Simon K. Y. Lee Hall: the first foundation-funded project of a businessman who \"holds fast to what is good

Simon K. Y. Lee Hall (known among residents as "SKY Hall") was opened on 24 November 1985^※. It was funded through the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation, established by the late businessman Dr Simon K. Y. Lee, and was the first project undertaken by that foundation. It also stands as one of the earlier examples of a HKU hall named after a living businessman. This entry belongs to the 00–12 Reference Zone (factual); it records names as they appear in the sources and carries no credibility badge.

# 1. Basic facts

# 2. How the hall got its name: a businessman who "holds fast to what is good"

The hall is named in direct tribute to the donor, Dr Simon K. Y. Lee. According to HKU’s official giving records^※, Lee was born and educated in Hong Kong. When the Japanese invaded China, the 14‑year‑old Lee moved with his family to mainland China to escape the war; they returned to Hong Kong after the war ended in 1945.

It is worth clarifying that the firm "Sun Hing Hong" was not a business Lee built from scratch. The full text of his HKU honorary degree citation records^※ that Lee graduated from St Joseph’s College in 1941 and originally intended to study law. After the Second World War, it was his father, Mr Lee Chek-hung (李赤鴻), who founded the shipping agency "Sun Hing Hong" and asked the young Simon Lee to help run it — which is why he never followed his original plan to go to university. After his father died in the 1960s, Simon Lee took over the family business and restructured it into Sun Hing Shipping Company Ltd^※. Over the next forty years under his leadership, the firm expanded from a straightforward shipping agency into a business that owned and operated its own warehouses and transport facilities across multiple ports in Hong Kong and mainland China. This story — of inheriting a father’s business and building it anew — is subtly different from the simplified "self‑made" narrative on HKU’s official giving page, but it matches more closely the actual trajectory recorded in his citation.

Under his stewardship, the family business gradually grew into the Sun Hing Group. The group’s official history says it was founded nearly eighty years ago, takes "connecting goods, people and places" as its foundational philosophy, and operates across Asia and North America in property, financial investment, shipping investment, warehousing & logistics, and insurance^※. According to the HKU Honorary University Fellows directory^※, Simon Lee worked across shipping, banking, insurance, warehousing and transport for more than sixty years. He served on the boards of Wing Hang Bank and Pacific Basin Shipping, among others, and was chairman of Pacific Canadian Investments Holdings Corp. in Vancouver — his business footprint extending from Hong Kong to North America.

The bank where he was a director itself has a long history as a Chinese‑owned institution. Its predecessor, "Wing Hang Native Bank," was founded in 1937 in Guangzhou as a money‑changing business; after the war it re‑established itself in Hong Kong in 1945 with capital of HK$300,000 and 19 staff^※, eventually becoming a licensed bank and listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in July 1993^※. Lee’s tenure as a director thus ran broadly in parallel with the whole arc of transformation in Hong Kong’s Chinese‑owned banking sector — from exchange shop to listed bank — which gives some context to what "six decades in the industry" actually refers to. (The bank was fully acquired by Singapore’s OCBC in 2014; this has no direct bearing on the history of Simon K. Y. Lee Hall itself and is noted only as background.)

Simon Lee made 「擇善固執」 ("holds fast to what is good") his personal and business creed^※. It was a motto he often quoted in public, and HKU’s giving page invokes it to help explain why he kept giving to education‑related charities. This "holding fast" went beyond donation figures; it also played out across a wide range of public‑service roles he held over many years. His citation records that he was a long‑serving member and former international director of Lions Clubs International, helped found the Lions Eye Bank and served as its president, was a former chairman and serving president of the Hong Kong Society for the Deaf, the founder and chairman of the Hong Kong Liver Foundation, and a founding director and serving honorary treasurer of the Hong Kong Digestive Foundation^※. From an eye bank to a liver‑disease foundation, this public‑service portfolio spans medical care, disability support and social welfare — a spread of interests that would later align closely with his sustained donations to HKU’s medical faculty.

# 3. 1985: the foundation’s first project is completed

The construction of Simon K. Y. Lee Hall was funded entirely by a personal donation from Simon Lee, disbursed through the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation that he had established. The foundation’s own website^※ states that the HKU hall was the first project it ever supported — providing a 300‑place residential hall for the university. That makes the building more than just a naming‑rights gift; it marks the starting point of Simon Lee’s personal philanthropic enterprise. The foundation later broadened its funding into three main strands — the elderly, children, and working youth^※. The Elderly Fund supports initiatives such as GrandMove and dementia‑awareness education; the Children’s Fund covers early‑education programmes like FLY, 3Es and WISE; and there is also Karen’s Fund, focused on youth employment, backing projects such as Careerpillar and MAGIC. To a significant degree, Simon K. Y. Lee Hall — the very first project — is the seed from which that whole subsequent charitable landscape grew.

The new hall was formally opened on 24 November 1985. The following year, in 1986, the Simon K. Y. Lee Hall Students’ Association, HKU, was founded^※ and began independently running activities and external exchanges. Around the same time, Simon Lee himself was appointed a member of the Court of HKU, also starting in 1986^※. The building of the hall and the taking up of a Court seat happened in quick succession; from that point, his relationship with the university extended beyond a one‑off donation into sustained institutional involvement.

The hall’s physical position offers a certain "close‑to‑the‑action" advantage. Simon K. Y. Lee Hall is on HKU’s main campus, tucked right next to the Composite Building; it is about a minute’s walk to the heart of the teaching campus^※, making it one of the very closest residential halls to the main academic zone in the whole university. Room types are mostly twin rooms (around 13 m²) and four‑person rooms (around 25 m²). Standard fittings include a bed, wardrobe, desk with reading lamp, bookshelf, chair and Wi‑Fi; air‑conditioning is on a pay‑per‑use basis. Common facilities include a multi‑purpose hall, discussion rooms, a gym, a music room and a rooftop terrace. Each floor has a shared pantry with a microwave, induction cooker, refrigerator and water dispenser. There is 24‑hour security and daily cleaning of communal spaces^※ — the gym and music room, in a sense, mirror the hall’s stated emphasis on both cultural and sporting activities.

It is also worth noting that the Lee family’s donations to HKU did not stop here. The family also funded Lee Chi Hung Hall (李志雄堂), named after Simon Lee’s father^※. The names of two generations thus entered HKU’s hall system in sequence, forming a record of a family‑based, two‑generation giving story. Lee Chi Hung Hall was founded in 1995 and is HKU’s first — and only — co‑educational non‑residential hall^※. Unlike Simon K. Y. Lee Hall, which provides physical places, Lee Chi Hung Hall has no beds; it exists specifically to serve students who do not live in a residential hall but still want to take part in hall culture and activities. Its stated aim is to foster a sense of unity and belonging through cultural, sporting and social events, so that "non‑residential" students still get a full university experience^※. The father‑and‑son combination — one hall residential, one non‑residential, one concrete and one intangible — makes for an unusual family‑donation pairing within HKU’s hall system.

# 4. Simon Lee and HKU: from donor to Honorary University Fellow and beyond

Simon Lee’s connection with HKU deepened steadily over the following decades. He was a Founding Honorary Patron of the HKU Foundation (officially the "University of Hong Kong Foundation for Educational Development and Research")^※ and served on the Court of HKU for many years. The HKU Foundation itself was established in 1995 as the university’s core charitable fundraising platform; since then it has launched a series of fundraising schemes including Endowed Professorships, the First‑in‑the‑Family Education Fund, and the Culture and Humanities Fund^※. Simon Lee’s hall‑building donation of 1985 predates the foundation by a full ten years. Put another way, he first gave directly as an individual to build a hall, and only later joined the university’s systemic fundraising architecture — when it eventually took shape — as a Founding Honorary Patron. That sequence underscores that his ties with HKU are older and more personal than the foundation itself.

In terms of public honours, Simon Lee was appointed an unofficial Justice of the Peace in 1985 and was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1993^※. HKU’s own recognition came in two stages. In 1996 he was made an Honorary University Fellow^※; a decade later, in 2006, the university conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa, at its 173rd Congregation^※. From donating a hall in 1985 to receiving an honorary doctorate in 2006 — a span of twenty‑one years — this is a textbook example of HKU’s graduated, multi‑stage system of honouring a single donor.

Simon Lee’s public involvement was never confined to HKU. He also gave sustained support to the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Lions Clubs International, and a variety of charitable and government‑related bodies^※, engaging in public affairs through a combination of professional expertise and financial commitment.

# Beyond HKU: the "Simon K. Y. Lee House" in Vancouver

Simon Lee’s education‑related giving did not stop at the HKU campus. In 2006 he pledged CAD 4 million to the University of British Columbia in Canada to build an international‑student residence and cultural centre on the Vancouver campus^※. Named "Simon K.Y. Lee HKU‑UBC House," the project was officially opened in October 2010. Set within UBC’s Marine Drive residence complex, it provides 100 beds and is dedicated to a bilateral exchange: 100 HKU students and 100 UBC students each occupy half the places. Inside the building are the "Simon K.Y. Lee Global Lounge and Resource Centre" and the "Simon K.Y. Lee Hong Kong Lounge," serving as a cultural‑exchange hub for staff and students from the two universities^※. The project extends the name "Simon K. Y. Lee" from Pokfulam in Hong Kong to the west coast of North America. HKU’s Simon K. Y. Lee Hall — a traditional residential hall for first‑year undergraduates — and Vancouver’s Simon K. Y. Lee HKU‑UBC House — an international‑exchange residence — both bear his name, yet they face two different eras and two different modes of student mobility. His Vancouver philanthropic footprint also extends beyond the university residence. The Simon K.Y. Lee Seniors Care Home, operated by S.U.C.C.E.S.S., opened on 24 September 2001 in Vancouver’s Chinatown. It is a three‑storey care facility with five residential units and a 23‑bed special‑care ward, providing culturally appropriate professional care mainly for elderly people who can no longer live independently at home. The Government of British Columbia contributed CAD 14.52 million towards its construction^※. This care home that bears his name sits across the Pacific from HKU’s Simon K. Y. Lee Hall; one serves new undergraduates, the other serves the elderly, yet both share the same philanthropic model — a one‑off donation from the benefactor acknowledged by the institution through naming.

# Beyond the hall: sustained giving to the HKU medical faculty

Simon Lee’s giving to HKU did not end with the 1985 payment for the hall. Through the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation and in his capacity as a Founding Honorary Patron of the HKU Foundation, he went on to make continuing donations to HKU’s medical faculty — supporting the construction of its building and endowing a professorship in gastroenterology^※. That Simon K Y Lee Professorship in Gastroenterology has been held successively by Professor Lin Zhao‑jin (appointed 2005), Professor Wong Chi‑sang (2008), Professor Lai Ching‑chun (2011), and the current incumbent, Professor Sze Wai‑hong, whose liver‑disease research citations have long placed him in the top 1% globally^※. From a building‑construction gift to the long‑term funding of an academic chair, Lee’s support for HKU shifted from a "one‑off piece of hardware" to "sustained investment in people." He said of this donation: 「醫學是一門追求造福人類的學問，我很榮幸能支持這項事業，其成果將延續在我們每一個人身上」 ("Medicine is a field of learning that seeks to benefit humankind; I am honoured to support this work, whose fruits will endure in each of us")^※. The HKU Development & Alumni Affairs Office has since frequently quoted this remark as an encapsulation of his philanthropic philosophy. In tone it echoes his "holds fast to what is good" motto: one statement describes his principles in life, the other his motives for giving. Together they form the two "standard quotations" that the hall and the giving office repeatedly draw on to sum up his public image. The Hong Kong Liver Foundation, which he founded and funded, itself has close links to the HKU medical faculty and is dedicated to saving the lives of hepatitis‑B patients^※. The hall donation, the professorship and the Liver Foundation together trace a complete thread of funding linking him and the HKU medical faculty.

# 5. Hall culture: SKYers and "Active and Sincere"

Residents of Simon K. Y. Lee Hall call one another "SKYers" — taken from the initials of Simon K. Y. Lee, which happen also to spell the English word "sky," one of the rare cases in HKU’s hall system where a donor’s initials form an independent English word. The hall’s official website sums up its values and identity with: "We are SKYers, Active and Sincere"^※, putting "active" and "sincere" forward as the two key words of the hall’s spirit.

The hall describes itself, after more than four decades of development, as a "vibrant and diverse" community^※; residents take an active part in hall affairs and community life. The hall runs a floor‑based residential organisation structure, with committee positions covering areas such as culture and sport. Around 2025 the hall put together a "40th‑Anniversary Photo Album" project, reviewing visual records from across its history — a sign that it maintains an ongoing effort to trace and commemorate its own story.

Hall activities straddle formal traditions and relaxed social events. In the 2025–26 academic year, the hall held its first High Table Dinner on 3 November 2025, with former resident warden Dr Max Hui‑Bon‑Hoa as guest; later that year, the second High Table Dinner featured Dr Wong Chi‑chung speaking on "Accompanying Difficult Times Through Music," along with academic‑achievement and service awards^※. These High Table Dinners continue the hallmark of HKU’s hall system — a ceremonial gathering where staff and students dine together in formal dress, with an invited speaker. Lighter activities include the "Superpass Chill Night" held during the examination season, with fai‑chun (Chinese New Year couplet) stalls, a professional photo zone, game booths and a karaoke corner; an International Food Festival around February each year, with 11 stalls and residents presenting dishes from many countries; a "Warehouse Workout" volunteer day in October, run with Feeding Hong Kong; a Tea Meditation session; and a Freshmen Welcoming Night in September^※. From High Table Dinner to International Food Festival, the hall’s programme spans formal ceremony, food culture and community volunteering. On 22 November 2025 the hall held a "40th‑Anniversary Alumni Dinner," featuring a photo booth, a hall‑song performance, a set by the Lee Hall Band Team, and a review of photographs from across the years^※ — the climactic event of the 40th‑anniversary series. In recent years the hall has also opened its doors to secondary‑school students for taster programmes: the "HKU Immersive Experience: Interdisciplinary and Community Exploration" recruits groups of secondary‑school pupils each summer to stay in Simon K. Y. Lee Hall for a few days, arranging interactive classes from the faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, Science, Engineering and Law, together with a private Victoria Harbour boat trip, a High Table Dinner experience, team sports, dance and drama performances, and an interdisciplinary project^※. It is one of the few HKU halls to proactively run an immersive taster programme for secondary‑school students.

# 6. Management

Simon K. Y. Lee Hall is directly managed by HKU. Hall‑place applications are centrally handled through CEDARS (the Centre of Development and Resources for Students); day‑to‑day activity planning is run autonomously by the Hall Students’ Association. The hall maintains contact with the Simon K. Y. Lee Foundation, and later scholarship schemes carry forward the donor’s original intention of supporting students financially.

# 7. Situating the hall within the HKU system: one of thirteen, and a case study in "rapid donor recognition"

HKU currently has thirteen residential halls in total — Lady Ho Tung Hall, Lee Hysan Hall, Simon K. Y. Lee Hall, Ricci Hall, St John’s College, Starr Hall, Swire Hall, University Hall, Wei Lun Hall, Morrison Hall, Lee Shau Kee Hall, Suen Chi Sun Hall, and Li Shu Pui Hall^※ — plus three non‑residential halls: Hornell Hall, Duchess of Kent Hall, and Lee Chi Hung Hall. Among the thirteen residential halls, Simon K. Y. Lee Hall is one of the relatively small number that were paid for in full, in a single donation, by a living businessman — distinct from halls collectively funded by religious bodies (St John’s College, Ricci Hall) and from the case of Morrison Hall, where alumni raised money over many years to finance a phased rebuild (for which see morrison-hall.md). It is also a case in which the donor continued to receive honours within the HKU system long after the hall was built.

HKU’s hall system is itself descended from the collegiate traditions of Oxford and Cambridge, but from the start it never carried the academic‑teaching and independent‑admissions functions of a college; instead it evolved into a "hall" focused on extra‑curricular and social education^※, which the university officially describes as part of its "whole‑person education." For most halls, accommodation eligibility must be reapplied for each year (re‑admission), with the assessment criteria tied to participation in hall activities^※. This is the institutional backdrop to why a "SKYer" identity is so strongly emphasised in the hall’s own discourse: hall membership is not something you keep for life after moving in once; it has to be earned year after year through active involvement.

In terms of timeline, the rhythm of Simon K. Y. Lee Hall’s construction‑and‑recognition cycle is quite representative. 1985: hall donated and built. 1986: Simon Lee promptly appointed to the Court of HKU. 1996: Honorary University Fellowship conferred. 2006: Honorary Doctor of Social Sciences conferred — a twenty‑one‑year arc unfolding in four clear stages. This path — first contributing a tangible piece of infrastructure in exchange for institutional standing, then exchanging decades of sustained participation for the highest honours — is a fairly typical pattern in HKU’s history of recognising business donors. It also forms a contrast with halls such as Ricci Hall and St John’s College, which were donated as complete entities by religious bodies and cannot be credited to a single individual.

As of 2026, Simon K. Y. Lee Hall has been in operation for more than forty years. The "40th‑Anniversary Photo Album" project the hall has run in recent years^※ can, in a sense, be seen as the hall’s own narrative‑level summing‑up of this full cycle of "donation → recognition → sustained involvement." A hall originally funded entirely by a single businessman has now run for over four decades. It has never had to close and be reborn like Morrison Hall, nor has it enjoyed the independent legal status of St John’s College. Instead it has carried on in the most straightforward way imaginable — recruiting new students year after year, organising activities, perpetuating the "SKYer" identity. That very ordinariness is itself another kind of normal worth recording within the HKU hall system. Not every hall’s history needs a closure or a rebuilding to be compelling; four decades of unbroken, steady operation like Simon K. Y. Lee Hall’s is just as much a part of the everyday foundation on which HKU’s "whole‑person education" continues to function.