When Xavier
School first opened in 1956, it was called
Xavier School-Kuang Ch'i. Of course all of us know
that the Chinese characters for "kuang chi" mean "Let
your light shine!" (or "Luceat Lux!" the school's
motto).
But very
few of us know that Kuangchi is also the surname of perhaps the most famous
Chinese convert, Paul Hsu Kuangchi--or as his name is spelled in Han Yi
Pin Yin, Xu Guangqi. Paul Xu Guangqi was a scholar and government official
in Shanghai who was also a friend of the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci.
Naming our
school after Paul Xu Guangqi shows the
hopes of our founding fathers that all of us devote
ourselves not only to scholarly work, but also to a
truly Christian way of life.
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