Hong Kong Baptist University has actively pursued the promotion of Chinese culture since its founding. In January 2013, Hong Kong Baptist University celebrated the inauguration of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, the first institution of its kind in Hong Kong.
Named after Professor Jao Tsung-i, the world-renowned expert in Chinese classical studies who serves as its honorary permanent director, the Academy was established for the purpose of understanding and preserving Chinese cultural heritage, through focused research and engaged teaching. The Academy serve a unique role in promoting classical Chinese studies by integrating expertise in the various disciplines of Sinology, from classical philology to comparative and theoretical approaches, ranging over every aspect of traditional Chinese culture. We aim to become an intellectual hub in Sinology that encourages interaction between Chinese scholars and sinologists around the world, and at the same time, to cut across disciplines to facilitate innovative research and intellectual development throughout the University.
The Academy is also determined to be the University's unique showcase of research materials for Sinology. We have already built a remarkable collection of nearly 10,000, including the essential collectanea Wenyuange Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku quanshu), the Buddhist canon (Taishō shinshū daizōkyō) and a unique collection of international Buddhist scholarshipfrom Professor Ku Cheng-Mei and Professor Chong Kim-Chong, the scholarly oeuvre of Professor Jao Tsung-i, the unique Sinological library bequeathed by Professor David Nivison. Last but not least, the Academy possesses a multilingual collection of translations of Chinese classics and literary works into over fifty languages from around the world. The Multilingual Sinological library of the Academy will be a convenient site for University students and the academic community, for perusing all kinds of unique scholarly books, and pursuing the same path of intellectual development as Jao Tsung-i himself.