The University Library System has recently received donations from Mr. T.C. Lai.  They are seventy-eight handwritten letters from forty-two authors in one hundred and twenty-nine pages that were originally collected by his late father, Mr. Lai Chi-hsi (1865-1937), a renowned Qing Dynasty Hanlin Scholar who came to Hong Kong after the 1911 revolution and established the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong and the Hok Hoi Library. 

To celebrate the occasion, a donation ceremony was held on January 20, 2009 with the donor, Mr. T.C. Lai (Chairman of the Hok Hoi Library), Ms. Janet Tang (Director of the Hok Hoi Library), Dr. Colin Storey (University Librarian), Professor Peter Lam (Director of the CUHK Art Museum), Professor KY Cheung (Department of Chinese Language & Literature) and other University staff members attending.

This is one of the most valuable donations recently received by the University Library.  The authors of the ink brush handwritten letters, including Mr. Lai Chi-hsi himself and his friends, Mr. Liang Dingfen, Mr Chen Botao, Mr. Wen Su, Mr. Zhu Ruzhen etc., were mostly great scholars who had previously served the Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty.  These letters, apart from their excellence in Chinese calligraphy, also provide valuable information on the study of modern Chinese history.  An exhibition of the letters, "A Hanlin Scholar's Legacy: Handwritten Letters to Lai Chi-hsi from Distinguished Contemporaries", was held from October 27 to November 30, 2008 in the Exhibition Hall of the University.  As part of the event, the University Library compiled these letters for a special printed volume distributed by the Chinese University Press under the same title as the Exhibition.  It has attracted considerable attention from scholars within this University and beyond.  The Library was extremely fortunate subsequently to receive this batch of valuable donations from Mr. T.C. Lai.