Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong are my intellectual birthplace" — Sun Yat-sen's 1923 Speech at HKU
"Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong are my intellectual birthplace" — Sun Yat-sen's 1923 Speech at HKU
Module: 00 Overview · Sub-file: Sun Yat-sen 1923 Speech (sun-yat-sen-1923-speech) This article records the most frequently cited passage in HKU's institutional history, and the people and setting behind it. For the founding and naming of the institution (including the incorporation of the College of Medicine), see history.md; for the naming of Loke Yew Hall (the speech venue), see
../05-campus/buildings-landmarks.md; for biographical sketches, see../06-people/faculty-and-leaders.md.
I. Origins: A Student at the College of Medicine (1887–1892)
- According to the official HKU Dr Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail materials※, Sun Yat-sen studied at the College of Medicine for Chinese, Hongkong, from 1887 to 1892;
- According to the same official source※, the College of Medicine was incorporated into HKU in 1912 to become its Faculty of Medicine — thus making Sun's alma mater institutionally "ancestral" to a part of HKU (for the full story of the College's incorporation, see history.md).
II. 20 February 1923: The Speech on Returning to the Great Hall
- According to the official HKU Dr Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail materials※, on 20 February 1923, Sun Yat-sen returned to HKU and delivered a public address in the Great Hall (now Loke Yew Hall);
- According to the same official source※, he declared during the speech: "Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong are my intellectual birthplace."
- Drawing on published collations and records of the speech, he posed a question to himself: "Where did I get my revolutionary and modern ideas?" The answer, he explained, pointed to Hong Kong — he had come to this British colony as a teenager, spent his secondary-school and medical-student years there, and been deeply impressed by its rule of law, municipal order, and modern institutions.
From the official HKU Convocation record of the speech: This address, entitled "I Got My Ideas in Hong Kong," is recorded as taking place on 20 February 1923※; its central message is to identify the lived experience of Hong Kong as the wellspring of his revolutionary and modern thought. (Several differing transcriptions of the speech exist; this entry follows the official sources and the Historical Trail's formulation, without anchoring itself to the textual details of any single edition.)
III. Why This Line Became HKU's Signature Soundbite
- It directly links the University with one of the most consequential figures in modern Chinese history — a revolutionary who overthrew the imperial system and founded a republic, publicly naming HKU and Hong Kong as his "intellectual birthplace".
- The venue, Loke Yew Hall (the great hall within the Main Building, named in 1956; see
../05-campus/buildings-landmarks.md), thereafter became HKU's most symbolically charged ceremonial space; the line itself has become the core text repeatedly invoked in the University's outward-facing narrative, its institutional history exhibitions, and its centenary celebrations (see history-2.md). - The on-campus Dr Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail and related commemorations sustain this connection (per the Hong Kong Tourism Board※).
Unverified / To Be Corroborated
- Full text of the speech and textual variations: Several records of the speech are in circulation. This entry conveys the gist as stated by the official Historical Trail and Convocation materials, without anchoring to any single full text.
- Whether an honorary degree was also conferred on 20 February 1923: The official sources used for this entry do not explicitly record the conferral of an honorary degree on that date; the claim is therefore not made here, pending verification against dedicated archival documents.
- Biographical details such as "arrived in Hong Kong at 17 and stayed for nine years": These fall within the scope of his personal biography. This entry records only his period of study connected to HKU (1887–1892) and the 1923 speech; for life details, consult his biographies.