Between the lines
When it comes to a new venture, Paul Yip goes by the book. 'The one thing that links all the changes in my life is reading,' said the chairman of the Renful Group whose business spans computers, telecommunications, security, hotels, tourism and real estate.
For example, Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave and others on the information age prompted him to quit teaching and go into the computer business because he saw it as the way of the future.
Educated at Heung To School, dubbed a patriotic school because of its close ties with Beijing, and Baptist College, Mr Yip devours 60 to 70 books a year.
Reading was how he learned and extracted himself from the mould of Maoism, which dominated the early part of his life for 20 years, he said.
There was a time he read numerous Chinese communists' accounts of their struggle against the Nationalists in the 1920s and 1930s.
'I purposely sought out books expounding the Nationalists' side of the story to balance my view.' As a graduate of a patriotic school, Mr Yip saw no future in a teaching career because the Government then would not even allow him to enrol in a college of education to receive proper training.
'I was daring enough to make a bet on my life,' he said.
'I sold my flat to go into business.'
