Hong Kong's first homegrown international school, founded in 1932

Madam Tsang Chor-hang founded the first Yew Chung school in Hong Kong in 1932, opening its doors as a kindergarten and primary institution at a moment when colonial Hong Kong offered few modern educational options. Her stated purpose was to educate children beyond the classroom and instil what the school codified as its motto: diligence, frugality, humility and faithfulness. The school survived the disruptions of the 1930s and the Japanese occupation during World War II largely because of Tsang's personal determination to keep it running.

A second generation transforms the school

In 1970, Tsang's daughter, Dr. Betty Chan Po-king, joined Yew Chung after completing studies in the United States, eventually earning her doctorate in early childhood education. She took over leadership from her mother and, drawing on her US-trained expertise, introduced the then-radical concept of learning through play, reshaping early childhood practice in Hong Kong. Under Dr. Chan, Yew Chung expanded its kindergarten and children's house operations to multiple campuses across the city.

Dr. Chan also began building Yew Chung's profile on the mainland. In 1985 she took her team to Beijing to present a Hong Kong classroom model at the 'Pillars of Tomorrow' early childhood education exhibition, the first event of its kind to introduce the Hong Kong ECE model after China's opening-up. Four years later, in 1989, she chaired the organising committee for what UNICEF called the world's first academic forum focused on early childhood education for children aged 0 to 6, held in Hong Kong, bringing together educators from the mainland, Hong Kong and internationally.

Going international

The formal international school took shape in 1987, when Yew Chung International School-Primary was established, formalising the bilingual curriculum while keeping the dual-language heritage intact. The secondary section followed in 1993, completing a through-train K-12 pathway. Expansion beyond Hong Kong came quickly. During the 1990s, Yew Chung was invited to open schools in Shanghai and Beijing to serve the growing expatriate community on the mainland, with the first mainland Yew Chung established in Shanghai in 1993. Additional YCIS campuses opened in Chongqing in 2002 and Qingdao in 2006, while the Shanghai campus expanded to cover Pudong. Dr. Chan and her husband, Professor Paul Yip Kwok-wah, co-founded the Yew Wah international school series in 1998 as a parallel network aimed at Chinese and expatriate students in mainland cities.

The school's signature pedagogical model, which pairs a Western and a Chinese teacher in every classroom, became widely recognised internationally as YCIS grew. As the China Daily reported on the network's 90th anniversary, the co-teaching and co-principalship framework offered a model of bilingual, co-cultural education that challenged the assumption that 'international' was synonymous with 'Western'.

Curriculum and accreditation

The curriculum across Hong Kong's campuses is built on the National Curriculum for England in the primary and lower secondary years, transitioning to Cambridge IGCSE in Years 10 and 11, and the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12 and 13. The school was authorised as an IB World School on 16 June 2000. The secondary section received full accreditation from the Council of International Schools (CIS) in 2015. The school is also recognised by COBIS. Students are taught Mandarin Chinese and English from kindergarten, with French available as an additional language in secondary.

In 2008, the Yew Chung Education Foundation established Yew Chung Community College in Hong Kong in response to a government push to diversify the self-financed tertiary sector. That institution was upgraded in 2018 to the Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education, granting its first Bachelor of Education degree and completing what the network describes as a 'Baby to Bachelor' cycle. In 2024, the college gained accreditation to offer postgraduate programmes at QF Level 6, becoming the first private higher education institution in Hong Kong to offer a Postgraduate Diploma in Education in early childhood education.

Present day

YCIS Hong Kong today enrolls around 2,200 students aged 6 months to 18 years across nine campuses: eight in Kowloon Tong and one in Tseung Kwan O, which opened in 2020 to accommodate early childhood demand. The student body represents more than 30 countries and regions; the teaching faculty draws from more than 20 nationalities. The secondary campus is based at 3 To Fuk Road, Kowloon Tong, where the IB Diploma is offered at post-16. The network continues to expand in Hong Kong: in February 2023, the Hong Kong Education Bureau selected Yew Chung Yew Wah to operate a new mainland curriculum school, Yew Wah School of Hong Kong, on a greenfield site in Tin Shui Wai, targeting the 2026/27 school year.

Read the full Yew Chung International School of Hong Kong profile →