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Peter Tsui Yan-sau was a poor Hakka Boy of 10 from Wuhua, E.Guangdong, who came to Hong Kong in 1900 to join his father Tsui Wang-mo, living at the Telegraphic Bay (Cyberport).  His home county, at Jiankeng, Wuhua, was a stronghold of the Swiss Lutheran Basel Mission (the local branch of which is the Shung Chun Wui).  Son of a lay missioanry, Peter Tsui was thus raised as a Lutheran Christian.  Conceivably, he belonged to a 'modern, Westernised' community in Late-Qing Dynasty, under the protective auspices of the Western European Missionaries, thus, to a certain degree, revolutionary in spirit.  This revolutionary spirit turned into an entrepreneurial spirit in HK. 

Living at the beachside village, Peter Tsui came into contact with the Catholic Christian Brothers de LaSalle of St. Jospeh's College.  The Brothers were vacationing at Bethany at Pokfulam Road above, which was a seminary of the French Foreign Missionaries.  He must have impressed them a lot as a boy, very knowledgeable of the Bible from his upbringing, and rather clever running errands for them, that they arranged a St. Vincent de Paul Society Scholarlship for him and admitted him to the elitist English St. Joseph's College which was attended largely by Catholic non-Chinese boys.  This Hakka Boy did well in his studies and became Catholic.

Eventually he found employment as a teacher at SJC.  Already married with a growing family, he earned extra income from giving private tuition.  At the same time, he studied to become a Student Teacher (pertaining to being a Registered Teacher). In Dec 1919, he left his alma mater SJC to start his own Anglo-Chinese school, Wah Yan College, with four students, at the upper floor of 60 Hollywood Rd.  He had to send his family to the home county in the Mainland in order to save money as well as to concentrate on his educational enterprse.  

WYC-HK was an rapid success.  It grew and grew in enrollment, needing expansion of premises to different nearby locations.  Well-operated Anglo-Chinese schools were apparently in high demand at the time.  There were the elitist English schools operated by the Foreign Missionaries, and there were small scale Chinese schools.  But WYC-HK was popular in the eyes of parents for Anglo-Chinese education, well-operated with good discipline like a missiionary school.  Overseas Chinese liked to send their boys to HK to be educated, which explains why there were boarding facilities at both WYC-HK and WYC-K.  When SJC vacated the Robinson Rd premises to move to Kennedy Rd, Peter Tsui negotiated with the Diocese to rent it for WYC-HK.  In so doing, WYC-HK probably assumed a status, in the eyes of some at least, that it was equivalent to a Catholic Missionary-operated school.  By 1922, it was the largest private secondary school in HK.  After a visit by the Director of Education, Mr. A.E. Wood, WYC-HK was made a Grant-in-Aid School - a status reserved for Foreign Missionary Schools.  

With revenue stabilised by the Government Grant, though provided in arrears based on previous year enrollment, Peter Tsui commenced the start-up of another WYC in Kowloon which was established in 1924.  It was also a rapid success, and by 1927, moved into its own dedicated school premises in Mognkok. 

WYCs employed good teachers at a good salary, so much so that it was said the Government had to raise the salaries of its teachers across the board to catch up.

While career prospects of local Chinese students in those days in the Civil Service and Big Hongs were not good due to racial barriers, Local graduates, despite their bilingual education, were employable at Clerical level only, were popular recruits in the professional services circles as well as the Chinese Maritime Customs.

It was not the best of time in terms of the economy and political situation of HK in the 1920s.  The Western European Powers were recovering from the devastation and disruptions of WW1.  There were emergent major ideological shifts at home.  Trade and commerce of HK was facing difficulties with the Nationalist Government consolidating power, hyping-up nationalism for the new regime, and being anti-West, hoping to drive out the Western Foreigners, thus being hosltile to British-HK, imposing sanctions and duo import-export tax entering and leaving HK harbour...  The mid 1920s witnessed the General Strike which caused major problems to the econmy of HK.  There was also an emergent civil war situation in the Mainland with the vigorous suppression of the Chinese Communists.  The threat of Japan was looming large in the offings...  It was a difficult time when the Wah Yan Colleges were born.