Francis Yuan-hao Tien

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, LLD, DSoSc, JP (; 1915–1992) was a Hong Kong entrepreneur and the unofficial member of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong ...

Early life and business career

Francis Tien was born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

, a town located about 75 km from Shanghai. His father originally came from

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

and settled in the Soochow region and started a textile production business. Francis Tien was studied at a junior school in Soochow and mechanical engineering at the Henry Lester Institute of Technical Education in Shanghai and graduate in 1942. During his study in Shanghai he undertook an intensive study of English, spending at least ten hours a week reading English, especially on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

. He went to

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

and worked at power stations. He trained at

Metropolitan-Vickers Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, it was particularly well known for its industrial el ...

in Manchester and took a course at the Manchester College of Technology before he moved to Hong Kong when the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

took over the Mainland. Tien lent his skills to steel engineering in 1950 when steel became an essential raw material need as the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

broke out. He turned to textile industry after the steel lost its immediate appeal at the time when textiles were the main sources of the Hong Kong exports. Tien formed his own company the Manhattan Garments and concentrated on making and design of trousers and became a Hong Kong super-salesman journeyed all over the world to promote Hong Kong textile products.

Public services

Between 1966 and 1977, Tien went to Canada and the United States every year, Switzerland four times and Sweden and the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

on many occasions for the Hong Kong Government Textile Delegations. Tien was extremely active in manpower training and industry education, piloting through such ventures as the apprenticeship training scheme and the Clothing Industry Training Centre at

Kwai Chung Kwai Chung is an urban area within Tsuen Wan New Town in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Together with Tsing Yi Island, it is part of the Kwai Tsing District District of Hong Kong. It is also part of Tsuen Wan New Town. In 2000, it had a populat ...

. He was appointed chairman of the Clothing Industrial Committee of the Industrial Training Advisory Committee, the predecessor of the Hong Kong Training Council. In 1974, Tien was appointed to serve on the

, representing the interest of the massive textiles industry as he stated "exports of textiles and garments account for approximately 50 per cent of our total exports and provide employment for about half of our manufacturing workforce." He was appointed chairman of Clothing Industry Training Board of the Hong Kong Training Council and chairman of the Training Authority for the Clothing Industry in 1975 after the enactment of the Industrial Training (Clothing Industry) Ordinance. During his service on the Legislative Council, Tien witnessed the Sino-British negotiations on the sovereignty of Hong Kong and the

Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration is a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after ...

in 1984. Tien was the member of the University Council of the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

. Grace Tien Hall, a 300-bed student hostel was named after his wife, after he donated part of the construction cost.

Family

Francis Tien married to Yung Chia-weng and had two sons who are both Legislative Council members. The elder son

James Tien Pei-chun James Tien Pei-chun, GBS, OBE, JP (; born 8 January 1947) is the former Chairman and Leader of the Liberal Party (LP) and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco). Coming from the background of an entrepreneur, he was ...

followed his father's footstep as member of the Legislative Council appointed in 1988. James became the chairman of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

and was the unofficial member of the Executive Council between 2002 and 2003. The younger son

Michael Tien Puk-sun Michael Tien Puk-sun (born 25 August 1950) is a Hong Kong politician, businessman and member of the Legislative Council for New Territories North West. He is the founder and chairman of the G2000 clothing retail chain and former chairman of ...

founded the

G2000 G2000 (Generation 2000; ) Group was founded by Michael Tien in 1980 in Hong Kong. The label G2000, first introduced in 1985, was positioned as a specialty clothing chain distributing fashionable men's and women's career wear. Today, the G2000 ...

clothing retail chain and was the chairman of the

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC; ) is a Hong Kong wholly government-owned railway and land asset manager. It was established in 1982 under the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation Ordinance for the purposes of operating the Kowloon– ...

. Michael was elected member of the Legislative Council in 2012.

Honours

Francis Tien was appointed

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in 1967 and received Member and Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in 1971 and 1973 respectively. He was rewarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire later on and

Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'argent de la reine Elizabeth II) is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is p ...

in 1977. He also became the honorary distinguished citizen of the

State of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, United States in 1978. He also received the honorary degrees of

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

by the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

in 1971 and

Doctor of Social Science The Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci, SScD or DSS) degree is the highest degree offered by some universities in the field of social sciences, for which other universities confer a Ph.D. Like the PhD, it is recognized as a terminal research degree ...

by the

in 1983 for his education to commerce, industry and government and for his dedication to the promotion of Hong Kong's staple commodity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tien, Francis 1915 births 1992 deaths Hong Kong fashion businesspeople Hong Kong philanthropists Hong Kong textiles industry businesspeople Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century philanthropists People from Suzhou Chinese emigrants to British Hong Kong