Yuen Long Public Middle School was the first government secondary school in the New Territories. A plan to set up a middle school in Yuen Long was mooted before World War II by the gentry and merchants of Yuen Long, but the plan was put aside due to the Japanese Occupation. In 1946, Yuen Long Public Middle School was started in temporary premises in Pok Oi Hospital. Tang Pak-kau and Chiu Lut-sau along with other members of the Yuen Long gentry launched a fundraising campaign and raised 100,000 Hong Kong dollars for the construction of a permanent campus to accommodate the growing number of students. Following lobbying efforts by the gentry, the government provided a matching grant of the same amount and a land grant in Au Tau to build a permanent campus. This type of matched funding from the government, also known as the “dollar-for-dollar” subsidy, was a common practice for village schools founded after World War II.

After the Au Tau campus was inaugurated in 1950, it became a government school, but it was allowed to retain its name “Yuen Long Public Middle School” which was used in the fundraising campaign, in order to meet the expectations of patrons in the local community. Permission was also granted for the establishment of a management committee to assist the government to operate the school. It was the only government secondary school at the time with such a management committee and was an exemplar of collaboration between the government and the local gentry in running schools.

The school campus was designed by Chau & Lee Architects. It was originally T-shaped, but with later additions, the layout was changed to an E-shape. There is a Chinese-style main entrance, flanked by colonnaded classroom wings. Chinese architectural elements are adopted across the school campus, including beams, lintels, architraves, brackets and Chinese tiled roofs. On the lintel at the main entrance is a marble plaque erected in autumn 1949 to commemorate the completion of the school campus. Engraved on the plaque are the Chinese characters Bai Nian Shu Ren (literally, a century to train a man, meaning that good education takes time) written by Shum Kwong-yuet (1876–1960), a renowned Qing calligrapher and scholar from Hanlin Academy. It bears testimony to the school’s connection with Chinese scholars and its respect for traditional Chinese culture.

Yuen Long Public Middle School was moved out of the Au Tau campus in 1989. The campus was subsequently used as temporary premises for Tin Shui Wai Government Secondary School, and since 1994, it has been used as the campus of TWGHs C.Y. Ma Charity Fund Practical School which was renamed TWGHs C.Y. Ma Memorial College in 2001. Over the years, the campus was used by three schools, but the Bai Nian Shu Ren plaque on the lintel of the main entrance remains, bearing witness to the history of secondary education in post-war Hong Kong, in which generations of students were nurtured by their teachers and passed the torch to their successors.

Open Day:
Normally held in December each year. For details, please visit the website of TWGHs C.Y. Ma Memorial College: www.cyma.edu.hk

Address:
No. 3 Yau Shin Street, Au Tau, Yuen Long, New Territories.

Enquiry:
(852) 2443 9833