Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (Part I): 1887 – The Hong Kong College of Medicine and Sun Yat-sen's Student Years

The medical lineage of The University of Hong Kong stretches back to a college founded a full 25 years before the university itself existed. In 1887, a group of Western-trained doctors and Chinese community leaders practising in colonial Hong Kong established the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (香港西醫書院). This was not a faculty tacked onto HKU after its founding; on the contrary, an independent college existed first, and it later became the inaugural faculty of the new university. It is famous worldwide for one particular alumnus: Sun Yat-sen completed his Western medical education here, obtained his qualification to practise, and subsequently embarked upon a path of political revolution. This article traces the college's complete arc, from its founding and operation to its incorporation into HKU.

This is Part I of the main article on the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, focusing on the college's origins and Sun Yat-sen's medical studies from 1887 to 1912. For the current five-school structure, the MBBS curriculum, and the 2005–2006 naming event, see Part II: li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md. For teaching hospitals, see ./teaching-hospitals.md; for the research strengths of clinical departments, see ./departments-and-strengths.md. This module belongs to the 00–12 Reference Area (factual, verified official history); it records neutral facts as they stand, with every figure, date, and personal name accompanied by a citation on the spot.

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# 1. How Was the College Founded, and Who Were the Real Driving Forces?

# 1.1 The Three Founders and Their Roles

The college was formally founded in Hong Kong on 1 October 1887 by the London Missionary Society^※. In the same year, the Alice Memorial Hospital opened, providing the students with a venue for clinical practice. The three core founders each played distinct roles:

The three men came from different backgrounds, but shared a single aim: to establish a system in colonial Hong Kong for training Chinese doctors in Western medicine.

At the time, Patrick Manson (1844–1922) was already a towering figure in tropical medicine. Between 1877 and 1879, he demonstrated that mosquitoes could serve as vectors for the parasite causing filariasis (elephantiasis), one of the first confirmed cases of the insect-vector concept in medical history^※. Posterity would call him the "Father of Tropical Medicine"^※. He had been practising medicine in Hong Kong since 1883^※. After the college opened, he became its first Dean of Studies, personally lecturing in medicine, and returned to Britain in 1889^※, later founding the London School of Tropical Medicine.

James Cantlie (1851–1926) was a Scottish surgeon who came to Hong Kong to help found the college in the same year as Manson (1887)^※, lecturing in surgery and anatomy. He was Sun Yat-sen's direct teacher and lifelong friend—in 1896, when Sun was kidnapped by the Qing legation in London, it was Cantlie who lobbied the press and the British Foreign Office, eventually securing his release^※.

Ho Kai (1859–1914) was a rare "bicultural" figure among the Hong Kong elite—he qualified in both medicine and law in Britain, and returned to Hong Kong to practise law. Using a donation made in the name of his late wife Alice Walkden, he built the Alice Memorial Hospital^※, providing clinical practice facilities for the college's students, and leveraged his social influence to persuade Hong Kong's Chinese community to accept Western medicine^※.

# 1.2 Why Did the College's Name Include 'for Chinese'?

The full English name, "Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese", bluntly announced its target audience: the college was established specifically for Chinese medical students. This was unusual in late-19th-century Hong Kong: the Chinese community at the time harboured considerable resistance to Western medicine, and acceptance rates were low; many of the college's early graduates could initially neither register to practise nor enter the government medical service^※.

The college's founding therefore carried a strong sense of mission: the founders hoped that institutionalised Western medical education would break down cultural barriers, enabling Chinese doctors to serve their own communities with professionally trained skills.

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# 2. Curriculum and Daily Life: What Subjects Were Studied Over Five Years?

The college offered a five-year medical programme. The first lecture, in anatomy, was delivered personally by Cantlie. For the final examination, students had to pass a comprehensive test covering 12 subjects. According to records spanning from 1887 to the merger in 1912, the college admitted approximately 128 students in total^※ (cumulative across all cohorts), indicating a limited intake each year.

The table below lists the main subject areas covered in the graduation examination (based on the subjects Sun Yat-sen sat in 1892):

The language of instruction was primarily English, and clinical practice was based at the Alice Memorial Hospital—which opened in the same year as the college (1887) and became the central venue where students encountered real cases.

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# 3. Sun Yat-sen's Student Years: How Was the 'Best Performer' Forged?

# 3.1 Entry: 3 October 1887

Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) formally began classes at the college on 3 October 1887^※, with an intake of about 12 classmates in his year. His very first lecture was Cantlie's anatomy class.

According to historical records, during his time at the college, Sun and his classmates Chen Shaobai, You Lie, and Yang Heling frequently discussed political reform and were jokingly nicknamed the "Four Great Desperadoes" (四大寇)^※ by their peers—a sign that his medical studies coincided with the germination of his political thought. He himself later recalled that his experience studying in Hong Kong had a significant influence on the awakening of his revolutionary ideas. This archive records only the facts of his studies as recorded in official and standard histories, and does not elaborate on the political narrative.

# 3.2 Academic Performance During the Five Years

Under the guidance of Professors Cantlie and others, Sun displayed remarkable academic ability. Records show that he ranked third in his cohort in his first year (1888), and rose to first from his second year onwards^※.

# 3.3 23 July 1892: The First Graduation Ceremony

On 23 July 1892, the college held its first graduation ceremony^※. The Governor of Hong Kong, Sir William Robinson^※, personally presided and awarded the certificates.

Data from that year's final examination is as follows:

At the ceremony, Governor Robinson presented Sun Yat-sen with an Honours graduation certificate in Medicine and Surgery^※, certifying that he had reached the standard for professional practice across medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and paediatrics.

Official text (HKUMed 135 Milestones page): "Two students from the initial intake, Dr Kong Ying-wa and Dr Sun Yat-sen, graduate from the College." — HKUMed 135, Our Milestones^※

# 3.4 A Dilemma After Graduation: The Licence to Practise and Professional Obstacles

Despite his outstanding performance, as a Chinese person in Hong Kong, Sun could only practise under the title of "herbalist"; he could not obtain a formal medical registration in the colony on equal terms with European doctors^※. This institutional barrier impelled him to move to Macau and then Guangzhou to practise.

This disconnect between academic qualification and the licence to practise faced by the college's graduates was a structural problem in colonial Hong Kong's medical system at the end of the 19th century: many Chinese graduates could not achieve professional status within the government system commensurate with their education^※. Founders such as Ho Kai later lobbied tirelessly for reform. Although many graduates initially encountered systemic obstacles in registering to practise, they still built "flourishing private medical practices" and founded institutions such as the Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association and the Tsan Yuk Hospital, becoming trailblazers for Chinese medical services in Hong Kong.

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# 4. 1887 to 1912: How Did the College Progress Step by Step Towards HKU?

# 4.1 A Chronology of Key Milestones

# 4.2 1907: Why Was the Name Changed to Drop 'for Chinese'?

In 1907, the college was renamed the "Hong Kong College of Medicine"^※, dropping the qualifier "for Chinese" from its title. This name change, which occurred about five years before the college merged into HKU, carried several implications: on one hand, Western medical education from the college had gradually gained wider acceptance in Hong Kong society, making the specific identity of "for Chinese" increasingly less applicable; on the other hand, adopting a more general name also laid the institutional groundwork for its incorporation into a university.

# 4.3 1912: From an Independent College to HKU's Inaugural Faculty

The University of Hong Kong took roughly a decade to move from conception to formal opening. When HKU formally opened on 11 March 1912, Medicine was one of the three founding faculties, alongside Arts and Engineering^※—a position as the "first faculty" built squarely upon the 25 years of accumulated work the college had done since 1887.

HKU's official history page states: "The Faculty of Medicine evolved from the Hong Kong College of Medicine, founded in 1887."^※

This sentence clarifies a crucial institutional relationship: HKU's Faculty of Medicine was not built from scratch in 1912; rather, it was formed by "upgrading" and absorbing an existing institution that had already been operating for 25 years and had trained dozens of Chinese doctors in Western medicine. The college's teaching staff, students, and clinical base (the Alice Memorial Hospital) were all brought into the fold, forming the foundation of the new university's medical education. For the subsequent expansion of the faculty's structure, details of the MBBS curriculum, and the 2005–2006 naming event, see Part II: li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md.

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# 5. What Is This College's Place in Hong Kong's Medical History?

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# 6. Unverified / Pending Verification

• Number of candidates sitting the first final examination: Composite accounts in Chinese historical sources give a figure of 17, which differs from the official total of "128 registered students across all cohorts" (the former is the number sitting the exam in a single year; the latter is the cumulative registered students from 1887 to 1912). This article presents both figures side by side and does not conflate them.
• Details concerning the college's early finances and teaching resources: Publicly available historical sources give only a sketchy account of the financial relationship between the Alice Memorial Hospital and the college. This article records only its function as a site for clinical practice, based on reliable sources.
• The exact year Cantlie stepped down as Dean: There are minor discrepancies in the details given by different secondary accounts. This article records only the established facts of his arrival in 1887 and his long tenure leading the institution, and does not pin down a single year for his departure.

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# 7. Cross-References

• Current five-school structure, MBBS curriculum, and the 2005–2006 naming event: li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md (Part II)
• Teaching hospitals (Queen Mary Hospital and others): ./teaching-hospitals.md
• Research and clinical strengths of clinical departments: ./departments-and-strengths.md
• Faculty of Dentistry: ./faculty-of-dentistry.md

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