Before we talked about the three Qiu sisters, who are the role models of Hong Kong's wealthy ladies, this time we will talk about the old money family behind them in detail - the Qiu family, "the father of ATV " The Hong Kong legend of Qiu Degen .
1. Go to Hong Kong
In 1939, a 15-year-old young man came to Shanghai Daguangming Cinema to take seats and collect tickets, with a monthly salary of 12 yuan. He started as a small worker in this cinema, which enjoys the reputation of " the first cinema in the Far East" and gradually rose to the position of manager.
Shanghai Daguangming Cinema
He is Qiu Degen. Qiu Degen was born in the home of a small merchant, and his mother was a worker in a textile factory. Due to family poverty, he dropped out of junior high school after only a few months. But he was quick-witted and had a talent for business very early on.
In 1949, the civil war between and the Communist Party of China ended. At that time, Hong Kong, which was still known as a "small land", was far from the prosperity it is today, but many far-sighted businessmen saw the potential unlimited business opportunities. After another inspection trip to Hong Kong, Qiu Degen decisively sold his property. In 1950, 25-year-old Qiu Degen and his pregnant wife Qiu Jinqiu left Shanghai with a few hundred yuan and rushed to make a living in the unfamiliar Hong Kong.
The young couple settled in Tsuen Wan , a remote new district in Hong Kong.
When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I had no relatives. The wealth and connections I had earned in Shanghai were all gone. Now I only had my wife who was about to give birth, a dilapidated rental house and a few hundred yuan. Qiu Degen had no choice but to go back to his old business and make a living by showing slide shows. With this little skill, he barely managed to gain a foothold in Hong Kong.
Although the income from showing slideshows was meager, the couple frugally saved up enough money to open a small cinema. Later, he bought a small theater in New Territories - Tsuen Wan Cinema for 5,000 Hong Kong dollars.
Qiu Degen knew that with his little capital, he really couldn't compete with others in the urban area. Because people in urban areas are only interested in newly released movies, and the rent of new movies is very expensive, as long as one or two movies have low attendance, it is enough for him to lose all his money.
By chance, Qiu Degen discovered that all the movie theaters were in the city. No one went to the vast rural areas. However, the demand for movies in rural areas was also great. During the slack period, farmers had nothing to do but visit and chat. , sleep well, for them, even old movies are very fresh, and renting old discs only costs one Hong Kong dollar a day, plus the rental of machines only costs more than ten Hong Kong dollars a day. Opening a movie theater in a rural area has a market and is low-cost, so it definitely has a bright future.
At first, rural residents were not used to watching movies during the day, but because they often couldn't buy tickets at night, they had no choice but to watch during the day. By 1960, in only 10 years, they had operated 14 theaters in rural areas and had a considerable amount of capital on hand. Qiu Degen is called "the Shanghai guy who built his family from scratch" by his colleagues.
2. Liyuan Playground
is still based in the countryside. Qiu Degen found that all financial companies in Hong Kong were in urban areas, and no one paid attention to rural business. However, the villagers' demand for funds was not small, so in 1959, Qiu Degen opened He founded Far East Bank and started lending and deposit-taking business - this was the predecessor of Far East Bank, one of the major banks in Hong Kong.
At the same time, Qiu Degen also bought some land and invested in other industries. To complement these businesses, Far East Bank's business became increasingly prosperous.
In 1962, by chance, Qiu Degen bought Liyuan Amusement Park. Lai Yuen Playground was opened in 1949 by businessman Zhang Junan. It was once the largest amusement park in Hong Kong. It is located in Lai Yan Court (near Lai Chi Kok) at Kau Wah Path, Kwai Tsing District. The early facilities in Lai Yuan included various theaters, mobile games, booth games, water games, etc. There is also a zoo, among which the elephant "Tinnu" is the treasure of the Liyuan Zoo. There are also blindfolded knife throwing performances, etc., attracting many audiences.The Cantonese theater and music scene in the park have produced many popular TV entertainers and singers, such as the sisters Anita Mui and Anita Mui.
Zhang Junan is a good friend of Qiu Degen. He does not want to continue the business. Qiu Degen has always been interested in the entertainment industry and wanted to make a difference in this area, so he bought Liyuan. Initially, Lai Yuen's business was very good, with 2.5 to 3 million tourists every year, which was almost the entire population of Hong Kong at that time.
Qiu Degen has been expanding Liyuan. In the 1970s, he invested 15 million Hong Kong dollars to build Songcheng adjacent to it. Song City is lined with imitation Song Dynasty houses, shops, banks, theaters, temples, gardens, etc. The residents and performers in the city are all dressed in ancient costumes. Such fresh ideas attracted many tourists that year and brought huge profits to Qiu Degen every year.
Songcheng
Hong Kong's first real ice skating rink facility was built in Lai Yuan. At that time, going to Lai Yuan for skating was the most fashionable thing to do. The magnificent carousel, many music videos are shot here, "Only the wooden horse in Liyuan has this kind of magnificent feeling."
People have the deepest and longest memory of the era when supplies and entertainment were scarce. Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying recalled: "I often had to beg my parents for a long time and have good test scores as a reward before I could go to Lai Yuan."
Lai Yuan run by Qiu Degen is the source of happy childhood memories for the older generation of Hong Kong people. , from this point of view, his merits are immeasurable.
However, with the advancement of the times and the emergence of new amusement parks such as Ocean Park, Liyuan's business conditions deteriorated, and it finally closed in 1997. Liyuan and Songcheng were demolished in the late 1990s and converted into residential properties.
3. Sister-in-law is the wife
Qiu Degen's career is booming, and his relationship with his wife is also very harmonious. After marriage, Qiu Jinqiu gave birth to four sons and one daughter, and the family of seven lived a very happy life.
The tragedy happened in 1964. Qiu Degen was invited by the famous film producer Lu Yuntao, the founder of Cathay Group, Yonghua Film and International Film Industry Co., Ltd., to participate in the Asian Film Festival. Due to various reasons, his wife Qiu Jinqiu finally participated in the event instead of Qiu Degen, and the plane she was on was hijacked (later, after investigation, it was found that two pistols were left at the scene, and the pilot Lin Hongji had a small hole in his right cheek. Half of the left side of his face was blown off, apparently from being shot at close range. There were also signs of being torn from his clothes, indicating that there had been a struggle. However, due to the international environment at the time, The truth of the hijacking was suppressed and treated as a plane crash). All 57 people on board were killed. In addition to Qiu Jinqiu, Lu Yuntao and his wife, there were also many filmmakers such as Zhou Hailong and his wife, including the US military advisory group, which caused great losses to the film industry at that time. As a result, the Golden Horse Award It was canceled directly and was known as the "Kamiokande Air Crash" in history.
After Qiu Jinqiu's death, Qiu Degen was devastated. He was in pain and self-blame, and could not concentrate on his work. He was also unable to take care of his five young children. He wrote in his autobiography: "For at least half a year, my life was lived in a state of confusion and numbness. No matter what the company's affairs were, big or small, I couldn't arouse interest. Every day was a memory of living in Jinqiu.
Misfortunes never come singly. From January to April 1965, a run broke out in Hong Kong. The run started on the small bank Mingde Bank, which collapsed in February due to excessive lending to real estate, causing public confidence in Chinese banks. Many banks declared bankruptcy soon, and even the powerful Hang Seng Bank was forced to give up half of its shares to British banks to stabilize itself. The Far East Bank soon fell into crisis, and Qiu Degen had to force it. Cheer up and save the industry that has been built through hard work. He used the funds from other industries he controlled to enrich the bank and finally got through the difficulties.
This incident eventually led to the 1965 Hong Kong stock market crash.
At this time, Qiu Jinlan, the wife's sister, stepped forward to take care of the young children and comfort her grieving brother-in-law. Qiu Jinlan is nearly 10 years younger than her sister Qiu Jinqiu. After Qiu Degen and his wife established a foothold in Hong Kong, Qiu Jinlan came to Hong Kong to join her sister and brother-in-law.
The children of Qiu Degen and Qiu Jinqiu were very disgusted with this aunt. They thought that Qiu Jinlan was here to fight for their father, and she must have other motives for being so high-profile just after her mother died.
Qiu Degen gradually developed feelings for Qiu Jinlan. Maybe it was because the sisters had similar looks, maybe because he wanted to take good care of his late wife's biological sister, maybe because he needed a virtuous woman to help him stabilize the home front. Despite the resistance of his family and the questioning of public opinion, Qiu Degen married Qiu Jinlan in July 1965, just one year after Qiu Jinqiu's death.
On the wedding night, the second son, who was only ten years old, kept crying with his younger brothers and sisters, insisting on sleeping between the two newlyweds, but Qiu Degen remained unmoved and had a firm attitude.
years later, Qiu Degen opened several "Qiu Jinqiu academies" in memory of Qiu Jinqiu; he sometimes wrote in handwriting Su Shi Jiang Chengzi: Ten years of life and death, without thinking, unforgettable; and Qiu Jinqiu's photo has always been hanging in his office.
Is this love? Or miss it? What on earth was Qiu Jinlan thinking back then?
No one knows.
4. Across the world
The rear was stable and the bank run crisis was withstood. Qiu Degen's Far East Bank became famous far and wide and its business was booming. So he immediately built a 17-story Far East Bank building, which was the tallest in the New Territories at that time. Later, he built a 17-story Far East Bank building in yuan. Branches were opened in Lang and various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon.
The operation of Lai Yuen Amusement Park also brought him advantages. In the process of operating theaters and amusement parks, Qiu Degen continued to buy properties in the New Territories. Within a few years, the value of these lands doubled, and he soon became one of Hong Kong's billionaires. The ranks of millionaires.
By the 1970s, Qiu Degen's Far East Group had established three major industry pillars: finance, real estate and entertainment. In 1972, Far East Development Co., Ltd. and Far East Investment Industries Co., Ltd., which engaged in real estate development, were listed; in 1979, Far East Hotel Industries Co., Ltd., which consisted of amusement parks, theaters and other assets, was listed. At the same time, Qiu Degen also operated several amusement parks and hotels in Indonesia, Jakarta, Canada, France and other places. According to incomplete statistics, his net worth at that time exceeded 10 billion.
html In the 1980s, Qiu Degen invested another 500 million Hong Kong dollars in Singapore to build Tangcheng, which imitated the social life of the Tang Dynasty, and achieved another success. The costume comedy "Happy Events in the Flower Field" was filmed in Tangcheng.Qiu Degen, who is approaching his sixtieth year, is already a veritable entertainment industry tycoon and has accumulated enough wealth to enjoy his old age in peace. However, when he thinks of his film and television dreams that were temporarily put on hold due to the death of Lu Yuntao in a plane crash, he is still upset after all. .
At that time, there were two TV stations in Hong Kong: TVB and Lai's TV. We will tell the story of TVB another day. The predecessor of Lai's TV was Lai's Voice.
In March 1949, the British company Lai's Voice established its subsidiary Hong Kong Lai's Voice in Hong Kong. In April 1957, Lai's Voice was allowed by the Hong Kong government to operate cable TV and was issued a license. After years of fierce competition with Jiayi TV and Wireless TV, in 1978, Jiayi TV closed down due to poor management. Within two years, the British Lisheng Company also transferred 61% of its shares to an Australian company. The consortium no longer manages it.
Everyone has always been under the impression that ATV was beaten to the ground by wireless. In fact, shortly before Qiu Degen acquired Li's (formerly ATV) in 1982, ATV had a very good turnaround.
In September 1980, when television dramas dominated by TVB accounted for half of the country's total, ATV changed its course and filmed and launched three brand-new dramas at the same time. The main feature is the local drama "The Love of the Earth". This drama is divided into three parts, spanning several eras, showing a rich local picture.As soon as the show was aired, the ratings skyrocketed, but ATV did not expect it to be so popular and firmly occupy a considerable market share.
However, TVB's TVB drama "The Legend of the World" starring Xiaosheng Zheng Shaoqiu, which was aired at the same time, turned into cannon fodder and became TVB's first series that was cut in half since its launch.
During that time, ATV's morale was high, and it launched several high-quality movies one after another, such as "Martial Arts Princess ", "Heroes Fearless ", " Journey to the Tiger Mountain Again", etc., all of which received double ratings and good reputations. Good harvest. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Just when ATV's situation improved slightly, the board of directors changed hands, which directly affected its subsequent development. ATV was defeated by TVB again, and its recovery was miserable.
Qiu Degen invested HK$100 million in 1982 to purchase 50% of the equity of Lai's TV station and renamed it " Asia TV ". He served as chairman of the board and made great efforts to rectify the situation: compressing the staff, shrinking the budget, and implementing cost control. In 1984, he purchased the remaining shares and took full control of ATV.
On the one hand, he strives to improve the quality of long-form drama series that are the "backbone" of the TV station. Qiu Degen promoted two capable people, Li Zhuanglie and Xu Xiaoming (director of "Huo Yuanjia"), and let them serve as director producers and program managers respectively, responsible for ATV's production business; on the other hand, it comprehensively updated equipment, technology and content. Qiu Degen took the lead in using microwave technology to broadcast live football games, which made ATV win a "full house".
During the period when Qiu Degen was in charge of ATV, ATV successively launched the costume martial arts films " Chen Zhen ", " Huo Dongge ", etc., together with "Fearless", they were called the "Jingwu Trilogy", and then successively launched a series of costume films The dramas "Wu Zetian", "Qin Shihuang", "Xi Shi", etc. have all been successful, with ratings reaching peaks repeatedly.
In addition to competing with TVB in TV dramas, Qiu Degen also held the first " Miss Asia Beauty Pageant" in 1985, breaking TVB's "Miss Hong Kong" monopoly. The champion Li Yanshan was born from it; followed closely by The launch of "Mr. TV" made TVB even more nervous.
As a profit-oriented businessman, Qiu Degen is not afraid of imitation. Run Run Shaw opened a wireless artist training class. He also held the same training class at ATV and discovered the talents of Anthony Wong, Ho Ka-king , Yuan Qiong Dan and others. Starlight.
Qiu Degen’s series of measures successfully turned ATV from losses to profits. In 1985, ATV made a profit of HK$12.29 million; unfortunately, under the pressure of TVB, the profit dropped sharply to HK$6.64 million in the second year. During the same period, TVB's profit was close to HK$200 million. It was even listed in 1984, opening up the capital market. financing channels.
No matter what, ATV during Qiu Degen's period successfully threatened Wireless, which made TVB think of many ways to deal with ATV's repeated surprise moves. If it hadn't happened that the third son, Qiu Dacheng, killed a police officer while driving drunk and was sentenced to jail, and Qiu Degen himself was investigated by the Hong Kong government for allegedly falsifying accounts, Qiu Degen would probably have been prepared to fight against TVB's Run Run Shaw for a long time. In the end, he Although he was exempted from prosecution because of Alzheimer's disease , he became disheartened and sold all the shares of ATV twice to Hong Kong's "clothing king" Lam Pak-yin and "jewellery tycoon" Zheng Yutong. ATV was finally sold to Lam Pak-hsin Into the bag, but that is a matter for the future.
Many people ask why ATV has never been able to compete with wireless. One of the important reasons is: Li's was a cable broadcast at the time and provided a paid service, and you had to pay to watch it. While TVB, a free-to-air television station established in 1967, has strong ratings appeal, Li's only converted to a free-to-air television station in 1979, officially beginning the decades-long struggle between the two major free television stations. However, because ATV entered the free TV market later than TVB, which was established in 1967, viewers have already formed viewing habits. As a result, ATV has never been able to capture more market share, and its ratings have always been lower than TVB.
However, although Qiu Degen has tens of billions of assets, his later life is bleak.None of the seven sons and one daughter born to his first wife and second wife wanted to take care of him. Why on earth was this? Let’s talk about this together in the next section ~
