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£10m gift towards dedicated building for the study of China at Oxford University

27 October 2010

Hong-Kong based philanthropist Dickson Poon CBE has donated £10 million to St Hugh’s College towards the creation of a dedicated building for the study of China at the University of Oxford.

The new 6,600 sq.m. building will be called the Dickson Poon China Centre. A site has already been earmarked in the college for the new building, which will cost a total of £20 million. Mr Poon’s gift is a significant step forward in realising the University’s goal of creating a dedicated building for China-related study. There are plans to start building in 2012.

The Dickson Poon China Centre will bring together academics from across the whole University, co-ordinating activities in all areas of study of China. Its objective is to ensure that the University’s commitment to the study of China is continually developed and expanded as the rising power of China sets new challenges and requires new areas of research. The Centre is directly supported by both the Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions.

The Dickson Poon China Centre will play a key role in the University’s strategy to strengthen its relationship with China and other centres of scholarship in Chinese studies worldwide. The Centre will advance the expertise of the University’s outstanding academics by encouraging original research, publication, joint projects and collaboration with scholars and institutions in China, the UK and elsewhere. In addition, the Centre will provide a critical interface for the University’s relations with business, government and non-governmental institutions involved with China.

Mr Poon founded the Dickson Group of Companies in 1980. Since then the Group, which remains wholly owned by Mr Poon, has expanded to become one of Hong Kong’s largest and most profitable retailing and wholesaling enterprises, with worldwide interests and subsidiaries. He also owns the Harvey Nichols Group in the UK.

Commenting on his gift, Mr Poon said: ‘I am delighted to make a major contribution to help establish the Dickson Poon China Centre. I believe China will be an even more dominant world force this century and I hope that through a balanced and dispassionate understanding of China by the West, the Dickson Poon China Centre will generate practical innovations and strategies to enhance the growing relationships between China and the West.

’The Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten, said: ‘China is one of the great forces in world culture, economy and politics and so it interests us as a subject of study and as a place where we would like to forge closer links. A dedicated China Centre will enable Oxford to focus even more on China, and build on a relationship that dates back 400 years.’

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: ‘We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr Poon and the other donors who are making the China Centre possible, despite the financial climate. Oxford now has more than 40 academics currently engaged in research and teaching related to China, making it Europe’s leading centre for the study of China. A dedicated centre will greatly enhance China studies for scholars at Oxford and in the wider world.

Fundraising for the China Centre began in 2008. The former UK’s Chinese Ambassador, Madame Ambassador Fu Ying, was among the guests at the launch. Other guests were figures from public life and business with strong links to China, including China specialist academics.

Andrew Dilnot, Principal of St Hugh’s College, said: ‘We are delighted about this hugely generous gift from Mr Poon, which takes us closer to establishing a China Centre at St Hugh’s College. We are hopeful that as well as a new building, we will eventually be able to create new posts at the Centre and offer scholarships to outstanding students who want to study this fascinating and increasingly important part of the world.

’Oxford University is a world-leading centre for scholarship on pre-modern, modern and contemporary China with more than 40 academics involved in China-related study. Its interdisciplinary approach brings academics together from politics, the arts, economics, anthropology, history, and environmental and public health. Their interests include the impact of China’s rising power on the world (political, social and economic); the major issues that China is currently addressing (governance, public sector management, migration, industrialisation, environmental change, public health); and perspectives on China’s past (in historical writing, literature and the arts) and their impact on the present day. The role of the China Centre is to ensure strong connections between Oxford’s many academics working on China in different parts of the University.

Oxford’s relationship with China dates back 400 years when the first Chinese book arrived in the University’s newly opened Bodleian Library in 1604. The first Chinese visitor, Shen Fuzong, came to Oxford to catalogue the Bodleian’s Chinese holdings in 1687. There are now over 730 Chinese students at Oxford, the second largest national group from overseas after the US, and more than 140 Chinese academics are working at the University.

For more information, please contact the University of Oxford Press Office on +44 (0) 1865 280534 or email press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Notes for Editors:

For more information go to www.chinacentre.ox.ac.uk

Oxford Thinking, the Campaign for the University of Oxford
The Campaign for the University of Oxford is one of the largest fundraising campaigns in the world, aiming to raise more than £1.25 billion in order to transform the University for many generations to come. The theme of the Campaign is Oxford Thinking, and it has three strategic priorities: supporting students; supporting academic posts and programmes (both existing and new); supporting buildings and infrastructure. See www.campaign.ox.ac.uk

About Oxford University
Oxford University is consistently in the top ten universities in the world. In UK league tables Oxford is consistently ranked first in the UK.
The University has educated 30 international leaders and 26 British Prime Ministers. Prominent Chinese Oxonians include Yu Yongding, President of China Society of World Economics; Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the China Construction Bank; and literary scholars Qian Zhongshu and Yang Xianyi.

Oxonians have won 47 Nobel Prizes, including nine for economics, five for physics, ten for chemistry and 13 for medicine and physiology.

One third of Oxford’s students and 40 per cent of its academic staff come from outside the UK. At postgraduate level 63 per cent of full-time students are from outside the UK. China is the third largest source of students at Oxford overall and second largest source of undergraduates (after UK).

The University leads global policy-relevant research in science and medicine and its top scientists are engaged advising governments and international organisations. Oxford academics are working on a wide range of international issues.


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