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Full Circle: University Life in Hong Kong and Beyond Rayson Huang Rayson Lisung Huang was a student at Munsang College, Kowloon, bifore entering the University if Hong Kong as a Government Scholar in 1938 (BSc 1942, wartime degree). Following travels in China cifter the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, he was awarded by the Rhodes Trust in 1944 a postgraduate studentship at Oxford University. There he earned a DPhil degree while conducting research in organic chemistry with Sir Robert Robinson. Postdoctoral years in the USA came next, at the University of Chicago, leading to a distinguished academic career in Asia as Lecturer and Reader in Chemistry, University ifMalaya, Singapore (1951-1959); Prifessor if Chemistry, University ~f Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (1959-1969); Vice-Chancellor, Nanyang University, Singapore (1969-1972) and Vice-Chancellor, the University of Hong Kong (1972-1986). Other positions included Chairman ~f Council, Association ~f Commonwealth Universities (1980-1981); President, Association ~f South East Asian Institutes (1970-1972, and 1981-1983) and Vice-Chairman if Council, Shantou University (1987-1994). Honours from the University ~f Hong Kong included a DSc degree and life membership in the Court and the naming in 1986 of the new Rayson Huang Lecture Theatre. Public service in the Hong Kong community included membership in the Legislative Council (1977-1983) and on the Drqfting Committee for the Basic Lawfor the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong (1985-1990). Retiring to England with his wife Grace to join his two sons, he is now working on his autobiography. Ijoined the University of Hong Kong in September 1938, feeling a little out of place among my fellow students, as I came from a school which was off the mainstream of the prestigious government and aided schools and mission schools. Munsang College was a small, young, 115 116 Rayson Huang private school situated in a remote part of the colony, in the newly developed community of Kowloon City, next to the Kai Tak aerodrome by the sea, beneath the Lion Mountain. My father was the founding principal who insisted on giving us first a strong grounding in the Chinese language, including Mandarin, and then introducing English as a second language. A good deal of time was taken up teaching us Chinese classics and Chinese history, and in keeping us informed of events on the mainland. Understandably the time left for the study of the English language was considerably less than in the other schools and the average pupil from Munsang found his command of the language only barely sufficient to meet the standards of the Hong Kong University matriculation examination. Many of Munsang's boys sought admission to and were accepted by universities in China such as St. John's, Yenching and Lingnan. The few of us who got into the University of Hong Kong (I was the fourth) found that we could manage although with some difficulty in the beginning, but in certain other respects we were also a little out of tune with our fellow students. I entered as a student in the Faculty of Arts doing the science group of subjects, and transferred a little later to the newly established Faculty of Science. We had a general curriculum of five subjects in the first and second years, three in the third and two in the fourth (final) year. During the first two years English Language and Literature was one of the five subjects, and we attended lectures and tutorials with the Arts students. I must say that as a student of science, I did not consider the study of English and literature a waste of time - far from it. I found Shakespeare, Milton, Shaw, and Sheridan interesting and uplifting, a contrast to and relief from the other lectures I had to attend. Besides, there were all those pretty 'co-eds' in the Arts Faculty, whereas science, engineering and medical students were predominantly male. Coming straight from a boys' school I found exposure to these attractive undergraduates exhilarating if also rather distracting. In our first year classes, we found that a good deal of the ground covered was a repeat of school work. This had bad effects on some students, who began their university career taking life easy, indulging in large doses of extracurricular activities to the extent that they finally failed their examinations. My class started with about ten students in the first year; it dwindled down to seven in the second year, to three in the third and ended in the final...

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