Notable Alumni
Chan Wing-tsit , 1901-1994
Chan was a Chinese scholar and professor best known for his studies of Chinese philosophy. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree from Canton Christian College, he received his Ph.D. in philosophy and Chinese culture at Harvard University in 1929. On his return to China, he served as the dean of the faculty at Lingnan University, and later became a professor of Chinese philosophy at Dartmouth College. Chan’s 1963 book A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy was regarded as one of the most influential sources in the field of Chinese philosophy.
Hu Shiu-Ying, 1910-2012
Hu was a prominent botanist in Hong Kong. Graduating from Lingnan University in Guangzhou with a M.Sc. in biology, she went to the United States to purse her Ph.D. in botany at Harvard University. Hu taught botany at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Over the course of her career, she produced over 160 academic treatises, collected over 30,000 specimens, and published the 800-page encyclopedia Food Plants of China.
Chen Wentong, 1924-2009
Chen, better known by his pen name Liang Yusheng, was a prominent Chinese writer. Graduating from Lingnan University in 1948 with a degree in economics, Chen settled in Hong Kong and became an editor for the newspaper Ta Kung Pao. In 1954, Chen made a breakthrough in his career when he wrote his first wuxia novel Longhu Dou Jingua, which marked the start of a “new school” of the wuxia genre.
Li Fanghua, 1932-2020
Li was a Hong Kong-born Chinese physicist and also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences. She was accepted into Lingnan University, now Sun Yat-sen University, and graduated from Leningrad University, where she majored in physics. During the Cultural Revolution, she was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools to perform manual labor. Returning to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1973, Li became the director of Chinese Society of Physics, and won the L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2003.
Paul Kwong, 1950 -
Kwong is the incumbent archbishop of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. Graduating with a bachelor of Arts in English Language from Lingnan College in Hong Kong in 1977, he pursued his theological study at Church Divinity School of the Pacific with a Master of Theology degree in 1982 and at the University of Birmingham with a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2008. Paul is also the current chair of Anglican Consultative Council.
Andrew To, 1966 -
To is a Hong Kong politician and the former chairman of the League of Social Democrats. Graduating from Lingnan College in Hong Kong, he went to Beijing to join the hunger strike during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. After the protest, To became the founding member of the United Democrats of Hong Kong, the united front of the pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong. In 2006, To co-founded the League of Social Democrats with other activists.