Feb 2009
Dr Roland Soong, the executor of Ms Eileen Chang’s estate, chose to set up a HK$1 million scholarship fund at HKU in memory of the late Ms Chang, the legendary Chinese writer.
The scholarship will support female undergraduate students from the Chinese Mainland or Taiwan to pursue studies in the arts and humanities, and will be awarded annually starting from the academic year 2009-2010 to first-year undergraduates.
Eileen Chang studied at HKU’s Faculty of Arts between 1939 and 1941 where she excelled academically and received two scholarships. When Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese, she was forced to suspend her studies and return to Shanghai. However, the two years she spent in Hong Kong were critical to her later emergence as a legend in the world of literature. She passed away in 1995.
In creating the ˝Eileen Chang Memorial Scholarship˝, Mr Soong felt that it would be Ms Chang’s wish to create opportunities for students with backgrounds similar to hers, so that they could be freed from financial constraints and able to prosper and excel.
