The Three Girls Who Walked into an All‑Male University in 1921 — HKU’s First Women Students and the Daughters of the Hotung Family

This entry is part of the biographical vignettes series within the “University of Hong Kong (HKU) Database”. It profiles the first cohort of women students admitted to HKU in 1921. The main text is a plain narrative based on verifiable public historical sources; reliability is reasonably high, though some details still rely on secondary materials — uncertainties are noted nearby. For profiles of founding scholars and institutional leaders, see faculty-and-leaders.md; for notable alumni, see notable-alumni.md.

# Why Did HKU Only Start Admitting Women in 1921?

The University of Hong Kong formally opened its doors on 11 March 1912^※ as an all‑male institution. Official records note that it took about a decade before HKU admitted its first women students^※ — in 1921. This nine‑to‑ten‑year gap was not the result of any statute explicitly barring women; it stemmed from custom and default gender exclusion. HKU had never proactively examined whether its admissions regulations contained any legal basis for rejecting female applicants. This very loophole was what gave Rachel Irving’s father his opening. Even in Britain itself, Oxford and Cambridge did not formally grant degrees to women until the 1920s; far from the front lines of the suffrage movement, Hong Kong’s entirely male university was treated as almost self‑evident.

# Rachel Irving’s Rejected Application and the Legal Opinion: The Blow That Broke Convention

According to secondary sources collated by blogs such as “Hong Kong’s First”^※, Rachel Mary Irving applied to HKU around 1921 and was rejected by the University — the explicit grounds are unrecorded, but the reason in substance was gender exclusion. Rachel’s father, Edward Alexander Irving, was Hong Kong’s first Director of Education, serving from 1909 to 1924^※, and a senior colonial official. He did not accept the rejection. Instead, he sought legal advice and discovered that there was no lawful basis in any of HKU’s ordinances or regulations to prevent women from enrolling. Confronted with this legal challenge, HKU had no grounds to hold its position and had no choice but to concede.

What altered the gender landscape of Hong Kong higher education was not a social movement, but the stubbornness of a father, a legal opinion, and a systemic loophole the university itself had left. Edward Irving’s office supplied enough social capital to challenge the establishment, but the legal argument itself was the substantive lever — the gates of HKU, it turned out, had never actually been legally shut.

(Note: The “application rejected — legal advice — concession” sequence above comes from secondary compilations; no formal HKU archival record documenting the full process has been found in existing public materials, and some narrative details may be simplified.)

# Three Pioneers: Who Were the First Women of 1921?

All three were admitted in the same year, 1921, but came from different faculties: Rachel Irving and Irene Cheng entered Arts, while Lai Po-cheun chose Medicine — a deeply uncommon choice for a woman at the time. Each holds her own “first”: Irving was HKU’s first ever woman student and first woman graduate (1923); Irene Cheng (daughter of Clara Ho Tung, Sir Robert Hotung’s second wife) was the first Hong Kong‑born Chinese woman graduate (1925); Lai Po-cheun was the first woman medical student, though she ultimately graduated no earlier than Eva Hotung.

# Rachel Irving: Hong Kong’s First Woman University Graduate, 1923

According to secondary sources^※, Rachel Mary Irving studied in the Faculty of Arts and received her BA degree in 1923^※, becoming the first woman in Hong Kong history to graduate from a university. Existing public Chinese‑language sources have little to say about her career after graduation; her professional trajectory awaits further archival research. Her historical significance lies first in that rejected application and her father’s legal pressure, and second in being the name prefixed “Miss” at the top of the 1923 graduation list.

Some sources date the first women’s enrolment to 1920 (by academic year) or 1921 (by calendar year). This article adopts 1921, consistent with the Irene Cheng Wikipedia entry, the Hong Kong Medical Journal academic paper, and the phrasing on HKU’s official history pages.

# Irene Cheng: First Hong Kong‑Born Chinese Woman Graduate, 1925

Irene Cheng (何艾齡, 1904–2007)^※ was the daughter of Hong Kong magnate and philanthropist Sir Robert Hotung^※ and his second wife, Clara Cheung. She entered the HKU Faculty of Arts in 1921, reading English^※ — she was only sixteen or seventeen at the time. In 1925, she graduated with a BA in English^※, becoming the first Hong Kong‑born woman university graduate — a title to be distinguished from Rachel Irving’s “first woman graduate of Hong Kong”: the former emphasises “Hong Kong‑born” and “Chinese” identity, while the latter is earlier chronologically.

Her subsequent academic path was long: she earned a Master of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1929^※, and a doctorate from the University of London in 1936^※. She served for many years in the Hong Kong Government’s Education Department; when she retired in 1961, she was the highest‑ranking Chinese woman in the department and was awarded the OBE that same year^※. She passed away in 2007 at the age of 102^※.

# Eva Hotung: The Medical Faculty’s First Woman Graduate, 1927

Eva Hotung, another of Sir Robert Hotung’s daughters, entered HKU’s medical faculty in the spring term of 1922^※ — a year later than the first three. Despite joining Medicine later than Lai Po‑cheun, Eva completed her medical degree first, in 1927, becoming the first woman graduate in the history of the HKU Medical Faculty^※. The HKUMed 135th anniversary milestones page states unequivocally: “Eva Hotung becomes the first woman to graduate with a medical degree from HKU.”

Eva’s significance lies not only in being the first woman from the Hotung family to “break into Medicine”, but in prising open a crack in the gender landscape of 1920s Hong Kong medicine. In the year of her graduation, 1927, for a Hong Kong woman to enrol in medicine rather than arts was still a rarity. Eva and her sister Irene were both pioneers who emerged from the Hotung household, but each achieved a different “first”: the elder sister took medicine, the younger took arts; the elder was the medical faculty’s first woman graduate, the younger was HKU’s first Hong Kong‑born Chinese woman graduate (in Arts).

(Note: Existing public Chinese‑language sources disagree on Eva Hotung’s birth year and which of Hotung’s wives was her mother; this article records only verifiable educational and graduation facts and draws no inferences about family details.)

# Lai Po‑cheun: The First Woman to Enter Medicine, But Not the First to Graduate as a Doctor

Lai Po‑cheun (賴寶川) was the only one of the three 1921 entrants who chose the Faculty of Medicine^※, making her the “first woman medical student” in HKU history. However, the medical course typically took five to six years, and owing to various factors, she graduated later than Eva Hotung, who entered in 1922 — the latter graduated first, in 1927, and claimed the title of the medical faculty’s “first woman graduate”. Lai Po‑cheun’s precise year of graduation is not yet recorded with certainty in public Chinese‑language sources.

After graduating, Lai entered the Hong Kong Government medical service^※, and was appointed in 1939 as Health Officer, Secretary to the Midwives Board and Supervisor of Midwives, concurrently serving as a School Inspector^※. In 1941 her title was “Lady Chinese Assistant Medical Officer (Schools)”^※, indicating a long career in public health and school medical services. Among the three pioneers, she is the one who left the clearest professional archive in the field of public health administration.

# The Hotung Family and HKU: Two Generations of “Firsts” From a Single Family

Sir Robert Hotung (1862–1956) was one of the most influential Chinese businessmen in early twentieth‑century Hong Kong, and a significant benefactor of HKU. That two of his daughters successively became the “first” women in their respective fields at the University was no coincidence — the Hotung family made a deliberate choice to educate their daughters at university level, a decision that was itself ahead of its time in 1920s Hong Kong high society. After the war, Sir Robert donated HK$1 million to the University in memory of his late wife, which led to the establishment of Lady Ho Tung Hall in 1951, HKU’s only women’s residence hall at the time^※ — the family’s connection with women’s education at HKU would endure for decades.

# After 1921: The Trajectory of Women at HKU

From three women in 1921 to one‑fifth of undergraduates by 1941, the growth in the female student proportion over two decades mirrors the overall expansion of educational opportunities for women in Hong Kong. And the point of origin for all of this — a rejected application, a father who sought a legal opinion — reminds us that institutional doorways are often pried open by a specific person applying specific force.

# Unconfirmed / Requiring Verification

• The details of “the father sought a legal opinion”: Currently only found in secondary compilations; no primary official HKU archival record has been located to verify the full sequence of events.
• Lai Po‑cheun’s exact graduation year: Existing public sources cannot confirm the year; the statement “Lai Po‑cheun graduated later than Eva Hotung (1927)” itself relies on secondary narratives.
• Maternal parentage of Eva Hotung and Irene Cheng: The marital and family circumstances of Sir Robert Hotung are historically complex; that Irene Cheng was the daughter of the second wife, Clara, is supported by Wikipedia sources; sources vary on the maternal parentage of Eva, and this article draws no inferences.
• Rachel Irving’s post‑graduation career: At present, insufficient public Chinese‑language historical material exists.