After years of planning and construction, most of the buildings on the new UIC campus have been built. The administrative departments and teaching units will begin to move there from late August. In mid-September, more than 6,000 staff and students will gather on the new campus on the newly built No 2000 Jintong Road.
Cultural Creativity Clusters
The new campus includes nine teaching buildings, fifteen student hostels, a University Hall, a Performance Theatre, a Sports Complex, a Learning Resource Centre, and Cultural Creativity Clusters. The teaching area is five times larger than the current campus.
Overlooking Hui Xian Village
Each building is numbered. The teaching buildings involve T1-T8 and T29. The residential area is named Bo Ya Town (meaning liberal arts town) and numbered V15-V28, which is made up of the Da Tong Village (aka global harmony village) and Hui Xian Village (meaning grand talents village). The buildings numbered 1 to 5 of the New Cultural Village as known previously have now been renamed collectively as the Hui Xian Village.
Overlooking the Sports Complex
Campus buildings and main roads are the important carriers of a university’s culture. Led by UIC President Ng Ching-Fai, a task-force has proposed a naming scheme of the constructions to highlight its educational concepts and campus culture.
[Zoom in] Layout of UIC Campus
According to President Ng, UIC, as an internationalised university, named the buildings and roads of the new campus aiming to reflect its flagship philosophy, Liberal Arts Education, as well as the integration of both Chinese and Western cultures.
Main roads are named The Great Learning Way, Virtue Road, Engagement Road, and Excellence Road, which are inspired by the Confucian classics Daxue (The Great Learning).
Hui Xian Village
The residential area Bo Ya Town consists of the Hui Xian Village and the Da Tong Village.
The Hui Xian Village includes V23-V28 dormitory buildings (known as No 1-5 and No 7 of the former New Cultural Village). Its buildings are named after Chinese and foreign sages of different times, which signifies the gathering of virtuous and wise people. The names proposed are Xue Qin House, Yang Ming House, Dong Po House, Goethe House, Hugo House, and Shakespeare House, in honour of Chinese illustrious writers Su Dongpo (Song dynasty), Wang Yangming (Ming dynasty), and Cao Xueqin (Qing dynasty); as well as of Western literary giants Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Germany), Victor Hugo (France), and William Shakespeare (UK).
The Da Tong Village includes V15-V22 dormitory buildings, and the name implies an inclusive, diverse community and good wishes of global harmony. The buildings V15-V18 are named Ming Xin House, Shang Xian House, Ren Ai House and Bao Pu House. These names represent the traditional Chinese cultures of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Mohism. On the other hand, V19-V22 are Zhen Zhi House, Du Xing House, Bo Wen House and Ya Zhi House, which are named after the Chinese version of UIC motto “In knowledge and in deeds, unto the whole person”.
Da Tong Village
Moreover, there are nine Teaching Buildings numbering T1-T8 plus T29 (previously known in the past as Block 8 of the New Cultural Village). T1 is named Business and Management Building, where the office of the Division of Business and Management will be settled. T2 is entitled Humanities Building and houses the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Office. T3 is called Science Building, which will locate the office of the Division of Science and Technology.
Naming T8 CEFC Building shows the gratitude to China CEFC Energy Company Limited for its support for the new campus construction.
Teaching Building T29
The task-force members for the naming labour included Prof Mei-hwa Sung, Dean of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences; Dr Guo Haipeng, Director of Whole Person Education Office; Dr Wu Hongyu, Director of the Chinese Language and Culture Centre; James Cho, Director of New Campus Development Office; and Li Junyang, Associate Director of Student Affairs Office.
University Hall
Sports Complex
Greatly expanding the physical space of teaching and learning activities, the new campus gives more development opportunities for UIC. Naming the new campus buildings and roads play a significant role in inheriting and spreading the college culture. The college is open and welcomes suggestions on the names of all the buildings, roads, as well as those unnamed plazas and lakes.
Reporters: Hu Taotao, Irene Yu
Editors: Deen He, Samuel Burgess
(from MPRO)
