Jimei -- China's College Town!

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Welcome to Jimei--China's College Town! Note: many thanks to Prof. Huáng Shuǐkàn (黄水看), retired Prof. of Quánzhōu City Agricultural College (泉州市农校) and Jīměi School Alumni, for contributing much of this chapter’s material
Jimei Links: Jimei Univ.Tan Kah Kee Biography Jimei Primary SchoolJimei Turtle Garden (鳌园),Returnees Hall(归来堂)Dragon Boat Races(龙舟)Yanping (Delayed Peace) Old Fortress(延平故垒)Jixing Causeway(集杏海堤)Xiamen Bridge Solomon's Courtyard Coffee House(The Place in Jimei!)

Jīměi 集美 Imagine a sleepy fishing hamlet transformed into a college town with over a dozen schools and over 200,000 students from around China and the rest of the world. That’s what Jīměi is becoming, thanks to the century-old vision of Tan Kah Kee (Chén Jiāgēng, 陈嘉庚) the Henry Ford of Asia, who was born and buried in Jīměi (Read more about Xiàmén University’s patriotic and deep-pocketed benefactor, Mr. Tan, in the supplement at the end of this chapter).

Jīměi (which means “Gathered Beauty”) is on the mainland west of Xiàmén, just across the Xiàmén Bridge. The city has a population of about 330,000 and covers 276km2, with 60 km of coastline, but its fishing days are largely behind it. The government says its new 32km2 “Jīměi Culture and Education Zone”(集美文教区) will be an important research and education center and, I quote, southeast Fújiàn’s “Central Intelligence District (CID).” I assumed they’re talking scholastics and not spooks, since they go on to list the zone’s many educational institutes, including Huáqiáo University, Xiàmén University of Technology, and Huáxià Institute of Technology.

“From now on the devious fishing village has been knolling the first sound of school bell, the Jimei School was founded already.” Written by Jimei resident.

The fishing hamlet of Jīměi began its long journey to becoming China’s College Town in 1913, when Mr. Tan established Jimei Primary School on the site of the Jimei Ancestral Temple (Jīměi Shèzǔ Cítáng, 集美社祖祠堂).

Tan then built 11 more schools, including a normal school, middle school, marine products school, agricultural and forestry school, merchants school, etc., and funded over 70 schools in other areas of South Fujian, as well as many institutes around S.E. Asia. He also equipped his college town with a science center, gymnasium, library, hospital and navigation club. In Nov. 1920, Tan offered one million Yuan to establish Xiamen University, which was opened the following year.

Mr. Tan was Chinese to the core and proud of it, but he was also quick to appreciate the best of the West, and expressed it in his architecture. His buildings are a marriage of Western and Chinese architecture, using red brick, white stone, and glazed tiles. But the new Jīměi University makes a radical departure from the Tan tradition. This campus more resembles a posh Oriental Holiday Resort than mere hallowed halls of learning. And with its recent expansion, Jīměi U. seems intent on giving Xiamen University a run for its money.

“The traveler will also be interested in the private school established and financed by a single Chinese gentleman…at Chin Be (Jimei)… Mr. Tan Kak Kee established the school about ten years ago… Mr. Tan has put in about $600,000 in modern buildings, and is paying about $6,000 each month for teacher’s salaries. He is planning to spend $4,000,000 in the establishment of a university in Amoy. At the present time he has the site and is getting plans from foreign architects for the buildings and equipment. This school is entirely a Chinese institution, with no foreign teachers and no foreign connections, and right out in a small Chinese village. The course of study is being made very practical, the latest thing added being a School of Fisheries. Solomon's Courtyard Coffee Houseis THE place in Jimei The buildings are modern in every sense, lighted with electricity, a special bath house erected, and running water in all the buildings. When we think of the future days, it is one of the most encouraging things to be seen in the whole of China.” Hutchinson 1920, p.159, 160