Zhong Qirong was born in July, 1920 in Changsha Hunan and graduated from the Department of Law of Wuhan University during the Sino-Japanese War, immediately after that she secured the first place in the Naitional Higher Education Examination for judiciary officials, and obtained a job as a court judge of the Bishan Local Court of Sichuan and became one of the very rare Chinese female judge. The war ended in the same year she married the famous lawyer Hu Honglie, thus she chose to receive a foreign education along with her husband to the Université de Paris, France.
Mrs Zhong successfully graduated with a Dcotor’s Degree of Law, apart from that she was also being heavily influenced by the European Humanism Spirits, setting the foundation of her initiating public education afterwards.
In June, 1955, Zhong settled herself in Hong Kong, along with her husband and two sons, teaching in the newly-founded United College at first. In the following years, she taught in the Baptist University, Zhuhai University and Chung Chi College. Her modules were popular for the rich contents, deep thinking, lively elaboration, and clear logic, making her rose to fame in the academia. In 1965, she published a book about problems with the Hong Kong younger generation, which analyzed the conditions of Hong Kong youths in aspects of mentality, livelihood, education, employment and crime, and presented opinions to solve them. This book became a hit to the Hong Kong society, and was applied and referenced by the Hong Kong Government to formulate policies.
In March, 1971, Zhong resigned from her teaching position. In June, she and her husband declared that they would launch a Shuren University and they would be the Principal and the Superintendent, aiming to revive China’s culture and contribute to the public education.
In order to raise the recognition of Shuren, Hu accepted the invitations of various universities in Louisiana and made a lecture tour to the United States. During his tour, he also paid visits to other famous universities like Yale, Stanford and Harvard.
Northeastern University of the United States sent their Director of Department of Business Administration to Shuren University to set up a summer vacation credit module of Business Administration. This was unprecedented in Hong Kong. Another result for Hu’s visit in the U.S. was that the diploma of Shuren University got admitted by a number of British, American and French Universities and undergraduates could use them to apply for the Graduate School. The credits of Shuren University were admitted by multiple professional institutions of Europe, America, and Australia, thus making it more convenient for Shuren undergraduates to study in these countries. Within five years, Shuren University became a well-developed and well-known university in Hong Kong.
The rising fame of Shuren finally made the Hong Kong Government to declear in 1976 that Shuren was admitted as a formal and registered University, and provided a free government land to construct campus facilities, recognized the diploma of Shuren University, and settled the social welfare and employment channels for Shuren graduates and undergraduates.
In October 1978, the Hong Kong Government made a policy to provide financial aids to three private colleges—Baptist University, Shuren University, and Lingnan University—in exchange for a demand to ask these universities to adopt into a new education system linking with the British Education System, which means to reduce the education standards and academic standards. So it would be hard for Shuren to link up with the education system of universities in China and in other nations. However, rejecting this proposal would mean severe financial losses and would surely have bad influences on future developments.
After a careful consideration, Zhong decided to reject this proposal, and abandon the financial aids distributed by Hong Kong Government. This decision earned wide support from her students and professors alike, and made the government admitted the freedom of choosing education system, and kept providing free-loan to Shuren University. Later, Mrs Zhong`s decision was proven right by time itself, for Shuren University welcomed its period of flourishing in the coming years, and another new school house started to construct.
When the date of Hongkong’s returning drew near, Mrs Zhong diverted more mutual educational communication chances to the Mainland. In June 1984, she signed an academic exchange and cooperation agreement with Renmin University of China in Beijing. Then she launched another cooperation project with the Beijing University, setting up four minor courses for graduates in Hong Kong. There is one worthy of mention is the course of Chinese Laws, which was the earliest course to be established(Since 1987), and was the most popular minor course. It was also a course which started an upsurge of studying Chinese Laws in Hong Kong.
Shuren University, which has been existed for 26 years, has now being recognized as a well-developed college, holding the most international cooperative modules——more than any other institutions in Hong Kong. It has cultivated more than 10,000 undergraduates and 500 masters, its contribution is distinct all over the world.
