The New Asia College Ch'ien Mu Library

To celebrate its 50th anniversary on the CUHK campus, the Library held the “New Asia College Ch’ien Mu Library 50th Anniversary Display: Photos, Publications and Ch’ien Mu’s Manuscript of A New Academic Case of Zhu Xi” from 28 August to 29 September 2023 to highlight and reminisce about its developments over the years and to showcase its unique collections.

The New Asia College Library was founded in 1954 as part of the New Asia College on Farm Road, Kowloon. Together with the New Asia College, the Library was moved to the Shatin campus, and it was named “Jing Ye Guan” in 1973. In 1975, it was renamed after Mr Ch’ien Mu, the founder of the New Asia College.

Modelled on the library of Berea College, Kentucky, USA, the Ch’ien Mu Library features a spacious lobby and a mezzanine floor well-lit with natural light. To withstand strong winds from monsoons and typhoons, clerestory windows have been installed on the first floor. In 1978, Mr. Ch’ien Mu donated the manuscript A New Academic Case of Zhu Xi to the New Asia College Library.

In 1983, a faculty reading room, “Li-Tien Shih”, was set up on G/F to provide a welcoming environment for college and faculty members to conduct meetings and activities.

In 1994, an additional floor was built on the rooftop of the New Asia College Library building, and an extra 250 square metres were allotted to the Library. In the same year, the School of Journalism moved to 2/F.

NAL in early 2000s 

A major refurbishment was completed in 2004. A bust of Mr Ch’ien Mu, sculpted by Prof. Wu Wei-shan, then the Director of the Academy of Fine Art of Nanjing University, was installed in the lobby of the New Asia College Library. A brand new exhibition gallery was set up on M/F and 2/F. The outdoor reading area was refurbished in the courtyard on 2/F as a leisure reading space for library users. In 2007, the New Asia College Collection and the Ch’ien Mu Collection were established to acquire all titles related to New Asia College and published by Prof. Ch’ien Mu.

After the renovation project in summer 2015, the New Asia College Library brought library services, technology and space design together to facilitate individual, collaborative and interactive learning. Major highlights include a new learning cluster, radio frequency identification enabled book return stations, roving services and mobile compact shelves for the Fine Arts Collection. Currently, 1/F houses the collections of Chinese language and literature and other Asian languages and literatures. 2/F houses the Fine Arts Collection.

Through everyone’s hard work and support, the New Asia College Library has become one of the major humanities libraries in the CUHK campus in the last 50 years. The library will continue to thrive to support the information and research needs of CUHK faculty and students in the years ahead.

G/F Learning Cluster