文化冷戰 - 香港中文大學的成立

The British-Hong Kong government merged three Chinese-language private post-secondary colleges to form the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), not only in response to social demand, but to strengthen social governance and the needs of economic development. Granted that the Hong Kong government dominated the establishment of CUHK, American foundations exerted a strong influence from the conception, organization, and naming of this new university, to the recruitment of presidents, institutional setup, personnel hiring, and even the layout of the campus buildings. This deep involvement was inevitable since the three colleges had received United States (US) funding since their establishment. Under the leadership of President Li Choh-ming, the disciplines of the new university were set-up to emphasize establishing a local economic construction model, while continuing to strengthen Hong Kong’s internationalization as US-centric. This article shows that the US consciously avoided military conflict with China in Hong Kong, but in order to contain the communist ideology, the US deliberately sought to promote the pro-Western values of the Cultural Cold War in culture and education. From the perspective of the US Cold War strategy and US policy towards China, CUHK was to be molded as a cultural beacon that accentuated the contrasts between the democratic world and Communist China. Erstwhile Hong Kong was also developed an outpost for spying on Communist China and became a US cultural Cold War and intelligence center, giving rise a complex socio-political atmosphere there. The discussion elucidates the historical context of post-war Hong Kong`s higher education development and offers an appreciation of the role of the US in the modernization of Hong Kong`s higher education.