Lee Hysan or Lee Hy-san (1879 – 30 April 1928) was a Hong Kong businessman who was involved in the opium trade and refinery, as well as land development in British Hong Kong during the early 1900s. He was nicknamed the ''Opium King'' in Hong Kong and Macau.

Early life

Lee was born in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. Lee's father was Lee Leung-yik (), a businessman who was heavily involved in the opium business in Hong Kong and China. Lee's ancestral home was

Kaiping Kaiping (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is located ín the western section of the Pearl River Delta and administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen. ...

, China, and Lee Leung-yik immigrated and moved his family to the US during the California Gold Rush at age 49 when immigration from Qing-era China was illegal. After making a small fortune, the family left

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

in 1896 and eventually relocated to

Xinhui Xinhui, alternately romanized as Sunwui and also known as Kuixiang, is an urban district of Jiangmen in Guangdong, China. It grew from a separate city founded at the confluence of the Tan and West Rivers. It has a population of about 735,50 ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Province and then to

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 Delta i ...

. At age seventeen, after arriving in Hong Kong. Lee Hysan continued his studies at Queen's College. Since he spoke English fluently, he later taught English at Queen's College, his alma mater.

Career

Lee's father achieved great wealth from the opium trade, and Lee inherited his father's business. Having amassed a great fortune from his successful opium business, Lee later participated in the fast-growing Hong Kong real estate market. In 1923, he bought the

Jardine's Hill Lee Gardens () is a hill south of East Point and west of Causeway Bay on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong, approximately the area between Percival Street, Hennessy Road and Leighton Road. It was also known as Jardine's Hill or East Point Hi ...

property, west of

Causeway Bay Causeway Bay is an area and a bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, straddling the border of the Eastern and the Wan Chai districts. It is a major shopping, leisure and cultural centre in Hong Kong, with a number of major shopping centres. Th ...

, from Jardines for

HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...

3.8 million. He initially wanted to build opium refinery facilities there, but owing to the global anti-opium movement, he changed his plan and developed the property as Lee Garden. It is approximately the area around Lee Garden Road,

Lee Theatre Lee Theatre ( zh, first=t,j, t=利舞臺, j=lei6 mou5 toi4, p=Lì wǔtái) was a prominent theatre in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Once one of the premier performing venues in Hong Kong, the Beaux-Arts theatre was demolished in t ...

, Yun Ping Road and Percival Street.

Children

In March 1905, Lee's son

Richard Charles Lee Richard Charles Lee Ming-Chak, CBE (; 7 March 1905 – 6 July 1983) was a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. Early life Lee was born on 7 March 1905 in British Hong Kong. Lee's father was Hysan Lee, a prominent local merchant and o ...

was born in Hong Kong. In December 1924, Lee's son Jung Kong Lee was also born in Hong Kong.

Death and legacy

On 30 April 1928, Lee was shot on a street in the Central district in Hong Kong and died shortly after yelling for help. The assassination was possibly due to a growing public resentment of his opium business, which people believed had caused great harm to Chinese society. The assassin was never caught, despite his family offering a huge bounty. At the time of his death, his estate was valued at HK$4.4 million. The present-day Hysan Development Company has a

market capitalisation Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...

in excess of HK$20 billion.

Landmarks named after him

* Lee Garden ** Lee Garden One ** Lee Garden Two ** Lee Garden Three ** Lee Garden Five ** Lee Garden Six * *

Hysan Place Hysan Place () is a shopping centre and office building at 500 Hennessy Road, Lee Garden, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It was developed by Hysan Development Company Limited at the former site of and was designed by international architecture fir ...

* Lee Hysan Hall in 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 f ...

* Lee Hysan Medical Library in the

, renamed as Yu Chun Keung Medical Library after moving
Lee Hysan Concert Hall
in

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 and ...

Doggerel

There was a popular doggerel in Hong Kong showing Lee's notoriety. The first characters of the first three lines sound (in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

) almost the same as Lee's name: ::利己害人 lei⁶ gei² hoi⁶ jan⁴ ::欺貧重富 hei¹ pan⁴ zung⁶ fu³ ::神憎鬼厭 san⁴ zang¹ gwai² jim³ ::街知巷聞 gaai¹ zi¹ hong⁶ man⁴ Literal translation: ::''Benefiting oneself while harming others,'' ::''Oppressing the poor while respecting the rich.'' ::''Detested by the deities and disgusted by the ghosts,'' ::''Known on the streets and heard on the alleys.''

Notable relatives

Many of Lee's descendants and other family members are notable in their own right: *

(利銘澤) (1905-1983) - businessman, son of Lee Hysan *

Vivienne Poy Vivienne Poy (née Lee; ; born May 15, 1941) is a Canadian businesswoman, author and philanthropist. She served as a member of the Senate of Canada from 1998 until her retirement in 2012. Early life and education On May 15, 1941, Poy was ...

née Lee (利德蕙) - daughter of

and a

Canadian Senator The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the Bri ...

from 1998 to 2012 * Harold Hsiao-Wo Lee (利孝和) * Jung Kong Lee (利榮康) - chemist, son of Lee Hysan *

Lee Quo-wei Sir Quo-wei Lee (; 5 August 1918 – 10 August 2013), with family roots in Kaiping, Guangdong, China, was a prominent Hong Kong businessman who served as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lee was awarded Honorar ...

(利國偉) - banker and educator, nephew of Lee Hysan * Peter Ting Chang Lee, JP (deceased) - former Chairman of Hysan Development * Michael Tze Hau Lee, BA, MBA - Managing Director, Hysan Development Company Limited * Anthony Hsien Pin Lee, BA, MBA - non-managing director, Hysan Development Company Limited * Chien Lee - non-executive director, Hysan Development Company Limited * Dr. Deanna Ruth Tak Yung Rudgard, BA, MD - non-executive director, Hysan Development Company Limited

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Hysan Hong Kong businesspeople 1928 deaths 1879 births Assassinated Hong Kong people People murdered in Hong Kong Businesspeople from Hawaii Opium in China Hawaii people of Chinese descent 1928 in Hong Kong 1928 crimes in Hong Kong 1928 murders in Asia 1920s murders in Hong Kong Alumni of Queen's College, Hong Kong American emigrants to China