A MOMENT
OF GRATITUDE
D. H. CHEN COLLEGE
陳廷驊學院
The University of Hong Kong is immensely grateful to The D. H. Chen Foundation for its generous donation of HK$100 million to establish the D. H. Chen College, the first student residential college on HKU campus dedicated to sharing compassion-based values and philosophy rooted in Buddhism.
The College is scheduled to open in September 2023, providing 300 hostel places for local as well as international undergraduate students. Special features include a college hall for high tables and large scale events, a meditation room and outdoor gardens with serene zen spaces for quiet and mindfulness activities. The College will be one of the four student residences at a new Student Village in Wong Chuk Hang.
The College will have a unique place in the University’s residential education, and create a focal point for young people to explore and experience the Buddhist values of compassion, selflessness, peace and mindfulness.
A special event “A Moment of Gratitude – D. H. Chen College” was held at HKU Grand Hall on June 21, 2022 to celebrate the establishment of the College, featuring the premiere screening of “A Zen Moment”.
“With Buddhist values at the core of its experience,
D. H. Chen College will be the center of a community that is motivated by compassion, by the people who live here who will commit their lives to amplifying these ideals. This is particularly relevant in today’s world, where interconnected crises are threatening our way of life. Poverty, hunger, and war are some of the global issues we are leaving the next generation to overcome. But I believe they have a chance to succeed, if their actions are rooted in kindness and selflessness.”
Professor Xiang Zhang
President and Vice-Chancellor
“Our vision for this College project is to inspire our students to learn the methods that will allow them to live a life with mindfulness, self-awareness, love, positive views and attitudes. We believe that all things should start from self and then move onto home (in Chinese: 修身齊家). Thus, it makes perfect sense to us that we should introduce these methods and ideas to our students at a place they will call home for a few years.”
Ms Karen Cheung
Trustee & Chief Strategist, The D. H. Chen Foundation
The D. H. Chen Foundation (https://dhchenfoundation.com/) is a Hong Kong family philanthropic trust established in 1970 by Dr. Din Hwa Chen, an ardent philanthropist and a devout Buddhist who also founded the Nan Fung Group. The Foundation has been steering and supporting numerous innovative, impactful and sustainable community initiatives to enrich lives through its five strategies, namely, “Initiate, Capacity Building, Innovate, Catalyst for Collaboration, and Impact-Driven”.
Aspiring to build a compassionate society and promote compassion-based values, the Foundation endeavors to put compassion into action through the work of our five Institutes - a realisation of Dr. Chen’s philosophy – “Care for others as well as you would care for yourself”.