Foundation years Nanyang Junior College was founded in 1977 as Lorong Chuan Junior College. It was among the first government-aided junior colleges to be established in Singapore. The building committee led by Mr. Goh Tjoei Kok was formed in 1972. Construction of the college began in 1976 with funding and support from the
Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), which concurrently oversees the establishment of
Hwa Chong Junior College, Singapore's second junior college and first government-aided junior college. The first cohort of about 600 Arts and Science students was enrolled in January 1978. Academic lessons were temporarily conducted at the former Westlake Secondary School campus. As the campus of Nanyang Junior College was built on a small ridge, fog often covered part of the college in the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, the College was well known affectionately as "白云岗"
(Chinese: Literal meaning "White Cloud Ridge"). This is also the inspiration for the brand name of the college's Chinese Cultural Society's annual drama production, "我们的白云岗"
(Chinese: Literal meaning "Our White Cloud Ridge"). File:NYJC Morning Fog.jpg|Students walking through the fog that covered the hilly campus every morning in 1988.
Transformation into a modern institution On 21 May 1995, the College Resource Centre was opened. The three-story building housed the Resource Library, the Computer Centre, the AVA Room, and seminar rooms. Nanyang Junior College was selected by the Ministry of Education in 2000 for an on-site re-development of its campus under the PRIME project. in which the Ministry of Education bored 95 percent of the re-development costs. The reconstruction works were briefly halted in 2003 due to the bankruptcy of the main contractor, which also affected a number of residential developments in
Marine Terrace. The college moved into the newly re-developed campus building in January 2004, and officially declared the completion of the redevelopment works in June 2005. A stone feature, on which wrote "饮水思源" was donated by Mdm Ho Won Ho on her retirement as the principal of Nanyang Junior College in 2005. In 2006, the school's executive committee proposed a change to the school's name to: "Chung Cheng Junior College", to signify the affiliation of Nanyang Junior College with
Chung Cheng High (Main) and
Chung Cheng High (Yishun). This proposition is overwhelmingly rejected by the alumni and staff, as well as prominent academics, stating the strong college heritage, as well as the political sensitivity of the name "Chung Cheng (中正)". In an academic article featured in
Lianhe Zaobao in 2002, it was stated that the adoption of the name "Nanyang" in 1978 resulted of the strong objection by the society, due to the strong historical association of the name "Chung Cheng" to
Kuomintang's founding leader
Chiang Kai-shek, even with the clarifications made in a historical statement in 1940. ==Principal==