Wah Yan College Kowloon

Wah Yan College Kowloon

　The predecessor of Kowloon Wah Yan College was a branch of Hong Kong Wah Yan College. It was established in 1924 in a private building on Portland Street. In just a few years since the school was founded, the number of students has made the school building insufficient at that time, which shows that the Chinese community in Kowloon had a great demand for education at that time.

　Before World War II, the British Hong Kong government adopted a dual-track system of government and subsidy for the education of the Chinese community. In 1873, the government formulated the "Grant Code" with the goal of encouraging education through subsidies. This system was gradually improved at the end of the nineteenth century, and helped many enthusiastic Chinese gentry and churches to provide education to the Chinese with government funding, achieving the government's goal of expanding public education. As early as 1922, Hong Kong Wah Yan College was included in the grant list. In 1927, Wah Yan College also received government subsidies when it purchased land in Kowloon to build a new branch school on Nelson Street. This branch school was opened a year later. By 1930, DoEducation also made Kowloon Wah Yan College as a Grant-in-Aid School, and from then on it continued to become a well-known middle school in Kowloon.

　The founding principal, Mr. Peter Tsui Yan Sau (徐仁壽), transferred WYC to Jesuit priests in 1932, and Kowloon WYC was also transferred to Jesuit management. After years of development, the school building facilities were insufficient to cope with the increasing number of students, and it was necessary to set up branch schools. On September 8, 1941, the school building at 103 Austin Road, Jordan, Kowloon officially became a new campus of WYC in Kowloon, and it was from then on that the two WYC in Hong Kong and Kowloon were operated separately.

　Kowloon WYC was closed a while during the Japanese occupation, but after the resumption of classes at the Wah Yan College after the war, the students rose sharply, and the school needed to find a new campus for expansion. In 1949, the government and Kowloon WYC agreed to let the school build new premises in an abandoned rice field in Yau Ma Tei after discussion. The new school building was completed in 1952, and Kowloon Huaren officially moved to its current location at 56 Waterloo Road.