Participants in the Hong Kong Tycoon Demise Stakes have been losing money every year since 2020, when 98-year-old Stanley Ho died amid unseemly wives-and-kids bickering. Madam Kwok Kwong Siu-hing carries on as Sun Hung Kai matriarch at the age of 94. Henderson Land’s Lee Shau Kee is a sprightly 96, no doubt energized by the company of his all-male motherless triplet grandchildren. And Superman Li Ka-shing maintains his title as the city’s richest man also at 96. And people say those human-placenta injections don’t work.
But now Lui Che-woo has passed away – last Thursday, it seems – at the age of 95. Best known for his cloth cap, cheeky grin, Prize for World Civilization and heart of gold.
Expect renewed interest in the demise pool: as statisticians like to point out, random events tend to occur in clusters.
It’s the never ending moneylust and Machiavellian games that keep these geezers going. It’s sport to them, keeps them fit and their minds sharp. If they had retired at 65 or so they’d be long dead by now.
Like the reign of ‘The Four Heavenly Kings’ of Cantopop” that of another HK phenomenon, the tycoon Uncles, is drawing to a close. The end of an era, their business acumen and deal making, liaisons and peccadillos kept the community enthralled for decades.
Lo with his ragamuffin persona was, like his contemporaries, a character. I remember watching Stanley Ho dancing at a function, a man who lived life to the full.
Like the Cantopop pretenders to the throne, the successors to the tycoons, with the exception of the flamboyant Adrian, are a miserable bunch. And about to get more joyless with the central government putting pressure on them as Xia put it “to recognise their responsibilities” and take “concrete actions” to support the city’s economic development. By concrete he inferred pouring concrete into developments that may not line their pockets.
In their own way the Uncles represented a time when Hong Kong was a free society that offered endless possibilities. Their passing bookends that era.
Lui Che-woo’s “kind heart and strong sense of social responsibility” didn’t stretch to aircon for his employees in the staff only sections of the Galaxy Casino (which looked for all the world like a Bond villain’s lair).
Which, I think, is all you really need to know to surmise the actual motives behind his “philanthropic” donations.
Alfred Nobel is much better known for his posthumous prizes than for his life’s work, and others have tried to emulate him. Run Run Shaw left the Shaw prizes, which I think have some prestige.
When the Lui Che-woo prizes were inaugurated, many categories were just about filled. The prize categories chosen – sustainability, welfare betterment, and positive energy – seem to indicate some strain. However, there was a grand inauguration with some distinguished guests, notably Condoleezza Rice and a newly retired Archbishop of Canterbury. The prizes, denominated in HK Dollars, were greater in value than the Nobel prizes, and were not to be divided.
Prizes were awarded for just four years. It looked as if one prize each year had to go to a person in China. Perhaps it was hard to choose the winners. Perhaps everything stalled during Covid. Perhaps Lui, by entering the Macau casino business, put himself at the mercy of the Chinese government. But the prize awards seem to have ceased. There are generous donations to universities in China.
(I have no special knowledge – these are just my impressions.)
Are those babies he is pictured with directly associated with the placenta bags he wolfed down?
Li’s formula for youth as I was told by someone working in CK holdings, was getting up early, playing a round of golf and having a round with his girlfriend before work before getting into the office early. Maybe the platelets were hidden in the golf cart
Was at a ball function where Stanley Ho was in attendance. I was firmly instructed that the first dance would be by Stanley Ho & his escort. No one else was allowed to get on the dance floor until he had finished. Guess he had written a big check for the event or something.
Apologies for typo. was of course referring to barrow boy Lui not Lo. The ever dapper Vincent Lo has aged considerably in the last few years
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rgluckman/2023/02/22/vincent-lo-plays-long-game-with-his-shui-on-group-making-big-bets-in-shanghai-property-as-he-prepares-daughter-stephanie-as-successor/
LKS may bebenefitting from his investments in a number of biotech startups……………
The foibles and dalliances of these old-time tycoons provide enough material for a decent Netflix series or comedy spoof, perhaps along the lines of ‘Arrested Development’. As plot lines, I like the extreme meanness of China Motor Bus’ Henry Ngan and the multiple wives and Macau conviction of Joseph Lau. Sasha Baron Cohen sort of cottoned when he made reference to Cecil Chao’s reward for a husband for Gigi but it never went any further.