leng mountain range. New Asia College held the opening ceremony for the Pavilion of Harmony on 12 December 2003. The ceremony was jointly officiated by the donor, Ms. Wu Zonglin; the then Vice-Chancellor (named here as a historically neutral fact per sources), Professor Ambrose King Yeo-chi; the then Head of New Asia College, Professor Henry N.C. Wong; former Head of College, Professor Leung Ping-chung; and the pavilion’s architect, Professor Chan Wai-kee. This means that, from proposal and design to donation and completion, the Pavilion of Harmony has a clearer, more verifiable "archival-grade" timeline than many campus landmarks.

According to sources, the pavilion was built to pay tribute to the founder of New Asia College, Mr. Ch’ien Mu, and his philosophical discourse on "the Union of Man and Nature". The then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ambrose King, once praised the Pavilion of Harmony as "Hong Kong’s second-best view" — a remark that itself became a frequently cited "official endorsement" in later introductions of the pavilion.

# 2.2 Design details: glass, the Crescent Pool, and "water blending into sky"

According to sources, the Pavilion of Harmony is constructed from "two long rows of glass", one facing open air and the other a wall, with a transparent roof that allows for ventilation and natural light. In front of the pavilion lies a crescent-shaped pool of extremely shallow depth, with a large tree planted within it. Bamboo grows beside the pavilion, and stone benches beneath it provide resting spots. The architect deliberately infused the Pavilion of Harmony with the spiritual essence of the "Union of Man and Nature", using the structure to reflect the harmony between "Life" and "the Mandate of Heaven".

What the pavilion is most praised for is the visual effect created by the alignment of its water feature with Tolo Harbour and the sky in the distance. According to sources, the pool water and the landscape of Tolo Harbour align "almost into a single thread", creating an effect of "water blending into sky". With its mirror-like surface, the sky, sea, and pavilion appear to merge into one, transforming the abstract philosophical ideal of the "Union of Man and Nature" into an immediate spatial experience. This is also the most literal physical manifestation of the word "Harmony".

# 2.3 Wall inscriptions: a collaboration between two Fine Arts professors

According to sources, the pavilion interior features an inscribed text of Ch’ien Mu’s essay "On the Union of Man and Nature", along with a seal bearing the characters "天人合一" (Union of Man and Nature). The calligraphy is the work of former Fine Arts Department professor Li Yun-wun, and the seal was carved by Fine Arts professor Tang Kam-teng. Both are neutral or positive facts, and the artists are named according to public records. This means the Pavilion of Harmony is not simply an architectural project; it is a composite landmark blending architecture (Chan Wai-kee), calligraphy (Li Yun-wun), and seal carving (Tang Kam-teng), and has attracted many tourists and photography enthusiasts drawn by its beauty.

A name that matches the thing: The "Harmony" in the Pavilion of Harmony directly corresponds to Ch’ien Mu’s theory of the "Union of Man and Nature". Its design further grounds this philosophical proposition in sensory experience through the visual of "water blending into sky". There are also verifiable records of the donor, architect, and date of completion. This forms an interesting contrast with the Gate of Wisdom, whose "name and meaning match, yet were inverted by a folk reading" — one landmark with a coherent name and a complete archive (Pavilion of Harmony), another where the name and folk meaning are at odds, having undergone several renamings (Gate of Wisdom / the Beacon Tower legend).

For the founding spirit of Ch’ien Mu and New Asia College’s "building a school from scratch", see 10-colleges/new-asia-college.md. This archive’s essay on The founding-era foreign aid network also touches on New Asia’s cultural mission.

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# 3. Two landmarks, two embodiments of the "CUHK spirit"

Placed side by side, the Gate of Wisdom and the Pavilion of Harmony materialise two facets of the CUHK spirit, and also present two archetypes of "campus landmark research":

The Gate of Wisdom (in front of the Library) — A modern abstract sculpture standing at the heart of academic life, signifying a "gateway to wisdom". It belongs to the whole University and is a symbol of CUHK’s pursuit of excellence and its outward-looking, modern character. Yet it has been recoded by students as a vessel for collective campus memory through the folk imagination of a "graduation taboo". Its paper trail is also the most convoluted: originally titled Gate (1986) → donated and unveiled by Szeto Wai (1987) → nearly dismantled for a library extension (2008) → personally retitled Zhongmen / Gate of Wisdom by the artist to dissolve the taboo (2006) → becoming a site of mourning after the artist’s passing (2023). One sculpture, and nearly forty years of CUHK’s "history of a name".

The Pavilion of Harmony (at New Asia College) — Architecture and water feature interpreting the "Union of Man and Nature", paying tribute to the cultural ideals of scholars who migrated from the mainland. It belongs to New Asia and is a symbol of CUHK’s commitment to "inheriting Chinese culture and settling the humanistic spirit". Its paper trail is much clearer: the donor, architect, date of completion, and list of officiating guests are all complete — a rare case of a "fully archived" campus landmark.

One modern, one traditional. One for the whole University, one for a single college. One whose name and folk reading clash, one where they align. One with a convoluted research trail, one with a clear archive. These two landmarks are spatial annotations of CUHK’s dual character — modern scholarship × Chinese culture — and they also demonstrate two typical approaches to researching campus lore: one that requires tracing threads in the gaps between legend and official accounts, and another that can rely directly on a clear archival record.

Further reading: Campus Legends: The Beacon Tower and the Goddess Statue, More Landmarks: Towers, the Mall, and the Lake, New Asia College In-Depth Archive.

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