Sir Shiu-kin Tang

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 ...

KStJ The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of c ...

, JP (; 21 March 1901 – 19 June 1986) was 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 ...

entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1933, he co-founded

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes. It is a subsidiary of Transport International. ...

and is known through the public service institutions he funded and founded in Hong Kong, many of which bear his name. He served as chairman of both

Tung Wah Group of Hospitals The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (), with a history dating back to 1870, is the oldest and largest charitable organisation in Hong Kong. It provides extensive education and community services through 194 service centres spread across Hong Kong. ...

and Po Leung Kuk.

Early life and the Battle of Hong Kong

Tang was born in Hong Kong into a wealthy family. His father was Tang Chi Ngong JP, a banker. His mother 章順婉 was fourth wife and he was the second of four brothers. He attended Queen's College and St. Stephen's College.〈鄧肇堅昨病逝醫院〉，《大公報》第一張第四版，1986年6月20日。''Who's Who'', A & C Black, 1986.〈鄧肇堅爵士昨逝世〉，《

華僑日報 ''Wah Kiu Yat Po'', or ''Overseas Chinese Daily News'' (), was a Chinese-language newspaper based in Hong Kong. It was published between 1925 to 1995. It was founded by Shum Wai-yau after the Shum family took control of the company. History T ...

》第二張第一頁，1986年6月20日。Eric Caveliero, "The Humble Millionaire", ''The HK Standard'', 20 June 1986.蔡嘉亮，〈鄧肇堅吃乳豬必過熱水〉，《大公報》第一張第四版，1986年6月20日。 During the

Battle of Hong Kong The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...

, Tang Shiu-kin was almost killed by Japanese forces in Happy Valley on 23 December, 1941, two days before the fall of the territory. He, along with other two other businessmen, was drafted to serve on the Hong Kong reserve police force and found in possession of helmets and trench coats. Along with other civilians and Nationalist Chinese officials, he was bayonetted by the soldiers and dumped into a drainage ditch.Kwong, C.M.
The Battle of Hong Kong 1941: A Spatial History Project > War Crimes > Blue Pool Road
Retrieved October 11, 2021

Philanthropy

It is estimated that in his lifetime Tang contributed at least HK$100 million (amounts at that time) for worthy causes.Mike Davis, ''The Buses of Kowloon Motor Bus'', Surrey: DTS Publishing, 1995.〈九巴四大家族拆檔恩怨情仇〉，《壹週刊》，2001年8月30日。"I've Got So Much, I Want to Share", ''South China Morning Post'', 20 June 1986.

Family

Tang's eldest grandson, born to the only son of his 'first concubine', was David Tang, founder of the Shanghai Tang fashion chain, though Tang Shui Kin early on ejected the whole family with very little financial support, according to David Tang.David Tang: the colourful life of the man behind Hong Kong’s fashion brand with a Shanghai twist
SCMP, 30 August 2017

References

1901 births 1986 deaths Hong Kong businesspeople Hong Kong philanthropists Kowloon Motor Bus 20th-century philanthropists Alumni of Queen's College, Hong Kong Order of Saint John (chartered 1888) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Tang family {{HK-bio-stub

Early life and the Battle of Hong Kong

Philanthropy

Family

See also

References