Run Run Shaw

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Shaw (Shao/Siu).
Television Broadcasts Ltd.
Spouses
Wong Mee-chun (黃美珍)
​
​
(m. 1931; died 1987)​
​
(m. 1997)​
Children4
RelativesRunje Shaw
Runde Shaw
Runme Shaw
Run Run Shaw
Hanyu Pinyin
Shào Yìfū
Wade–GilesShao4 I4-fu2
Yale RomanizationShàu Yìfū
IPA[ʂâʊ îfú]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationSiuh Yaht-Fū
JyutpingSiu6 Jat6 Fu1
IPA[ɕìːu jɐ̀t fúː]

Sir Run Run Shaw GBM CBE (19 November 1907 – 7 January 2014), also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong businessman, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East Asian and Hong Kong entertainment industry.[2] He founded the Shaw Brothers Studio, one of the largest film production companies in Hong Kong, and TVB, the dominant television company in Hong Kong.

A well-known philanthropist, Shaw donated billions of

Shaw College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also established the Shaw Prize
for Astronomy, Life Science & Medicine and Mathematical Sciences.

Early life

Shaw was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, Qing China as the youngest of the six sons of Shanghai textile merchant Shaw Yuh Hsuen (邵行銀) (1866–1920) and his wife Wang Shun Xiang (黃順香) (1871–1939).[4][5] His name at birth was Shao Renleng (邵仁楞), which was later changed to Shao Yifu (邵逸夫) because he thought that the average Chinese person would not know how to pronounce the character 楞 (léng).[6][7] There are a number of explanations given for the use of his English name Run Run Shaw,[3][8] but Shaw reportedly said that it was simply a transcription of his birth name Shao Renleng in the Ningbo dialect.[9]

He celebrated his birthdays on the 14th day of the 10th month of the

Lunar Calendar birthday.[10][8] However, the 14th day of the 10th month of the Chinese calendar corresponds to 19 November 1907 on the Gregorian calendar, which according to China Daily was his birthdate.[11]

As a child, his family moved to Shanghai.[8][12] He graduated from the Shanghai YMCA School, where he learned English.[13]

Career

Run Run Shaw in 1927

Early ventures

In 1925, Shaw's brothers, led by the eldest brother

talkie in 1931,[15] and made the first Cantonese sound film in 1932. It was highly successful, and Tianyi established a branch in Hong Kong in 1934.[14]

Just before the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937, Tianyi moved its operation to Hong Kong, shipping its equipment from Shanghai.[16][17] Its studio in Shanghai was destroyed when the Japanese occupied the city.[18] In Hong Kong, Tianyi was reorganised as Nanyang Studio, which later became Shaw Brothers Studio.[19] Run Run Shaw was credited with scripting and directing the 1937 comedy film Country Bumpkin Visits His In-laws.[20]

In his early days in Singapore, Run Run Shaw supervised the company's business while Runme travelled north to

Malay audiences, for example Leila Majnun in 1934,[26] and other films from the Dutch East Indies, the brothers established Malay Film Productions (MFP).[27] This company would eventually produce over 160 Malay films,[28] many of them starring and directed by P. Ramlee, until their studio at Jalan Ampas ceased production in 1967.[29][30] The period between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1960s is known as the Golden Age of Malay Cinema, with over 300 films made between MFP and Cathay Keris.[31][32] In 1941, the Japanese invaded Singapore and Malaya and confiscated their film equipment. According to Run Run Shaw, he and his brother went into hiding during the war[citation needed] and buried more than $4 million in gold, jewellery and cash in their backyard, digging it up after the war and using it to rebuild their business.[8]

Shaw Brothers Studios

In 1957, Run Run Shaw moved to Hong Kong, which was emerging as the new centre of Chinese-language cinema, and reorganised Tianyi's operations there as Shaw Brothers Studio. Shaw copied

Clearwater Bay. At the opening of the Shaw Movietown in December 1961, Shaw Studios had the world's largest privately owned film-production outfit with about 1,200 workers shooting and editing films daily.[33] Shaw productions ran up to two hours and cost as much as $50,000, a lavish sum by Asian standards in the 1960s.[8]

By the 1960s, Shaw Brothers had become the biggest producer of movies in Asia. Notable films produced by Shaw include director

Communist mainland China (particularly during the Cultural Revolution), but fit with the policy of the Nationalist government of Taiwan and US anti-Communist strategy, while not conflicting with the less provocative approach of the colonial government of Hong Kong.[36] Shaw Studios also popularised an early (Wuxia) variant of kung fu film genre that had influence on directors such as John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.[2][37]

The studio, which held virtual monopoly of filmmaking in Hong Kong, declined in the 1970s, partly due to competition from Golden Harvest formed by Raymond Chow and employing many former ex-employees of Shaw that have been dismissed. Golden Harvest came to prominence through Bruce Lee whom Shaw Brothers had previously turned down. Shaw began to focus his efforts on television.[38] Shaw also looked for opportunities in the United States and co-produced a handful of US films, including the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner.[2] In 2000, through his company, Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited, he sold his library of 760 classic titles to Celestial Pictures Limited. Shaw Studios also entered a new era with Shaw's majority investment (through his various holding companies) in the US$180,000,000 Hong Kong Movie City project, a 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) studio and production facility in Tseung Kwan O.[39]

Television Broadcasts Limited

In 1967, he co-founded TVB, the first free-to-air television station in Hong Kong, growing it into a multibillion-dollar TV empire with channels broadcast in 30 markets including the US, Canada and Taiwan, making it the world's largest producer of Chinese-language programs. Shaw took a greater interest in TVB after succeeding the deceased Harold Lee as its chairman in 1980. Shaw leased most of Shaw Brothers' filmmaking facilities to TVB in 1983. Under his chairmanship, TVB successfully launched the careers of international stars such as Chow Yun-fat and Maggie Cheung, singers such as Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, and directors like Wong Kar-wai. In 2006, TVB had 80 percent of Hong Kong's viewers and 78 percent of the city's TV advertising market.[38]

On 31 December 2011, Shaw retired as chairman of Television Broadcasts Ltd. at the age of 104 after more than 40 years at Hong Kong's biggest television company,

HTC Corporation chairman Cher Wang and ITC Corporation chairman Charles Chan for HK$6.26 billion in March.[33][41] He was then named chairman emeritus.[37] Shaw was one of the largest shareholders in Macy's after buying 10 percent of its preferred shares for US$50 million when it was nearly bankrupt in 1991.[8]

Community life

Shaw was an advocate and financial supporter of the

Community Chest of Hong Kong since its inception.[25]

Philanthropy

Run Run Shaw Science Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, China

Over the years, Shaw donated HK$6.5 billion to charities, schools and hospitals in Hong Kong and mainland China through the Sir Run Run Shaw Charitable Trust and the Shaw Foundation,

Oxford University,[8] and US$13 million for disaster relief after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.[14]

Shaw Prize

In 2002, Shaw established an international award, the

medical science.[46]
The award is up to US$1 million, and the first prize was awarded in 2004.

Personal life

He was the sixth of the seven children in the Shaw family, and was nicknamed Uncle Six (Luk Sook). His three elder brothers, Runje Shaw, Runde Shaw and Runme Shaw were all heads of the Shaw Studio. Runme Shaw, the third elder brother who co-founded the Shaw Studio with him, died in 1985.

Shaw's first wife was Lily Wong Mee-chun, who died at age 85 in 1987. In 1997, he married Mona Fong in Las Vegas. A former singer, Mona Fong joined TVB as a procurement manager in 1969 and became the deputy chairman of TVB in 2000.[5][33] Shaw had four children with his first wife: sons Vee Meng and Harold, and daughters Violet and Dorothy.[33] All of his children studied at Oxford University.[8]

Shaw was a lover of Rolls-Royce limousines[37] and a keen practitioner of qigong.[41] Mr. Bean was reportedly his favourite show.[47]

Death

He died at his residence on 7 January 2014, aged 106, and survived by his four children, nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.[48][49] The family did not give the cause of the death.[43]

His body was transferred from the

Premier Wen Jiabao and National People's Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang sent messages of respect.[43]

Honours

In 1964, after their discovery of a small

2899 Runrun Shaw" in Shaw's honour.[50]

In 1974, Shaw was appointed a

Queen Elizabeth II and the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) from the Hong Kong government in 1998.[51][52]

He was awarded an honorary degree of

Doctor of Laws by the University of Hong Kong to honour an outstanding contribution to applied visual arts, as well as to the community and cultural developments.[25]

In 2007, coinciding with his 100th birthday, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the

Hong Kong Film Awards.[14]

In 2013, Shaw received the

BAFTA Special Award for his outstanding contribution to cinema.[53]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sir Run Run Shaw". Hong Kong Movie Database. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "HK Movie Mogul Run Run Shaw Has Died". abc news. 7 January 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Raymond Zhou (8 January 2014). "Movie mogul dies in HK". China Daily USA. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  4. ^ "About Shaw: The Beginning 1924–1933". Shaw Online. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7136-7527-6
    .
  6. ^ "「Run Run」來自原名譯音". Mingpao (明報). Chinanews. 8 January 2014.
  7. ^ "Unprecendented TVB Kingdom end with Sales". 9 January 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Translation of the content of preceding Chinese news website in its last three paragraphs.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Movie Giant of the Kung Fu Genre, Dies at 106". The New York Times. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  9. ^ "Run Run Shaw: A Legend of A Century". News Plus. 9 January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014.
  10. ^ Ng, Jeffrey. "Media Mogul Run Run Shaw Dies at 106". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  11. ^ "Shaw remembered for his pioneering work in cinema". China Daily. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  12. ^ Frater, Patrick. "Run Run Shaw, Producer of 'Blade Runner,' Martial Arts Films, Dies at 106". Variety. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  13. ^ "Sir Run Run Shaw: The legend with a heart of gold". South China Morning Post. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  14. ^ a b c d e "Legendary Producer Run Run Shaw Dies at 106". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 January 2014.
  15. ISBN 978-1444330298
    . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  16. ISBN 978-0415172905
    . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  17. ISBN 978-0415546331
    . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  18. ISBN 9781444355970
    . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  19. ^ "About Shaw – Japanese Occupation – Nanyang Studio, Hong Kong". Shaw Online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  20. ^ a b "Hong Kong movie mogul Run Run Shaw dies". The Straits Times. 7 January 2014.
  21. ^ "About Shaw – Shaw Films, Malaya, Pre War". Shaw Online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  22. ^ Siu Lan, Law (11 October 1996). "Movie Magic". AsiaWeek. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  23. ^ "About Shaw – The Beginning 1924–1933". Shaw online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  24. ^ "Run Run Shaw dies". The Standard. 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2014.
  25. ^ a b c d "108th Congregation (1980) – Sir Run Run SHAW". The University of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 28 November 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  26. ^ a b "About Shaw – Shaw Studio, Pre War – The Great Depression 1930". Shaw Online.
  27. ISBN 978-0-7748-1172-9
    . Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  28. ^ "About Shaw – Malay Film Productions". Shaw Online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  29. ^ "The Last Days of Malay Film Productions". Shaw Online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  30. ^ Vanitha Nadaraj (7 January 2014), "Sir Run Run Shaw: The Man Who Ushered the Golden Age of Malay Film Industry", The Establishment Post, archived from the original on 8 January 2014
  31. ^ "A night when the stars shone". The Long and Winding Road. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  32. ^ "About Shaw – Malay Film Productions". Shaw Online. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  33. ^ a b c d "Run Run Shaw, Father of Hong Kong's Movie Industry, Dies". Bloomberg. 6 January 2014. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014.
  34. ^ "Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong film pioneer, dies". BBC. 7 January 2014.
  35. ^ Deutsch, Linda (1 May 1974). "Run Run Shaw, Czar of Asian Movies". Lewiston Evening Journal. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  36. ISBN 9780199988440
    .
  37. ^ a b c Ng, Jeffrey; Ho, Prudence (6 January 2014). "Hong Kong Media Mogul Dies". The Wall Street Journal.
  38. ^ a b Lee, Mark (23 November 2007). "Film Mogul Run Run Shaw Turns 100, Considers Retiring". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014.
  39. ^ "Who We are – Shaw Studios". Shaw Studios. Archived from the original on 20 May 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2007.
  40. ^ Tong, Stephanie (8 December 2011). "Run Run Shaw to Retire as Hong Kong TVB Chairman at Age 104". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012.
  41. ^ a b Chow, Vivienne (7 January 2014). "Media mogul Run Run Shaw dies". South China Morning Post.
  42. ^ a b "23rd Congregation (1981) – Sir Run-run SHAW". The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  43. ^ a b c Zhao, Shirley; Chan, Samuel (10 January 2014). "Run Run Shaw's body transferred to crematorium as top leaders pay respects". South China Morning Post.
  44. ^ "教育部：邵逸夫已向内地教育捐款近47.5亿港币" [Chinese Ministry of Education: Run Run Shaw had donated HK$4.75 billion to education in Mainland China]. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  45. ^ "History of College". Shaw College. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  46. ^ "Pioneering movie producer Run Run Shaw dies". CBS. 6 January 2014.
  47. ^ Wong, Karen (6 October 2007). "The Great Shawman Turns 100". The Standard. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014.
  48. ^ "邵逸夫爵士家中安詳離世 享年107歲". TVB News. 7 January 2014.
  49. ^ "Run Run Shaw, godfather of kung fu film-making, dies aged 106". The Guardian. Associated Press. 7 January 2014.
  50. ^ Richard Corliss (7 January 2014). "Run Run Shaw: The Last Emperor of Chinese Movies". Time. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  51. ^ Vivienne Chow (7 January 2013). "Tributes as legendary movie mogul and philanthropist Run Run Shaw dies". South China Morning Post.
  52. ^ State Intelligence – Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, No. 47500, The London Gazette, London, Tuesday, 28 March 1978, p.3787
  53. ^ "BAFTA in Hong Kong: New Scholarships Announced Sir Run Run Shaw to Receive Special Award". BAFTA. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Run Run Shaw.
Business positions
Preceded by
Harold Lee
 Executive Chairman of TVB
1980–2010 		Succeeded by
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