The East Asian Library at the University of Toronto began with a collection of rare materials acquired from China in the 1930's. This special collection is now known as the Mu Collection (慕氏藏書). More Chinese, Japanese and Korean materials were added later. As of June 2021, the library has around 700,000 volumes. It is the largest collection of East Asian studies in Canada and a major research collection on East Asian studies in North America.

On July 11, 1991, the East Asian Library was named Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library (鄭裕彤東亞圖書館) to recognize the especially significant contribution and dedicated support of Dr. Cheng for the improvement and expansion of the library.