Sisters forge historic path to female education in Hong Kong

It was in 1921 that Irene Ho Tung made history and showed Hong Kong women were capable of academic excellence at a time when most were confined to the kitchen.

Now 94, she recognised herself as an 'invader' at the University of Hong Kong. In that year, she was the first Hong Kong born, female Chinese undergraduate at the university, which up until then had been an exclusively male domain.

Now Dr Cheng, she told South China Morning Post in 1994 that women did not really have a place in higher education in the early part of the century.

'I was the first female student in the university in 1921 and that really gave the male students a shock. We used to have examinations every week and I did pretty well, always coming in the top three of the class.' Dr Cheng, her sister Dr Eva Ho Tung and Rachel Irving were the university's first women students.

She received a degree in English and decided to pursue a secondary teacher diploma at Columbia University, New York, after which she took her doctorate degree at London University.

'In 1926, I told my father that if I could not get a PhD, people would say that I was not capable of achieving more.' Her elder sister shared the academic glory by graduating with a medical degree.