Emblem Disputes, Motto Origins, and Landmark Buildings

City University of Hong Kong (City University of Hong Kong, CityUHK / CityU) integrated information database · Campus Lore module

Reading note (Lore section): This piece focuses on the turnover of campus identity symbols (emblem, motto, school colour) and on record-keeping content about landmark buildings — material in the Lore section with relatively solid evidence and comparatively low political sensitivity. The "student discontent" referenced in connection with the emblem turnover is drawn from informal (坊间) and secondary-summary sources, and is labelled accordingly; neutral statements attributed to living individuals are rendered by title, not by name.

This piece focuses on the emblem/motto/landmark buildings; CityU's spatial coexistence with Festival Walk, its vertical-campus identity, and its animal facilities are covered in the companion piece Festival Walk Coexistence, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities.

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In July 2014, CityU marked its thirtieth anniversary. A logo made for the occasion — combining "CityU" with the numeral "30" — was, like any anniversary mark, meant to retire once the celebrations ended. But the university later quietly dropped the "30," and this temporary mark was thereby "regularised" into CityU's official emblem. Years later, some students still recall the episode with a mix of amusement and exasperation. This piece begins with the lineage of this emblem and traces the turnover of CityU's campus identity symbols more broadly.

# Three Turnovers of the Emblem and the "Anniversary Mark Regularised" Dispute

CityU's visual identity has shifted several times over the past decade-plus, and the 2014 change in particular left students with a lingering, disputed memory of "the anniversary mark being quietly regularised into the emblem." This section lays out the verifiable timeline and attributes the harder-to-quantify "student discontent" faithfully to the nature of its sources.

# The 2012 Emblem Design Competition: the Winning Entry Was Not Adopted

According to a Chinese Wikipedia summary^※, CityU held an "Emblem Design Competition" in 2012^※, and the competition rules stated that "the winning design may be adopted as CityU's official emblem." A champion entry was selected by vote, but according to the summary cited above, the university ultimately did not adopt the winning entry^※.

Source note: The record of the 2012 emblem competition and its outcome rests on a Wikipedia summary (secondary), which lacks independent primary reporting directly corroborating the full timeline of the competition rules and the entry's non-adoption. This archive preserves the account with its source nature labelled.

# The 2014 Thirtieth-Anniversary Mark Becomes the Emblem

According to the Wikipedia summary^※ and the design firm's project page^※, in July 2014^※, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its founding, CityU adopted an anniversary mark designed by the Hong Kong design firm Kan & Lau Design Consultants (KL&K, today Kan Tai-keung Lau & Chan). The mark combined CityU's English abbreviation "CityU" with the numeral "30," and was officially described as "expressing an aspirational message of pursuing action and progress^※."

According to the Wikipedia summary, the university subsequently dropped the "30," and the mark was thereby "regularised" into CityU's new emblem^※.

# The 2016 Maroon Colour Decision and the 2025 "CityUHK" Update

According to the Wikipedia summary^※, around 2016^※ CityU further settled on maroon as its emblem colour, an adjustment that again prompted some students to revisit the earlier emblem change. Maroon has since become CityU's primary brand colour.

On March 1, 2025^※, CityU formally rolled out a further updated emblem: according to the logo-industry outlet logonews, the new version adds rounded corners to the original rectangular block (most noticeably at the top right), uses a bolder sans-serif typeface, strengthens an orange-to-maroon gradient background, and repositions the wordmark as "CityUHK," intended to strengthen recognisability among the many universities worldwide that use "City" in their names.

According to CityU's official statement (as relayed by media), this update "is highly aligned with the university's strategic direction for the next decade," reflecting a commitment to "innovation, excellence, and global leadership." The then-president, at the launch of the new emblem, reportedly said the new mark "is not only a visual upgrade but also symbolises CityU's confident outlook toward the future."

Note: The named statement attributed at the 2025 emblem launch is attributed to the then-president (who later resigned early in April 2026 — see Module 13, "Governance and Reform"); this piece refers to the individual by title only, does not name them, and does not include them in the entities list. The primary source for this item, logonews, is a design-vertical outlet (informal); its reported date and the reported design changes are cross-corroborated with the official brand-direction statement and are considered credible, with the details deferring to CityU's official Corporate Identity Manual.

This rebranding was not an isolated event. The anniversary mark that was regularised into the emblem was the work of designer Kan Tai-keung (founder of Kan & Lau Design Consultants / Kan Tai-keung Lau & Chan, KL&K; designer of the Bank of China logo; a leading figure in Chinese-language graphic design). This site's companion piece, "Motto, Emblem, School Colour, and Symbols," further notes that CityU has in recent years shifted its official English abbreviation from the long-used CityU to CityUHK, part of the same brand-identity update as the 2025 emblem refresh. For a full account of the emblem, school colour, typography, and other visual details, see Motto, Emblem, School Colour, and Symbols; for the institutional history of the university's name, from "City Polytechnic" to "City University of Hong Kong," see From "City Polytechnic" to "City University".

# The Motto "Diligence, Fellowship" and Its Origins in the Book of Rites

CityU's motto is "Diligence, Fellowship" (敬业乐群)^※. These four characters derive from the Book of Rites · Xueji (《礼记·学记》): "In the first year, one examines whether the student can parse the classics and discern their aims; in the third year, one examines whether the student is diligent in study and takes joy in fellowship^※" — meaning that by the third year of study, one should assess whether a student is focused on their studies and enjoys communal life.

The Tang-dynasty classical scholar Kong Yingda glossed this passage as follows: "Diligence in one's work means respecting and drawing close to those senior in skill and learning; joy in fellowship means being glad and pleased with those good companions among whom one dwells^※" — "diligence" emphasises reverence for and professionalism toward specialised knowledge, while "fellowship" emphasises the relationship between the individual, the community, and social concern. CityU officially interprets its motto along these lines, as an educational philosophy balancing "character formation" and "social concern."

Drawing the motto from the Book of Rites · Xueji is a tradition CityU shares with a number of universities across Chinese-speaking regions; combining a classical text with a modern, vocational/applied educational orientation forms part of CityU's early identity narrative.

The other half of the bilingual motto: CityU's motto also has a lesser-known Latin version — Officium et Civitas^※. According to the gloss on CityU's official "About" page, "Officium" means "a high-minded sense of duty," and "Civitas" refers both to a "city/town" and to a "union of citizens" — a fitting echo of the "City" in the university's name. Where the Chinese "Diligence, Fellowship" emphasises professional integrity and communal growth, the Latin "Officium et Civitas" emphasises duty and civic identity; placed side by side, the two form a bilingual motto in which East and West gloss one another. For the full account of how this design logic connects to the school colour, school song, school flower, and other symbols, see Motto, Emblem, School Colour, and Symbols.

# Landmark Buildings: From "Sharp Angles and Jagged Edges" to the Tallest Tower

# Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre: CityU's Most Recognisable Silhouette

The building on CityU's campus with the strongest visual recognisability is the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, designed by deconstructivist architect Daniel Libeskind^※. Its form is built from a white metal facade, multiple sharp angles, and geometric cut planes; the interior is described as "filled with triangles and sharp roofs, and jagged, fractured windows," a look sometimes described as "all sharp angles and jagged edges" (三尖八角). The building is about 9 storeys^※ tall, with a usable floor area of roughly 13,500 square metres^※, and can hold up to about 2,500 staff and students. The centre is the main building of the School of Creative Media (SCM), and also houses the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Media and Communication, the Department of English, and other units. Its form stands apart from the glass-curtain-wall modernism of CityU's other buildings, and it is one of the images most often used by media and admissions materials to represent the university.

Construction and awards: According to the English-language Wikipedia^※, the centre was built with a donation of HK$100 million from the Shaw Foundation, in memory of the film and television magnate Run Run Shaw; construction was completed and the building opened in October 2011. It has since received, among other honours, an Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Annual Awards Merit Award (2011), a BEAM Plus Platinum rating (2012), and the Asia Pacific Property Awards' "Hong Kong's Best Public Service Architecture" (five-star, 2013). These awards make the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre one of the few CityU landmark buildings with formal architectural-award recognition, rather than one whose reputation rests on visual impact alone.

The designer's international standing: According to the English-language Wikipedia^※, Libeskind is a Polish-American architect who established his international reputation with the Jewish Museum Berlin (his design won the competition in 1989; the museum opened in 2001), and who in 2003 won the master-plan competition for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in New York. His other works include the "Crystal" extension of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the extension of the Denver Art Museum; he is regarded as one of the leading figures of deconstructivist architecture. CityU's Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre is one of his few works in Hong Kong, which is part of why the building is often covered alongside his other work by local and international design media (such as the UK's Dezeen).

# Lau Ming Wai Academic Building: CityU's Tallest Tower

Lau Ming Wai Academic Building^※ (Academic 3) is CityU's tallest building, at 20 storeys^※ (plus a 5-storey podium), designed by the Hong Kong architecture firm Ronald Lu & Partners^※. Among CityU's main buildings, it leans toward a comparatively plain modernist style. Its facilities include a hall seating about 600^※, the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves (SKLTMW)^※, and a landscaped Sky Garden on floors 6–8^※.

Naming: The building was completed in May 2013^※ and was initially known only by its numeric designation, "Academic 3." According to CityU official news (2016-08-12)^※, in recognition of the long-term support of Mr. Lau Ming Wai, a CityU Honorary Fellow and a member of the Council since 2014, and his family, the university formally named the building "Lau Ming Wai Academic Building" in August 2016. The related donation funds student exchange and non-local internship awards and bursaries; according to the same report, more than a thousand students had benefited by the time of publication. This pattern — a building first known by its numeric designation, later named after a donor — is not uncommon among CityU's newer buildings over the past decade-plus, and offers a useful sample for reading CityU's building-naming conventions.

A note on the green roof: The building's landscaped Sky Garden is fairly well known among students, and stands in historical contrast with the 2016^※ roof-greenery collapse at the Wu Fa Kwong Sports Centre (the full investigation of that incident is covered in the companion piece Major Campus Incidents on Record: the 2016 Roof Collapse and the 2025 Canteen Conflict). Following its final 2017 report, the Buildings Department issued stricter green-roof regulations, and CityU's green-roof plans for its other buildings were adjusted accordingly.

# Wu Fa Kwong Sports Centre

The main campus sports facility, with basketball courts, badminton courts, a swimming pool, and other amenities. The Chan Tai Ho Multi-purpose Hall was originally one of its multi-purpose halls; it has been closed for renovation since a roof collapse incident in May 2016. The course of the incident and the official investigation findings are covered in Major Campus Incidents on Record: the 2016 Roof Collapse and the 2025 Canteen Conflict.

# No College System, and Residential Culture

Unlike the Chinese University of Hong Kong's college system, CityU explicitly has no college system. In official documents and admissions materials, CityU frames its residential experience as a "Residential College" community rather than as an independent college structure. According to CityU's official student-life page^※, halls are co-resided in by Residence Masters/Tutors alongside students, as part of a "whole-person development" residential culture.

The dispersed nature of the halls: The main campus (Kowloon Tong) has several student residence halls; the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village in Ma On Shan, opened in 2024^※, is comparatively large in scale but located a considerable distance from the main campus, requiring students to commute between the two — giving rise to a distinct population of "commuter residents." The construction features of the Lee Shau Kee residence village (modular integrated construction) are detailed in the companion piece. Informal sources (Zhihu-style freshman-guide posts) offer some unofficial descriptions of the residence-hall landscape, such as "competition for places is fierce" or "the atmosphere varies a great deal between halls," but these are weak sources; this archive quotes them without asserting them as fact.

Orientation culture: CityU has over a hundred student organisations and departmental societies. Large-scale orientation activities (Orientation Camp / O'Camp) are a fixed annual tradition around the start of each school year. Orientation camps at Hong Kong tertiary institutions have, in several rounds of public discussion, been criticised for containing inappropriate content, but no reliable source specifically pointing to a negative incident at a CityU orientation camp has been found to date; this archive labels the item "not found" rather than filling the gap with speculation.

A gap in the student-media record: CityU's Department of Media and Communication has a long history of undergraduate communication education, but the archival record of an independent, CityU-specific student media outlet is limited; no detailed information has been found to date on a long-running, active student publication under the name "CityU Post" or an equivalent (the CityU Monthly, published by the Student Union's editorial committee, is covered in Module 14, "Student Movements"). This archive records the "not found" status as such, without filling it with speculation.

# The Official Mascot: A Nameless Tiger (2022)

Unlike its emblem or motto, CityU's official mascot was formally introduced only in recent years. According to CityU official news (2022-08-29)^※, CityU publicly unveiled its campus mascot for the first time on August 23, 2022 — a tiger-themed cartoon character, officially described as embodying CityU's qualities of being "wise, energetic, full of vitality, and forward-looking," along with a spirit of "breaking through boundaries." The mascot appears in costumed form at orientation events such as the matriculation ceremony, serving as CityU's "special ambassador," and life-size cardboard cutouts have been placed around campus for orientation and promotional purposes.

Source note: The official press release discloses the mascot's design, launch date, and symbolic meaning, but does not disclose a specific name; this archive labels the item "no specific name found" rather than inventing one. This also corrects this site's earlier archived conclusion on "whether CityU has an official mascot" — the earlier verification pass had not located this 2022 official news item; it is now added and its source documented for future review.

# Items Not Found on Record (Labelled as Such, Not Filled by Speculation)

• The specific name of CityU's official campus mascot — the mascot itself has been confirmed (tiger-themed, first unveiled August 2022, see above), but the official press release did not disclose its name;
• A reliable textual source for the nicknames given to the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre;
• A dedicated CityU student newspaper (with a publication history spanning more than 10 years) or an independent CityU student radio station.

# Summary

The lore of CityU's campus identity symbols covered in this piece can be summarised in three threads:

1. The emblem-turnover dispute — the non-adoption of the winning 2012 emblem-competition entry, the 2014 "regularisation" of the thirtieth-anniversary mark into the emblem and the resulting student discontent, the 2016 maroon colour decision, and the 2025 "CityUHK" update together form a visual-identity history spanning over a decade. The "student discontent" element rests on informal and secondary-summary records, which this archive attributes faithfully and does not amplify; the timing and design firm behind the change itself are corroborated by multiple sources. The identity of designer Kan Tai-keung and the branding logic behind the CityUHK abbreviation change are covered in full in the companion piece.
2. Motto origins and landmark buildings — "Diligence, Fellowship" derives from the Book of Rites · Xueji, as glossed by Kong Yingda, with a Latin counterpart, "Officium et Civitas," forming a bilingual identity narrative that balances professionalism and social concern. The Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre and the Lau Ming Wai Academic Building are CityU's two most recognisable buildings — the former known for its deconstructivist form, Shaw Foundation funding, and multiple architectural awards; the latter for its height, its donor-naming pattern, and its green roof.
3. The mascot and unresolved items — the tiger-themed official mascot unveiled in 2022 fills what had previously been an archived gap ("no mascot found"), though its specific name remains officially undisclosed; independent student media institutions such as a student newspaper or radio station remain, to date, items not found on record, which this archive labels as such rather than filling with speculation.

All of the above is presented within the limits of source sufficiency; weak sources (informal nicknames, feng-shui claims) have been physically isolated and labelled; anywhere the evidence runs out, "not found" is stated explicitly. CityU's spatial coexistence with Festival Walk, its vertical-campus identity, and its animal facilities are covered in the companion piece Festival Walk Coexistence, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities.

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