Siyuan Hall

On the south side of Central Garden of Nankai University, there is a European- style building, that is, Siyuan Hall, with an area of 3,952 square meters and 3 floors. The most distinctive part of the building is the six Roman columns on the platform. As an old building completely preserved in Nankai campus, the plain and solemn Siyuan Hall witnessed the ups and downs of Nankai University in the past 100 years.

Siyuan Hall was built under the joint donation of Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as the Rockefeller Foundation) and the industrialist Yuan Shuzhi. At the beginning of December in 1922, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research sent representatives in China to Nankai University. They inspected the teaching of science and observed a qualitative analysis course of Professor Qiu Zongyue, the director of the Department of Chemistry. Qiu Zongyue received his doctoral degree from Clarke University in the United States. After graduation, he returned to China, worked in Nankai University, and established the Department of Chemistry. He was familiar with the frontiers of chemistry science. His lectures were concise, well organized and highlighted, which left the delegates of the United States a deep impression on the teaching level of Nankai University. Soon, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research decided to donate 125,000 yuan to Nankai University for the construction of the Science Museum and the purchase of equipment. So far, the story of “One class for one building” is still popular in Nankai University.

Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research donated to the construction of Science Museum on one condition that the university should pay half for the building. When Zhang Boling, the President of Nankai University, had no way to raise money, Mrs. Yuan, the aunt of Yuan Shikai, learned of the incident and immediately let her son Yuan Shuzhi claim a donation. As a result, Yuan Shuzhi, an industrialist who had always been enthusiastic about social welfare, donated 70,000 yuan to Nankai University, making the construction of Science Museum starting successfully in April 1923. And it formally completed in the autumn of 1925. The Peiyang Pictorial News of that year specifically reported on this matter, saying, “Chinese women, who were willing to spend huge amounts of money in the construction of a university, began from Mrs. Yuan with the building of Science Museum in Nankai University”. That’s why the Science Museum was also known as Siyuan Hall, which contained the meaning of “When you drink from the stream, you remember the source”, as well as the meaning of “remembering Mrs. Yuan”, in order to commemorate the two donors. On October 17, 1925, the opening ceremony of the Science Museum was held in Nankai University. The donors, Yuan Shuzhi and the representative of Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research addressed speeches and the famous scholar Weng Wenyu was invited to give a lecture on “Why Study Science and How to Study it”.

The Old Image of Siyuan Hall