Since China adopted the Open Door Policy, CUHK had contributed to training talent on the mainland. In the late 1970s when the Cultural Revolution came to an end, sociology was restored as an academic discipline on the mainland after a suspension of more than two decades. However, there was an acute shortage of qualified teachers who were professionally trained in sociology. Prof. Fei Xiaotong, an internationally renowned sociologist and professor in Peking University, was commissioned by the State to conduct teacher training and rebuild the Chinese sociological research. Professor Fei solicited help from Prof. C.K. Yang, his former classmate and professor in the University of Pittsburgh, who then invited his former students teaching in the Department of Sociology at CUHK to join him in giving lectures up north.

In 1980, Prof. Rance Lee and Prof. Lau Chong-chor of the Department of Sociology, CUHK, were invited to give training courses in Beijing for mainland sociology teachers, and some of these course participants later became leading sociologists. In this grateful letter addressed to Prof. Ma Lin, then CUHK Vice-Chancellor, Professor Fei expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the two professors for their diligence and outstanding contribution, and looked forward to establishing stronger collaboration with CUHK.

This letter, on loan from Prof. Rance Lee, is now on display at the University Gallery.