Shih Wing-ching (; born 17 March 1949 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

businessman. His family are from

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province but he came to Hong Kong at an early age. In 1978 he established

Centaline Centaline Property Agency Limited is one of the largest property agencies in Hong Kong. It was established in 1978 by Shih Wing-ching. Centaline has nearly 40,000 employees and more than 2,000 offices in 39 cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong an ...

Property Agency Limited, which is now one of the largest

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

agencies in both Hong Kong and China. Shih is chairman of the board of Governors of

Hong Kong Sinfonietta The Hong Kong Sinfonietta (Chinese: ) is a professional symphony orchestra based in Hong Kong. It was established in 1990 by a group of local music graduates. It has always aimed at promoting classical music to the public. The orchestra was reorga ...

, a Council Member of Oxfam Hong Kong, and a Member of the

Housing Authority A housing authority or ministry of housing is generally a governmental body that governs aspects of housing or (called in general "shelter" or "living spaces"), often providing low rent or free apartments to qualified residents. The existence of ...

, as well as the Commercial Properties Committee and the Subsidized Housing Committee of the Authority. He is active in charity and

philanthropy Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. He founded, and continues to publish, the

AM730 ''Am730'', is free daily Cantonese newspaper published in Hong Kong, the third with the prior two being ''Headline Daily'' and '' Metropolis Daily''. Shih Wing-ching, chairman of ''Centaline Holdings'', a property agency, is the founder of ...

free daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

. In January 2014, he revealed that many mainland companies were cancelling advertising with the paper, for its perceived anti-Beijing editorial stance. On 30 July 2013, Shih was attacked in his car by two men with hammers, though he managed to drive away and did not suffer injury. He said at the time that he had no idea who or what motive might have been behind the attack. Shih is a supporter of the

Hong Kong Golf Club The Hong Kong Golf Club is a private golf club. It is home to the Hong Kong Open, a tournament co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours. Founded in 1889 as the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, the Club originally played in Happy Valley, a loc ...

and has opposed development of public housing on land it leases from the government, saying "A feature of capitalism is a gap between rich and poor... If you try to erase the feature, say by taking away golf, then it's not capitalism, it's socialism" and also saying that is not what Hong Kong needs.

Early life

Mr. Shih Wing Ching was raised in Shanghai and came to Hong Kong when he was two. In a tight worker's quarters the family of six squeezed. He began working after school at the age of eight, to raise family revenue. He believed in the Marxist-Leninist ideology when in Secondary Four, and was thrown out of school for becoming a student protester. Since completing Secondary Five (since passing to three elementary schools and two high schools) he served for eight years as a teacher in a leftist community. In 1978, he founded the Centaline Property Agency Limited, along with business partners.

References

1949 births Living people Hong Kong businesspeople Hong Kong philanthropists Businesspeople from Shanghai {{HongKong-business-bio-stub