Fung Ping Shan Building — From Chinese Library to University Museum and Declared Monument (1932–)

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Comprehensive Information Database · 12 Miscellaneous Module This article examines the dual life of HKU’s Fung Ping Shan Building as both library and museum. For an overview of HKU libraries and museums, see libraries-and-museums.md; for campus architecture and the heritage cluster, see ../05-campus/buildings-landmarks.md; for the donor family behind the name, see ../08-finances/benefactors-and-donors.md. This database’s 00–12 Reference Section records real names as documented.

# 1. Origins: A Library for the School of Chinese (1932)

According to the HKU Libraries official page^※ and the FPSL 90 Historical Milestones page^※:

• The Fung Ping Shan Library was established in 1932 as HKU’s Chinese library, generously funded by the late Mr. Fung Ping Shan.
• Construction began in 1929, took three years to complete, and the building was officially opened by the serving Governor of Hong Kong on 14 December 1932^※.
• Its purpose was to support the newly founded School of Chinese — it was to hold a collection centred on Chinese studies, with an emphasis on art, culture, history and literature.

According to the official page^※, when the library opened, over 31,000 volumes of Chinese books that had been accumulating in various university libraries since 1912 were transferred into it, including significant collections such as the Zen Wing Collection and the Tu Shu Chi Cheng encyclopaedia.

# The donor, Fung Ping Shan

Based on the Chinese Wikipedia entry^※, Fung Ping Shan (1860–1931), originally named Fung Chao-an (馮朝安), was a native of Xinhui, Guangdong. In his early years he devised his own telegraphic code to transmit commercial intelligence between Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong, and purchased merchant vessels for freight between Chongqing and Hong Kong, turning a considerable profit within a decade. Around 1918 he became a partner in several banks, among them the "Tung Ah Bank," the forerunner of the Bank of East Asia, of which Fung was one of the founding shareholders. He devoted his life to philanthropy, funding hospitals, schools, charitable halls, parks and libraries across Guangzhou, Xinhui and Hong Kong on a remarkably broad scale. In relation to HKU, the same source records that Fung became a permanent trustee of the University in 1923, donating HK$50,000 that year to the university’s endowment fund and a further HK$2,500 for book purchases. In 1927 he proposed the creation of a Chinese studies programme at HKU; with the combined support of Fung and several leading Hong Kong benefactors, the School of Chinese was formally established later that year. He subsequently donated a further HK$100,000 to construct a dedicated Chinese library, and the University named it the Fung Ping Shan Library in perpetuity in his honour — this HK$100,000 gift was the direct funding source that made the Fung Ping Shan Building possible.

# 2. Architecture: The Work of Leigh & Orange

• According to the official page^※, the Fung Ping Shan Building was designed by Leigh & Orange — the same long-established firm behind the Main Building (see ../05-campus/buildings-landmarks.md).
• According to the UMAG official history page^※, the building bears witness to the early development of Chinese studies and antiquities collecting at HKU, and its form and materials are representative of the architectural language of the university campus in the 1930s.

# 3. Transformation: From Library to Museum (1961)

• According to the official page^※, in 1961 the Chinese collection of the Fung Ping Shan Library was moved into the newly constructed Main Library.
• According to the official page^※, with the consent of the Fung family, the original premises of the Fung Ping Shan Library were converted into the Fung Ping Shan Museum.
• The museum subsequently merged with a new wing to form what is today the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) — one of the longest continuously operating museums in Hong Kong (see libraries-and-museums.md for more).

Context: A single building that has successively shouldered the twin missions of "Chinese library" and "university museum," with the donor family consulted and their consent obtained when the function changed — this reflects HKU’s respect for the tradition of naming benefactions, and makes Fung Ping Shan Building a rare campus site that carries the dual memory of books and treasures.

According to the Wikipedia entry "University Museum and Art Gallery"^※, the museum was formally renamed UMAG in 1994, and its new wing opened to the public in 1996. UMAG now holds over 1,080 items of Chinese antiquities, spanning bronzes, ceramics, paintings, furniture and lacquerware, with dates ranging from the Neolithic period (c. 7000–2100 BCE) through the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) to traditional and modern paintings of the twentieth century — a collection built over more than six decades of acquisitions and donations. Its bronze holdings are particularly significant, encompassing ritual vessels from the Shang to the Western Zhou dynasties and a series of bronze mirrors from the Eastern Zhou to the Tang dynasty, and it is renowned for possessing the world’s largest collection of Yuan-dynasty Nestorian crosses — a highly specialised category of considerable importance for the study of the history of Christianity in China and the religious pluralism of the Mongol Yuan period, one of UMAG’s collection strengths that is lesser-known to the general public but internationally recognised in specialist circles.

# 4. Declared Monument Status

• According to the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) Declared Monuments page^※, the Fung Ping Shan Building has been declared a monument and is protected under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance.
• Together with the Main Building, University Hall, Hung Hing Ying Building, Tang Chi Ngong Building and others, it forms part of HKU’s cluster of historic structures — the densest concentration of declared monuments on any tertiary education campus in Hong Kong (see ../05-campus/buildings-landmarks.md).

# Unconfirmed / To be verified

• Exact date of monument declaration: This article records the monument status as per the AMO Declared Monuments page; the precise date of declaration should be checked against the latest AMO official records.
• Amount of Mr. Fung Ping Shan’s donations: Per the Chinese Wikipedia entry, he donated HK$50,000 to the university endowment and HK$2,500 for book purchases in 1923, and later donated HK$100,000 for the library building itself; cross-verification of the exact figures against HKU archives is recorded in ../08-finances/benefactors-and-donors.md.
• Full contents of the "Zen Wing Collection" and other special holdings: The official page mentions these as examples; full bibliographic details require consultation of the HKU Libraries Special Collections catalogue.