A Major Donations History of PolyU: From Li Ka-shing's HK$100 Million to Named Institutes and Funds

In 1956, a donation of HK$1 million built the Hung Hom campus; seventy years later, a single HK$100 million gift bought two research institutes at once — the donation history of one university is really the story of Hong Kong's philanthropic culture itself. This article traces PolyU's major gifts in chronological order; profiles of each named benefactor can be found in benefactors-and-donors.md.

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# 1. Why Donors Give to PolyU: Founding Ethos and Early Industrial Support

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University grew out of the Hong Kong Polytechnic, founded in 1972, with roots reaching further back to the Government Trade School of 1937. PolyU's founding DNA is deeply tied to Hong Kong's industrial sector, and from the very beginning it enjoyed strong support from businessmen and trade bodies. According to the University's archives and its own records, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong (CMA) donated HK$1 million in 1956 to the then Hong Kong Technical College. Together with government land and funding, this made possible the current main campus at Hung Hom, which opened in 1957 with Governor Alexander Grantham presiding — one of the earliest documented large social donations in PolyU's campus history. That gift established a relationship that has endured for decades; in 2014 the University named a building the "CMA Building" in honour of that history (CMA Building naming ceremony^※, with the CMA making a further HK$30 million donation to support students' whole-person development).

After the Polytechnic was granted university status in 1994, its fuller university identity markedly increased donors' willingness and the scale of their gifts — evolving from funding laboratory equipment to naming whole buildings and, eventually, standalone research institutes.

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# 2. Y. K. Pao and Chiang Chen: The Naming Pioneers of the 1990s

Around the time of the university upgrade, two heavyweight benefactors' names had already appeared on the campus, opening the naming era.

The Pao Yue-kong Library: According to the PolyU Library "History" page^※, the main library was formally named the Pao Yue-kong Library on 20 December 1995, in gratitude for the generous gift from the family of the late Sir Yue-kong Pao (1918–1991), founder of the World-Wide Shipping Group. Known as the "king of shipowners", Pao's family has deep ties with several Hong Kong universities. The specific amount of the donation was never made public; this article records only the confirmed fact of the naming and its year.

The Chiang Chen Industrial Centre and Chiang Chen Studio Theatre: Industrialist Chiang Chen (1923–2022), founder of Chen Hsong Holdings, channelled support for engineering talent through the Chiang Chen Industrial Charity Foundation over many years. PolyU named both an industrial centre and a theatre on campus in his honour, as listed in the PolyU Foundation's "Our Appreciation" directory^※. Again, individual amounts were never officially disclosed. The Chiang Chen Industrial Centre has long served as PolyU's practical training facility for students, fitting the University's engineering-and-applied-science identity.

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# 3. 2000: Li Ka-shing's HK$100 Million, the "Largest Personal Contribution Ever Received"

The best-known milestone in PolyU's major-donation history is the turn-of-the-century gift from the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

According to the foundation's official press release^※, on 1 June 2000 Li Ka-shing, founder of Cheung Kong Holdings, attended a ceremony in person to hand a HK$100 million cheque to PolyU's Council Chairman and the Vice-Chancellor (President). The foundation explicitly described the gift as "the largest personal contribution ever received by the Institution". The funds were earmarked to advance self-financed professional and continuing education, to provide services for small and medium enterprises, and to support the then SPEED (School of Professional Education and Executive Development) and IfE (Institute for Enterprise Development).

According to a separate foundation press release dated 19 September 2001^※, in 2001 the University formally named a central campus tower — 18 storeys tall, with a gross floor area of around 22,500 square metres — the "Li Ka Shing Tower". At the ceremony, then Vice-Chancellor Poon Chung-kwong said: "We name this building after Dr Li to recognise his generous contribution. Support from visionary community leaders like Dr Li is giving us tremendous encouragement." The tower houses computer rooms, classrooms, lecture theatres, administrative offices and a staff canteen, and was the centrepiece of PolyU's Phase 6 development plan.

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# 4. 2006: Lee Shau Kee's HK$45 Million, Matched by Government Incentive Funds

In the 2000s, the government's Matching Grant Scheme became a powerful lever for large donations. According to a South China Morning Post report of 10 May 2006^※, Henderson Land founder Lee Shau Kee donated HK$45 million to PolyU — a gift that qualified the University for an equivalent government match under the scheme's first round. Together these funded the 14-storey Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y) on the campus's northeast corner, housing advanced research laboratories, lecture theatres and meeting rooms. Its naming ceremony was held on 8 May 2006, with Vice-Chancellor Poon Chung-kwong presiding. The building now serves as the main home of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology and the Department of Health Technology and Informatics, among others. In the second round of the Matching Grant Scheme, PolyU went on to raise over HK$190 million, more than 60 per cent of it from the business community — a clear demonstration of the scheme's catalytic effect on private giving.

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# 5. 2008: Anita Chan's HK$30 Million Bequest

In 2008 PolyU received a major gift in the form of a bequest. According to official PolyU archives^※, on 18 June 2008 the University held a naming ceremony designating a building the "Anita Chan Lai Ling Building", in memory of Dr Anita Chan Lai Ling, who devoted her life to education and community service. The donation amounted to HK$30 million, intended "to support PolyU's long-term development and to enhance teaching and innovative research resources". Chan's decision to fund the University through a personal bequest reflects the Hong Kong philanthropic tradition of "giving back to society with one's posthumous wealth".

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# 6. 2013–2014: Cheng Yu-tung's HK$10 Million Laboratory and the Jockey Club's HK$249 Million Innovation Tower

The 2010s brought PolyU two gifts of very different natures but similar gravitas.

Cheng Yu-tung and Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation: a HK$10 million drug-development laboratory According to PolyU's news release^※, on 4 November 2013 the University held a naming ceremony for a 537-square-metre laboratory space on the seventh floor of the Lee Shau Kee Building, named the "Henry Cheng Research Laboratory for Drug Development", in recognition of a HK$10 million donation from Cheng Yu-tung, Honorary Chairman of the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation. The laboratory is equipped with advanced instruments including flow cytometers and confocal microscopes, providing a collaborative research platform for chemists and biologists.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust: HK$249 million for a Zaha Hadid landmark The largest single gift PolyU has ever received came from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust^※. The Club donated HK$249 million to build the "Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT)" — designed by the late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, commenced in 2007 and completed in 2014. The 15-storey, roughly 15,000-square-metre tower is Hadid's first permanent building in Hong Kong. The donation also funded the founding and initial operating costs of the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (J.C.DISI). JCIT now serves as the headquarters of PolyU's School of Design, housing over 1,800 students and staff, with design studios, laboratories, exhibition galleries and multi-function classrooms.

Note: "—" indicates no officially disclosed figure; "c." indicates that the naming year is estimated from the period of commissioning.

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# 7. 2017: The Chan Chak Fu Family and the School of Hotel & Tourism Management Building

Pioneering Hong Kong hotelier Chan Chak Fu had been instrumental as far back as the 1980s in helping PolyU establish its hotel and tourism management training programmes. According to the PolyU "Thanks to Supporters" page (2017)^※, on 15 December 2017 the University held a naming ceremony at 17 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, designating the School of Hotel & Tourism Management (SHTM) building — roughly 6,400 square metres accommodating some 3,000 students — the "Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Building", in gratitude for the contributions of Chan Chak Fu and his wife Wong Chi Lan. The donation also endowed the "Chan Chak Fu Endowed Professorship in International Tourism" and a scholarship fund. At the ceremony, Vice-Chancellor Timothy W. Tong remarked: "Universities need the support of like-minded partners such as the Chan Chak Fu family." The specific amount was never officially disclosed.

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# 8. 2018: Otto Poon's HK$100 Million, the "Largest Amount from a Personal Foundation in the Recent Decade"

In 2018, Otto Poon, founder of engineering group Analogue Holdings and a veteran engineer, made a HK$100 million donation^※ to PolyU through his Otto Poon Charitable Foundation. In a PolyU media release dated 10 September 2018, the gift was described as "the largest amount from a personal foundation in the recent decade". It funded:

• the establishment of two research institutes: the "Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI)" and the "Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE)";
• two endowed professorships: the "Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Endowed Professorship in Urban Informatics" and the "Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Endowed Professorship in Smart and Sustainable Energy".

Both institutes sit under PolyU's interdisciplinary flagship platform, the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR). According to an EurekAlert report^※, Poon said at the donation ceremony: "I am glad to have the chance to contribute to my alma mater. PolyU is renowned for advancing the frontiers of technology."

According to a PolyU 2021 press release^※, SCRI and RISE were formally named after the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation in 2021. In 2025, with the foundation's continued support, PolyU further established the Otto Poon Research Institute for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (RICRI)^※, extending the partnership into new territory.

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# 9. 2023: The Seal of Love Foundation's HK$45 Million and a New Health-Research Building

In 2023 PolyU received the second-largest building-naming gift of recent years. According to the University's official media release (15 December 2023)^※, on 8 December 2023 PolyU held a naming ceremony designating the former Block BC the "Seal of Love Foundation Building". The donor was the Seal of Love Charitable Foundation Limited, founded by Mr Chan Man-kit, and the donation was HK$45 million, used to establish the "Seal of Love Charitable Foundation Health and Service Impact Fund". The first funded project is a five-year mental-health initiative, "The Resilience Students Training Hub (ReST Hub)", which aims to turn Hong Kong's — and eventually Asia's — university campuses into mental-health ecosystems. The Chan family's ties to PolyU trace back to the 1980s, when Chan Man-kit's father, Chan Chak Fu, gave foundational support to the School of Hotel & Tourism Management.

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# 10. Endowed Chairs: Expanding the Disciplinary Map from Engineering to the Humanities

Beyond building names, the "Endowed Professorship" is a second mechanism for embedding a donation permanently in the disciplinary landscape. PolyU's endowed chairs increased markedly after 2018, reflecting a systematic push, following PAIR's establishment, to recruit top interdisciplinary scholars. According to PolyU's 2024 inauguration ceremony press release^※, on 13 September 2024 the University held the "Fifth Inauguration Ceremony of PolyU Endowed Professorships and Second Inauguration Ceremony of PolyU Endowed Young Scholars", installing nine chairs (including five new ones). Representative new chairs included:

• Kuok Group Endowed Professorship in Mathematical Science — endowed by the Kuok Group;
• Kuok Group Endowed Professorship in Nature-Inspired Engineering — a second chair from the same group;
• Sin Wai Kin Foundation Endowed Professorship in Humanities and Technology — endowed by the Sin Wai Kin Foundation;
• Sir Sze-yuen Chung Endowed Professorship in Precision Engineering — named after Sir Sze-yuen Chung, Chairman of PolyU's first Council (1972–1986);
• Sir Sze-yuen Chung Endowed Professorship in Renewable Energy — a second chair from the same source.

Spanning mathematics, engineering, the humanities and energy science, these chairs show how donations have broadened PolyU's disciplinary map horizontally rather than concentrating on its traditional strengths in applied engineering. The Sir Sze-yuen Chung Endowed Professorship in Precision Engineering is currently held by Professor Yung Kai-leung — a representative case of a named chair linking the University's founding history to contemporary research. See 06-people/faculty-and-leaders-2.md for more.

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# 11. Thirty Years of Donation Models: From "Naming One Building" to "Institute + Chair + Dedicated Fund"

Laid out on a single timeline, the cases above reveal a three-stage evolution in PolyU's philanthropic ecosystem:

Stage One (1970s–1990s): government-led, with small industrial supplements In the early years, government funding dominated, and social donations mostly took the form of equipment, scholarships and modest industry sponsorship. The CMA's million-dollar campus donation (1956), the Pao family's library naming (1995) and the Chiang Chen Industrial Centre naming all belong to this phase — relatively small sums, naming physical facilities rather than institutes.

Stage Two (2000s): the building-naming era after university status After the 1994 upgrade, donors' willingness to give to PolyU rose sharply. Li Ka-shing's HK$100 million (2000), Lee Shau Kee's HK$45 million (2006) and Anita Chan's HK$30 million (2008) followed in quick succession. The core model was: donate a given sum, and the University names a building after the donor. The government's Matching Grant Scheme added a multiplier effect in this phase.

Stage Three (2010s–present): institutional, research-oriented, long-term From the 2010s on, institutional partners (the Jockey Club's HK$249 million for the Innovation Tower, completed 2014) and family foundations (Otto Poon's HK$100 million for research institutes, 2018; the Kuok Group's multiple endowed chairs) became the protagonists of large gifts. The naming target evolved from "a building" to a combination of "institute + endowed chair + dedicated five-year programme". PAIR (PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research), formally established in 2022, has become the central platform channelling donated research resources.

This evolution broadly tracks the giving culture at other UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong, but because of PolyU's engineering-and-applied-science heritage, its donor base has always tilted noticeably toward local industrialists — Chiang Chen, Otto Poon and Chan Chak Fu among them.

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# 12. How Donations Reshape the Disciplinary Map

Donations' impact on PolyU goes far beyond "one more name on a building". Taken together, the cases above trace three clear paths of disciplinary reconfiguration:

Path One: institute-level establishment of emerging fields Otto Poon's HK$100 million endowing the Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) and the Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) is a textbook case of "donation creates a new direction" — before the gift arrived, PolyU had no standalone institute in smart cities or sustainable energy. The donation brought not only research funding but also the recruitment of internationally renowned scholars (through the two endowed chairs), forming a virtuous flywheel.

Path Two: world-class infrastructure for an applied school The Jockey Club's HK$249 million Innovation Tower lifted PolyU's School of Design from scattered rented spaces to a "world-class design school" housed in a Zaha Hadid signature building — the physical foundation that has directly driven the school's climb in global rankings.

Path Three: cross-generational institutionalisation of a discipline The Chan Chak Fu family's support for the SHTM — from building naming to an endowed professorship, spanning the 1980s to 2017 — exemplifies a donor family's cross-generational, sustained commitment to a particular discipline, helping consolidate the School of Hotel & Tourism Management as one of the world's leading institutions of its kind.

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