Building Naming and Donor Dynasties — From the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building to the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village

# Building Naming and Donor Dynasties — From the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building to the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village

Walk across the CityU campus and you'll find that many buildings carry the name of a donor: the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, the Run Run Shaw Library, the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village… This tradition of donor naming is both a tribute to generosity and a pillar of the University's fundraising machinery. This article traces the contours of building naming at CityU and the donor families behind the most prominent names. For a full register of naming across four categories (chairs, hostels, colleges, and facilities), see the companion piece benefactors-and-donors.md. For the overall scale and finances of the endowment, see finances.md and endowment-campaigns-and-matching-grants.md.

# 1. Why Universities "Sell" Naming Rights

A naming gift is a fundraising mechanism widely used by universities around the world: a donor funds a building, an endowed chair, or a named fund, and the university names it after them as a permanent mark of recognition. The arrangement works for both sides — it gives the university a stable source of major capital, and it gives the donor lasting visibility and influence. As a publicly funded university that still needs to raise a substantial share of its own resources (government grants + tuition fees + donations + investment income; see finances.md), CityU relies on naming gifts as a crucial part of its resource strategy.

The University operates a dedicated Endowment mechanism (CityU Giving: Endowment^※) to receive and steward these contributions in a structured way.

# 2. The Yeung Kin Man Academic Building: A Campus Veteran

One of the earliest core teaching buildings on campus is the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building (楊建文學術樓). According to publicly available sources^※, it was originally known as "Academic 1" and was constructed in phases between 1989 and 1994^※ — a timeline that spans the pivotal years from City Polytechnic's move to the Tat Chee Avenue campus (1990) through to its elevation to university status (1994/1995) (for the founding history, see polytechnic-founding-story.md).

The building was later named after the donor Yeung Kin Man. CityU has also established named chairs such as the "Yeung Kin Man Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences," signalling a long-term, multi-layered giving relationship (see benefactors-and-donors.md for the full register of five endowed chairs). As one of CityU's earliest academic blocks, the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building is, in a real sense, a campus veteran — a witness to the institution's founding and its coming of age.

# 3. Lee Shau Kee: Nearly Two Decades of Sustained Support

Lee Shau Kee (李兆基), founder of Henderson Land Development, stands among the most significant donors in CityU's recent history. According to a CityU press release^※ and Henderson Land^※:

• Long-term support: Lee Shau Kee had been a consistent supporter of CityU's development since 2006^※; a major donation was made through the Lee Shau Kee Foundation in 2018^※ to advance the University's long-term plans.
• A hostel hall named: CityU's Hall 6 was named "Lee Shau Kee Hall" in recognition of his support and donations.
• The Ma On Shan Student Residence Village named: The student residence village at Whitehead in Ma On Shan was named the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village, with an opening and naming ceremony held in 2024^※ — it provides over 2,000 hostel places (for hostel life, see 21-residence-college-life/residence-and-hostel-culture.md).

Spanning nearly two decades (2006 → 2024), this sustained giving has etched the name "Lee Shau Kee" onto multiple sites at CityU — from a Kowloon Tong hall to the Ma On Shan village. It is also the clearest illustration of how the University's fundraising machinery operates: the same donor's name can appear simultaneously on a building, a hostel, and an endowed chair.

# 4. Run Run Shaw: The Philanthropic Filmmaker Across Campus

Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫) and the Shaw Foundation are another donor presence threaded through the campus fabric. Facilities bearing the Shaw name include at least:

• Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre: built with a HK$100 million donation from the Shaw Foundation, opened in 2011;
• Run Run Shaw Library: the main University library, founded in 1984 and renamed in 1990 following a major donation from Run Run Shaw.

Run Run Shaw's philanthropy extended across universities in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan — "Run Run Shaw Building / Library / Science Centre" appears on campuses everywhere. CityU is simply one stop on a sprawling charitable map.

# 5. Two Sides of the Naming Tradition

# 6. Why Building Naming Belongs in the Finance Module

University donations do not exist only on a balance sheet — they also live on the campus map. The Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village, the Run Run Shaw facilities, and Jockey Club-named projects have all turned donor relationships into spaces that students move through every day. At CityU, building naming is a form of visible financial history: it shows how campus expansion, hostels, academic units, and communal facilities almost always rest on a mix of government subvention, University-raised funds, and private philanthropy. To read a building's name well, you need to look at three things: the money (amount, year, and designated use), the name (what kind of naming it brought), and the use (teaching, accommodation, research, or student aid in the end). Looking only at a list of donors hides how the University deploys its resources; looking only at building names hides the funding story behind them. As an urban campus, CityU depends particularly strongly on clear financial arrangements for spatial expansion and hostel capacity; named projects such as the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village and the Yeung Kin Man Academic Building should be read against the broader picture of campus development and student numbers.

The donation record also needs to be cross-checked against the campus record: the 05-campus/ module documents building locations, functions, and spatial use, while this article documents naming and the funding trail. Where a building's name, opening year, or stated purpose diverges between the two modules, the University's own press releases, annual reports, and building pages should take priority — a practice that also helps avoid the common error of treating building naming as a purely honourific gesture while forgetting the concrete student lives it serves. Hostel naming affects accommodation supply; academic building naming affects teaching space; library or gallery naming affects public culture. A donation is never just a sum of money; it is also a structural part of the campus.

# 7. In Summary

• CityU follows the internationally established practice of naming gifts, naming buildings, chairs, and funds after donors as a key element of its fundraising and resource strategy.
• The Yeung Kin Man Academic Building (formerly Academic 1, built in phases 1989–1994) is a "veteran" teaching block that witnessed CityU's founding and upgrade to university status.
• Lee Shau Kee has provided sustained support since 2006, with a major donation in 2018; both Hall 6 and the Ma On Shan Student Residence Village bear his name.
• Run Run Shaw and the Shaw Foundation have left their name across campus through the Creative Media Centre and the Library.
• The naming mechanism has both upsides and downsides; this archive presents the facts without evaluating individual cases.