Tin Ka Ping

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hanyu Pinyin
Tián Jiābǐng
Wade–GilesT'ien Chia-ping
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationTin4 Gaa1bing2

Tin Ka Ping GBM MBE (Chinese: 田家炳; 20 November 1919 – 10 July 2018), also known as K. P. Tin or Tian Jiabing, was a Hong Kong–Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of Tin’s Chemical Industrial Company and the Tin Ka Ping Foundation.

Tin donated billions of Hong Kong dollars and funded hundreds of schools, dozens of hospitals, and thousands of rural libraries throughout China. He was awarded numerous honours for his philanthropy, including the

2886 Tinkaping after him, and his childhood home in Dabu County
is protected as a heritage site.

Early life

Tin Ka Ping was born in 1919 in the Hakka community of Dabu County, Meizhou, Guangdong Province. His grandfather was a Qing dynasty official who served in Henan Province and fought against the Taiping Rebellion. He was the only son of his father, a businessman who ran a grocery store and a kiln.[2]

Business career

When his father died in 1935, Tin was forced to quit school at the age of 15 to run the family business.[2][3] He went to Vietnam in 1937 to export the porcelain clay which Dabu is famous for, and soon controlled 60% of Dabu's export business.[2] However, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and in June 1939 the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Shantou, the main port in eastern Guangdong, blocking the export route from Dabu.[2]

Tin moved to Indonesia in 1939 to join his cousin and helped run the latter's metal factory. After the Surrender of Japan in 1945, he founded a factory in Jakarta to process the abundant supply of local rubber, and later expanded the business with a second factory. In 1956, he started the first plastic film factory in Indonesia.[2]

Because of government policies that

reform and opening in the 1980s, Tin joined many other Hong Kong companies to open factories in the mainland. He opened his first mainland factory in Humen, Dongguan, and gradually grew the business.[2]

Philanthropy

Tin was involved in philanthropy since the 1960s and 1970s, when he served as a director of Hong Kong's three largest charities at the time: Pok Oi Hospital, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, and Yan Oi Tong [zh].[3][5]

In 1982, he donated more than a billion Hong Kong dollars,[5] which was about 80% of his wealth, to establish the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, dedicated to making donations in education, medical care, transportation, and other public facilities. In 2009, he transferred the rest of his assets into the foundation, and retired from its active management.[3]

Having been forced to quit school in his childhood, Tin dedicated much of his resources to funding education.[4] Since the 1980s, Tin made donations to 93 universities, 166 secondary schools, 41 elementary schools, and 19 specialized schools and kindergartens.[3] He also funded 1,800 libraries in rural schools,[3] 29 hospitals, and 130 bridges and roads.[5] There are schools bearing his name in every province, municipality, and autonomous region in China, and he has been honoured as the "Father of a hundred schools" (百校之父).[3] He also sponsored schools in Taiwan, Singapore and the United States.[5]

Tin's businesses and foundation suffered massive losses during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. To help fund his foundation, in 2001 he sold his house in Kowloon Tong that he and his wife had lived in for 37 years, and rented a 1,300-square-foot (120 m2) apartment. He donated the entire proceeds of HK$56 million to more than 20 secondary schools. It was seen as an "incredible" decision by Hong Kong media.[2]

Honours and awards

Tin had received numerous honours and awards in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Britain, for his contributions to public welfare. He was awarded the

2886 Tinkaping after him. He was an honorary citizen of more than 80 cities and counties in China, and was awarded the honorary doctorate by more than 10 universities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.[3]

Tin's former home, the Gong Chen Building located in Yintan Village, Gaopo Town, is now protected as a heritage site by the government of Dabu County. It has opened as a museum honouring Tin Ka Ping.[6]

Personal life and death

Tin was married to Fong Wai-ying.[2] They had more than 20 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.[7] With the belief that it was "better to bequeath virtue rather than wealth to one's children", Tin donated the vast majority of his assets to his charitable foundation.[3]

In 2013, when he was 94, Tin was baptised and became a Christian.[2]

Tin died on 10 July 2018 in Hong Kong, at the age of 98.[2][5]

References

  1. ^ He, Shusi (19 July 2018). "Vice-premier pays tribute to philanthropist". China Daily. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zhao, Shirley (11 July 2018). "City mourns as 'great educator' Tin Ka-ping dies aged 99". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Han, Shengjiang (10 July 2018). “中国百校之父”香港商人田家炳今日上午辞世,享年99岁. The Paper (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Dr TIN Ka Ping - 1997 Honorary University Fellow". University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e Wan, Cindy (11 July 2018). "Philanthropist Tin Ka-ping passes away". The Standard. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  6. ^ "Tin Ka Ping's Ancestral Home". China Daily. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  7. Sina
    News (in Chinese (China)). 10 July 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2018.

External links