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Oliver Chou

There is no better way to flash the city’s can-do spirit than launching a business start-up at the age of 90.
Lam Leung-tim, a veteran toy industrialist with many accolades under his belt since launching his famous yellow rubber ducks nearly 70 years ago, was eager to prove a few things by founding Funderful Creations in 2014.
“I want to prove at my age I can still launch a new business undertaking and run it with my own hands,” Lam, who turns 93 on Thursday, told the Post.
“My business philosophy has always been the Cantonese saying, take down a big tree with a small knife, which means using minimal resource to get maximum result.”
Toy story: how tycoon Lam Leung-tim built his empire
Born in Hong Kong in 1924, the nonagenarian recalled he made HK$60 a month shortly after the war when he returned to the city from his home village in Nanhai to work for a newspaper vendor in Central.
“It is with these two hands I got my children and grandchildren their residences now in Stanley and Jardine’s Lookout, and I want them to know I can still do it,” he said, raising his hands.
His eldest son, Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, a member of the executive and legislative councils, has succeeded his father to run Forward Winsome Industries, which the senior Lam founded in 1960. Some of its products, such as G.I. Joe and Transformers, sold like hot cakes.
But nothing meant more than a set of yellow ducks Lam launched in Hong Kong in 1948 and for which he opened a plant in Guangzhou a year later.
“Hong Kong was then grim and I thought my ducks would bring some colour to it,” he recalled.
I can’t stand the young generations who are not focusing and get distracted by things such as politics
Lam Leung-tim, industrialist and start-up founder
The original design featured a family of four ducklings “born under the Lion Rock”, with mama duck leading her twin boys and a girl, “walking through the streets in post-war Hong Kong”.
Some 60 years later, the old man had not forgotten about the ducks and decided to revive the original family of four with a new perspective for the city as much as his family and even China.
“I can’t stand the young generations who are not focusing and get distracted by things such as politics,” he said. “Success comes only to those who give their full devotion, and that’s what I want to show with my ducks.”
Instead of relying on his old business, Lam decided to go for a new start-up in 2014 and obtained an official trademark for the ducks a year later.
“My family showed little interest at first, but in time they will,” he said.
From publicity to licensing talks, Lam was the lone crusader of what he believed would promote harmony and can-do spirit.
“I ran into Li Ka-shing last year and he asked what I was doing these days. I told him I was promoting my little ducks, and he said he saw it,” he laughed, referring to the tycoon he has known since the late 1940s.
Last December the ducks made headlines when 4,000 of them were found in a pool at Morse Park at an event officiated by then chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong under China’s sovereignty.
Early this month, a five-metre duck stood at a major intellectual property conference in Shanghai after appearing at Pudong Airport in February. Talks are under way for mainland parties to buy branding rights from Lam.
“My China dream began in 1976 with my first visit since the early 1950s, but it was in very bad shape due to the Cultural Revolution,” he said, recalling how his mainland workforce increased from 25 in 1979 to 18,000 just 10 years later.
“As a first plastic toy in China, my ducks are a part of my dream come true too.”


Rubber ducks and start-ups: Hong Kong tycoon game for new challenge at the age of 93

“My ducks are a part of my dream come true,” says veteran toy industrialist Lam Leung-tim. Photo: Nora Tam

Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, newly appointed Executive Council member, poses for photographer at Legislaive Council Building in Tamar. 26OCT12

Hong Kong veteran toy industrialist Lam Leung-tim poses with his 1948 invention rubber duck toy, at his offices at Eltee Building in Chai Wan. 23MAR17 SCMP / Nora Tam

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Lam Leung-tim explains why he launched a start-up and how he is driven to promote harmony and the city’s can-do spirit


Rubber ducks and start-ups: Hong Kong tycoon game for new challenge at the age of 93

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lam Leung-tim explains why he launched a start-up and how he is driven to promote harmony and the city’s can-do spirit

Lam Leung-tim explains why he launched a start-up and how he is driven to promote harmony and the city’s can-do spirit