Author of this article | Sleeping late
01
Yesterday morning, I saw that gambling king Stanley Ho entered the ICU critically ill. In the afternoon, the news of the gambling king's death was confirmed.
At 1:05 pm on May 26, 2020, the legendary figure of Stanley Ho passed away at the Hong Kong Health Hospital at the age of 98.
98 is considered a rare longevity, but the goal he set for himself before was to live to 120 years old, and there is still a big gap. This man who has been competing for the rest of his life finally had to bow his head to fate. Even if he uses huge amounts of money to prolong his life, his strong will is still stronger than this weak body.
His last public appearance was in November 2018, celebrating his birthday with his second wife and his family. After that, my health became worse and worse. I had stroke and Parkinson, had difficulty walking, couldn't speak clearly, and had to dialysis all day long. The dialysis affected the heart, and I missed the other and heard news of first aid many times.
I believe that both the family and himself are mentally prepared for this final result. So in the past two years, three and four rooms have been busy and have been fighting secretly, and have frequently staged a drama of expanding recruitment for us by the wealthy family.
At this time, let’s first put a gambling king family relationship diagram to facilitate everyone to better understand the subsequent story.
First, the third-person He Youqi robbed his husband of his daughter.
Then He Chaolian quickly revealed his relationship with Dou Xiao.
Next is the "strongest brain" of the fourth wife He Youjun and Xi Mengyao gave birth to the "fifth generation male" and were given the name by Stanley Ho.
There is also He Chaoying who gave birth to a daughter with 1.4 billion dowry.
But to be honest, all these dramas are not as eye-catching as the wedding of He Chaoqiong married Xu Jinheng . It was the gambling king personally took charge and organized it. In the 1980s, he spent 1 billion dowry, and the price of a wedding dress was as high as 600,000 yuan.
The story behind the wedding is more like an idol drama, and the front page of the entertainment weekly murders.
How rich is this wedding? Simply put, it cost 20 million to hold a wedding, a dowry of 1 billion, and a banquet for guests for a total of three days and three nights. Celebrities in the political, business, literary and artistic circles came to support them. The bride Ho Chaoqiong's dress has not been repeated for three days. The two sets of wedding dresses were designed by Dior, with a total price of more than 1.2 million yuan; this set of Chinese gold silk embroidered jacket king took eight months to sew.
Entering the new century, the marriage and love story of the gambling king's family has become more and more down-to-earth, more and more homely, no longer as glorious as it was back then.
In the obituary of the gambling king, the sons, daughters, grandchildren, etc. of the fourth house have a total of 28 people. The family is prosperous and there are people who follow up their careers. However, the wealthy families have different families, the more disputes they have.
What's more, what the gambling king left behind is not only a huge legacy and a huge industry, but also a gambling industry that has been in charge of Macau for decades. It is a piece of fat and a hot yam.
gambling king tried his best to make the greatest balance during his lifetime.
He has a good family management style. Not only do the wives in the couple live in harmony, but there are also news of disagreement or conflicts between their children. They are all in a proper manner and live around him, trying to please him. Those who can win the joy of the dragon can not only obtain property rights, but also win the envy of everyone in the family.
In 2017, he retired from Hong Kong Xinde Group as chairman, and the eldest daughter of the second wife, He Chaoqiong, took over his position.
In 2018, he resigned as chairman of AOB Holdings Company, and the second wife, He Chaofeng, took over as chairman and executive director. At the same time, the fourth wife, Liang Anqi, is the co-chairman and executive director, and the third wife, Chen Wanzhen, is also the executive director, forming a trend of checks and balances between each other.
After his death, the He family held a press conference and made a statement on behalf of the He family. As a director, general manager of Hong Kong Xinde Group, and director of Macau Tourism and Entertainment Co., Ltd., she has become the new head of the He family.
Although the new leader has been selected, everyone knows that with the passing of the gambling king, the huge ship that he had controlled for decades finally dropped its mast, and an era of empire was over.
Han Ho's legendary story cannot be continued by his descendants. His life is accompanied by the storms of the times, and it is an exciting drama that cannot be copied.
02
Han Ho was born in 1921. His great-grandfather was a Dutch Jew who traveled from the ocean to Hong Kong to do business. He married a local Chinese woman and gave birth to mixed-race children such as Ho Dong and Ho Fu, of whom Ho is the grandfather of Ho Hong Fu.
Jews are well-known all over the world to make money and do business. This feature has been passed down from He Shiwen's son, and of course it has also been passed down to He Hongshen.
Ho Dong and He Fu became compradors of Jia He Foreign Company when they became adults. The so-called compradors refer to people who were hired by foreign companies and were responsible for all matters to China, including managing Chinese employees, contacting and interacting with the Chinese government, and even collecting commercial intelligence, paying for goods and exchanges of silver dollars, etc.
Jardelphia Foreign Company Building.
In Hong Kong, which was not long ago, the comprador's position was very important. They are the most important people in the Chinese-Japanese trade. They know all the internal information of the trade and make a fortune first.
After the Ho Dong brothers became rich, they also arranged many people in their family to serve as compradors in different positions or in different foreign banks. Compared with Stanley Hong's grandfather Luo Changzhao and uncle Zhang Peijie were assistant compradors of Yardsaw Foreign Company, father He Shiguang and uncle He Shijie were compradors of New Sassoon Foreign Company, uncle He Shirong and He Shijian were compradors of HSBC Bank , uncle He Shiyao and He Shihua were compradors of bank favors, uncle Huang Jinfu was compradors of Hong Kong Kowloon Warehouse, cousin Xie Shiping was compradors of Atlantic Bank, and cousin Xie Jiabao was compradors of Japan Post and Shipbuilding Company.
The entire family formed a network of people like "Jia Wang Shi Xue" in " Dream of Red Mansions ", which firmly controlled the lifeline of Hong Kong's business and economy.
At the same time, the Ho brothers operated different businesses and established several companies, engaged in trade, opium (which was a legal business at the time), sugar, shipping, banking and property real estate and other businesses. The family's wealth continued to expand, and Ho Dong became the richest man in Hong Kong and was later named a jazz.
Ho Hong Kong's grandfather Ho Fu was appointed as a member of the Regular Bureau by the British Hong Kong authorities (similar to today's Legislative Council) between 1913 and 1924. This was the very few Chinese who could participate in politics at that time, and had a very prominent position. His election prompted the further expansion of his family's influence and became the leading prominent family in Hong Kong.
front row from left to right: Ho Fu (Grandpa Ho), Ho Dong, Ho Gantang .
All the glory of this ended in 1932, when Stanley Ho was 11 years old, his grandfather He Fu had passed away for 6 years.
Stanley Ho's uncles were hit by the "Sky Fairy Bureau" and spent all their property to buy the stocks of Jardine Wong Foreign Company. Jardine Wong Foreign Company immediately sold its stocks wildly, and the stock price plummeted. The He brothers failed in speculation and failed miserably.
The consequences of this failure were very tragic. He Shiliang committed suicide by swallowing a gun at home. He Shiyao was mentally broken and was admitted to the hospital for treatment. After being discharged from the hospital, he took sleeping pills and died in hatred. He Shiguang took Stanley Ho's two brothers to Vietnam. Only He Shirong was adopted by Sir He Dong, and He Dong came forward to rescue him.
Stanley Ho once sighed: "It's so miserable! I have changed from a very wealthy family to so poor. Even relatives take a detour when they see us. They always think I am a treasure, and suddenly they think I am an alkaline water plant."
After the father and brother escaped, the mother and the remaining children were left in Hong Kong. Stanley Ho ranked ninth in the family, which shows how difficult it is to maintain a family with so many people.
Mother cried every day, went to pawn shops every day, and lived on pawn jewelry. Her brother was forced to come out to work as a typist at the Pacific Store. The huge changes in the family made Stanley Ho see the coldness of the world.
He finished high school with scholarships and was admitted to the School of Science of the University of Hong Kong in 1939.When the Japanese attacked Hong Kong in the second grade, Stanley Ho was forced to drop out of school and served as a telephone student in the air defense security room.
After the fall of Hong Kong, Macau was a neutral district. He went to Macau to make a living with 10 yuan. This choice opened the door to his future career and became a turning point for his Zhongxing family.
03
At that time, as the only international refuge in southern China, the number of residents in Macau was once as high as 500,000, and the trade demand was unprecedentedly high. Stanley Ho joined the three joint ventures of China, Portugal and Japan, mainly engaged in trade in rice, grain, cotton yarn and tung oil.
Stanley Ho is very diligent. He works during the day and studies Portuguese and Japanese at night. After six months, he can communicate with the people of the Three Kingdoms at the same time and negotiates several big businesses, which is highly valued by the company.
This experience is a brief description, but in fact it is strange and extremely dangerous. While escorting the cargo ship, he was robbed by a robber with a gun, and his clothes were stripped of all his body. He almost became a wronged soul under the gun. He escaped with his clever and calmness.
Stanley Ho's amazing determination and vision in the future had already begun to show his strength and vision at that time.
1943, he found his first pot of gold in his life and received a dividend of 1 million Portuguese coins. This year, he was only 22 years old.
I have to thank his first wife, Li Wanhua, for her first wife, who is also the only original wife with his surname.
Li Wanhua's original name is Clementina. He is a Portuguese woman, 3 years younger than Stanley Ho, and is a Portuguese lawyer C.M. Dr. Leitao's pearl in his hand.
Han Ho family has good genetic genes, and they are all good-looking.Han Ho is even more handsome, tall and extraordinary.
When he was young, Stanley Ho was
while Lai Wanhua was born with bright and beautiful eyes and picturesque eyes. She lives opposite the night school of Stanley Ho studying Portuguese. The handsome man and beautiful woman fell in love at first sight and soon started dating.
1943 The two got married. After marriage, Stanley Ho was promoted from Lianchang's secretary to partner. The bonus of 1 million yuan was obtained because of the change of identity. Otherwise, a "working man" would not have such a high salary.
Relying on Li Wanhua's connections, Stanley Ho entered the circle of the upper-class indigenous Portuguese, greatly expanded his network of contacts, and registered as a resident of Macau.
After having the right time, Stanley Ho began to set up his own business, establish the "Great Beauty Foreign Company", carry out import and export trade, and also established a shipping company to purchase a modern ship with a passenger capacity of 300 people, and operate passenger transport between Hong Kong and Macau.
Han Ho cooperated with the old gambling king Fu Laorong to open a kerosene refinery, which was very prosperous, but soon attracted jealousy from the black forces. After using the money to settle it for a while, the black forces still threatened to put him to death, and had no choice but to end the business in Macau and return to Hong Kong.
Stanley Ho is a natural businessman who is good at borrowing chickens to lay eggs. He uses bank funds to invest in real estate in Hong Kong, and his wealth has increased a little. But he is credible, pays back money quickly, never defaults on owes, and has a good reputation for business, which laid a good foundation for him to enter the Macau gambling industry in the future.
At the age of 37, he had already made ten million yuan in wealth, and in 1958, it was a huge astronomical figure.
New opportunities have come again. In the late 1950s, the Macau gaming franchise held by Taixing Company had been around for nearly 25 years, and it had to be re-bidged when the franchise expired in December 1961.
Stanley Ho took a fancy to this ancient and huge market, returned to Macau, and brought his classmates at Huangren Academy, Ho Ying-tung to participate in the bidding, and successfully seized the franchise of Macau's gambling industry.
Stanley Ho officially signed a gambling franchise contract with the new Macau Governor Luo Bixin on March 30, 1962. The era of the gambling king has officially begun.
gambling business is very profitable, but the various religions and the mixed feelings of dragons and snakes. In addition, Stanley Ho touched someone else's cake, and there were many obstacles before opening. Some people in the local area said that they would take Stanley Ho's life and shut down all hotels, so that Hong Kong gambling tourists would be trampled on the streets.
these Stanley Ho has been through it. Not only has the casino career been booming, but he also cleaned up the portals internally. After Ye Han abdicated in 1975, he officially ascended the throne of the gambling king.
Under the years of hard work of Stanley Ho, "Australia Entertainment" has emerged a new development pattern. In addition to Hong Kong and Macau, Stanley Ho is investing in many countries, including Vietnam, North Korea, the Philippines, Portugal, etc.
In addition to the gambling industry, its industries also involve real estate, construction, shipping, investment and other fields. Its subsidiaries include: Macau Gaming Holdings Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Melco International Group, Hong Kong Xinde Group Co., Ltd., Macau International Airport Specialty Company, Ace International, Macau Chengxing Bank, etc.
By 2011, his assets controlled reached HK$500 billion and his personal wealth was HK$70 billion, ranking 13th on the Forbes ranking.
04
For so many years, we seem to be only concerned with gossiping the four wife of the gambling king's family, and taking stock of the palace fighting scenes and romantic news between his children, but ignore that the gambling king himself is a very excellent businessman and entrepreneur.
The path he has taken in his life witnessed the development history of Hong Kong and Macau, and has condensed the imprint of several eras in him.
His ancestors were Western speculators who came to the East to explore. They accidentally left their blood here and gave birth to a "rootless generation" that was discriminated against. However, these children took root and broke out their own world in the cracks between Chinese and Western cultures.
grew up in the turmoil of his family from prosperity to decline, and was indomitable in adversity, turning sadness into strength, working diligently, never slackening, and eventually revitalizing the family and continuing the cause of his ancestors.
1981, Huang Zhen opened a column "Counting the Storm" in the newspaper. The first person interviewed was Stanley Ho. Huang Zhen said that he was the most humane among the storm figures in Hong Kong.
"He is approachable and funny," he can say something to the vendor, "Call me Stanley."
In the interview, he summarized his secrets of success to Huang Zheng:
1. Be diligent;
2. Be a personal touch (personal style), follow everything, follow it to very close;
3. Be sure to have a good team;
4. Be successful in being a businessman, count it well;
5. Be honest, don't think others are stupid, have come and go, and don't drag others down.
Looking at his life, he has indeed achieved the above five points. He is smart but diligent, loves money and values affection. Knowing how to use the power to fight will also leave room for others.
He has an open-minded personality and is a clear person. He opens a casino himself, but never gambles. He publicly says that no matter the loser and the winner, he is making money for the casino.
As a famous patriotic businessman, he has invested many times to purchase lost overseas cultural relics, handed over to the country, and is also enthusiastic about public welfare and promoting Macau culture.
He was a typical late Qing man, "loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, respect for righteousness, willing to help others, and have an outdoor room at home." His family is a living sample of abnormal marriage relationships under the existing old feudal system. In addition to amazing people today, they should also consider the special era background of his growth.
Huang Zheng commented that he was able to become a leader in the gambling kingdom, and there were many outstanding things. "Extreme courage and determination, rich but not arrogant, rich but not full" . Looking at the present, how many people can afford these sixteen words?
People are the product of society and the product of the times. A era has passed, swept away some people, and also allowed others to gather in another place to interpret other stories.
The story of the gambling king came to an end completely, and the He family under his control will also be divided. Maybe they will have their own stories in the future, but there are only not many such exciting ones.
