The Crest Controversy, the Motto's Origins, and Landmark Buildings

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

Reading note (lore section): This article focuses on anecdotes about the changes to campus identity symbols (crest, motto, school colour) and record-keeping content on landmark buildings. It sits in the part of the lore section where evidence is relatively well-supported and political sensitivity is comparatively low. The "student dissatisfaction" mentioned in connection with the crest change is recorded in informal and secondary sources and is labelled as such; neutral statements involving living individuals are referred to by title only.

This article focuses on the crest, motto, and landmark buildings. For CityU's shared use of space with Festival Walk, its vertical-campus identity, and animal facilities, see the companion piece Coexistence with Festival Walk, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities.

In July 2014, CityU marked its 30th anniversary. A logo made specially for the celebration — combining the letters "CityU" with the number "30" — was, like other anniversary logos, expected to be retired once the celebrations ended. According to a Wikipedia overview, the university later removed the "30," and the temporary logo was carried over into use as CityU's formal crest. Years later, some students still recall the episode with a degree of exasperation. This article starts from the origins of that crest and traces the changes to CityU's campus identity symbols from there.

# Three changes to the crest and the "celebratory logo becomes the crest" dispute

CityU's visual identity has changed several times over the past decade or so. One change, in 2014, left behind a disputed memory among some students, described as the "celebratory logo being quietly carried over into use as the crest." This section lays out the verifiable chronology and attributes the hard-to-quantify "student dissatisfaction" to its source material as reported.

# The 2012 crest design competition: the winning entry was not adopted

According to a Chinese Wikipedia overview^※, CityU held a "crest design competition" in 2012^※, with the competition rules stating that "the winning design may be adopted as CityU's formal crest." A winner was selected by vote, but according to the overview cited above, the university ultimately did not adopt the winning entry^※.

Source note: The record of the 2012 crest competition and its outcome comes from a Wikipedia overview (secondary source), and there is no independent primary reporting to fully corroborate the competition rules or the timeline of the winning entry's non-adoption. This entry is archived with its source nature labelled accordingly.

# The 2014 30th-anniversary logo becomes the crest

According to a Wikipedia overview^※ and a design firm's project page^※, in July 2014^※, to mark the 30th anniversary of the university's founding, CityU adopted an anniversary logo designed by the Hong Kong design firm Kan & Lau Design Consultants (KL&K, now Kan Tai-keung, Lau Siu-hong & Associates), combining the abbreviation "CityU" with the number "30." The official description was that it "conveys an inspirational message of pursuing action and progress^※."

According to the Wikipedia overview, the university subsequently removed the "30," and the logo was thereby carried over into use as CityU's new crest^※.

# 2016 settling on maroon, and the 2025 "CityUHK" update

According to a Wikipedia overview^※, around 2016^※ CityU further settled on maroon for the crest, an adjustment that reportedly again prompted some students to revisit the earlier crest change. Maroon has since become CityU's primary brand colour.

On 1 March 2025^※, CityU formally rolled out a further updated crest: according to the logo-industry outlet logonews, the new version adds rounded corners to the original rectangular block (most noticeable 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 named "City."

According to CityU's official statement (as relayed by media), the update "aligns closely with the university's strategic direction for the next decade," reflecting a commitment to "innovation, excellence, and global leadership." The then-president was reported to have said, at the new crest's launch, that the new mark was "not just a visual upgrade but a symbol of CityU's confident outlook on the future."

Note: the named statement made at the 2025 crest launch was attributed to the then-president (who subsequently resigned early, in April 2026 — see Module 13 for details); this article refers to that role by title only, does not name the individual, and does not add them to the entities list. The primary source for this item, logonews, is a design-industry trade outlet (informal in nature); its reporting on the launch date and design changes is corroborated by the official brand-direction statement and is considered credible, with details deferred to CityU's official Corporate Identity Manual.

# The motto "敬業樂羣" and its origins in the Book of Rites

CityU's motto is 「敬業樂羣」^※. These four characters derive from the Book of Rites, Xue Ji chapter: "一年視離經辨志，三年視敬業樂羣^※" ("in the first year [of study], one examines whether the student can parse the classics and discern their aims; in the third year, whether the student is devoted to learning and enjoys the company of peers"), meaning that by the third year of study, students should be examined for their devotion to study and their enjoyment of communal learning.

The Tang-dynasty classical scholar Kong Yingda glossed this as: "敬業，謂藝業長者，敬而親之；樂羣，謂羣居朋友善者，願而樂之^※" — "敬業" emphasises reverence for and devotion to one's field of expertise; "樂羣" emphasises the relationship between the individual, the group, and social concern. On this basis, CityU's official interpretation frames the motto as an educational philosophy that balances "character formation" with "social concern."

Drawing the motto from the Book of Rites, Xue Ji is a tradition CityU shares with a number of Chinese-language universities; its combination of a classical text with a modern, career- and application-oriented educational positioning forms part of CityU's early identity narrative.

# Landmark buildings: from the "jagged silhouette" to the tallest tower

# The Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre: CityU's most recognisable outline

The building on CityU's campus with the most distinctive visual profile is the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, designed by the deconstructivist architect Daniel Libeskind^※. Its exterior is formed of white metal cladding, multiple angular projections, and geometric cut faces; the interior is described as "filled with triangular and pointed-roof forms and sharp, fragmented windows," and it is often described as having a "jagged, multi-angled silhouette." It stands about 9 storeys^※ tall, with a usable floor area of approximately 13,500 square metres^※, and can accommodate up to about 2,500 staff and students. It houses the School of Creative Media (SCM) and stands apart from CityU's predominantly glass-curtain-wall modernist buildings, making it one of the visual symbols most frequently used in CityU's media coverage and admissions materials.

# Lau Ming Wai Academic Building: CityU's tallest building

The 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 architectural firm Ronald Lu & Partners^※; among CityU's main buildings, it leans toward a comparatively unadorned modernist style. Facilities inside include a hall seating about 600 people^※, the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves (SKLTMW)^※, and a green podium garden (Sky Garden) on floors 6–8^※.

Note on the green roof: the Academic Building's podium garden is fairly well known among students, and is sometimes contrasted historically with the 2016^※ roof-greenery collapse at the Wu Fa Kwong Sports Centre (see the companion piece in Module 15, "Record of Major Campus Incidents," for details of that event). Following its final 2017 report, the Buildings Department issued stricter regulations for green roofs, and the green-roof plans for CityU's other buildings were adjusted accordingly.

# The Wu Fa Kwong Sports Centre

This is the main campus's 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 repairs since a roof collapse in May 2016. For the course of that incident and the official investigation's conclusions, see the companion piece in Module 15, "Cats and Animals on Campus," section "Record of Major Campus Incidents."

# No college system, and residential culture

Unlike the Chinese University of Hong Kong's college system, CityU explicitly does not operate a college system. In its official documents and admissions materials, CityU positions the residential experience as a "Residential College" learning community rather than a separate college structure. According to CityU's official student-life page^※, residence halls are co-inhabited by Residence Masters/Tutors and students, in support of a "whole-person development" residential culture.

The scattered distribution of student housing: the main campus (Kowloon Tong) has several student residence halls; the Lee Shau Kee student residential village in Ma On Shan, opened in 2024^※, is comparatively large but sits some distance from the main campus, requiring students to commute between the two — giving rise to a distinct group of "commuting resident students." The construction features of the Lee Shau Kee village (modular integrated construction) are covered in detail in the companion piece. Informal sources (freshman-guide-style posts on platforms such as Zhihu) offer some unofficial descriptions of housing distribution, such as "competition for places is intense" or "the atmosphere varies a lot between halls" — these are weak sources, and this archive quotes them without asserting them as fact.

Orientation culture: CityU has upward of a hundred student societies and departmental associations. Large-scale orientation camps (O'Camp) are a fixed annual tradition around the start of each academic year. Orientation camps at Hong Kong universities generally have been criticised in various public discussions for containing inappropriate content, but to date no reliable source specifically documents a negative incident tied to CityU's own orientation camps; this archive labels the item "no record found" rather than filling the gap with speculation.

A gap in the record of student media: CityU's Department of Communication has a long history of undergraduate communication education, but the archival record of an independent, CityU-specific student media outlet is limited; to date, no detailed information has been found on any long-running student publication operating under a name such as "CityU Post" or equivalent (the CityU Monthly, published by the Student Union's editorial committee, is covered in Module 14). This archive records the absence of such a record as found, without filling the gap with speculation.

# Items with no record found (labelled as such, not filled in by speculation)

• A long-term record of an official CityU-wide mascot — to date, no authoritative record of an official mascot representing CityU as a whole has been found;
• A reliable textual source for the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre's nicknames;
• A dedicated CityU student newspaper (with a publication history spanning over 10 years) or an independent CityU student radio broadcaster.

# Summary

This article's survey of the lore surrounding CityU's campus identity symbols can be grouped into two threads:

1. The crest-change dispute — the non-adoption of the 2012 crest competition's winning entry, the 2014 carrying-over of the 30th-anniversary logo into the crest (which reportedly drew student dissatisfaction), the 2016 settling on maroon, and the 2025 "CityUHK" update together form a chain of visual-identity changes spanning over a decade. The "student dissatisfaction" item is drawn from informal and secondary overviews and is attributed to its source as reported, not amplified; the change itself — its timing and designer — is corroborated by multiple sources.
2. The motto's origins and landmark buildings — "敬業樂羣" derives from the Book of Rites, Xue Ji, as glossed by Kong Yingda, forming CityU's identity narrative balancing professional devotion with 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, the latter for its height and green roof.

All of the above is presented within the bounds of adequate sourcing; weak sources (informal nicknames, feng shui claims) have been physically isolated and labelled; items beyond the evidence boundary are clearly labelled "no record found." For CityU's shared use of space with Festival Walk, its vertical-campus identity, and animal facilities, see the companion piece Coexistence with Festival Walk, the Vertical Campus, and Animal Facilities.