Li family gets together to lay patriarch to rest

ONE of Hong Kong's most influential and colourful families is gathering today to prepare for the funeral tomorrow of patriarch Li Fook-shu.

Li, 79, died from heart failure last Sunday, after spending two years in hospital with heart disease. Many members of his family had spent the afternoon with him.

The Li clan includes distinguished doctors and some of the territory's most eminent legal professionals as well as the disgraced former head of the stock exchange.

Li's widow, Daisy Woo Tze-ha, is the director of the Hong Kong Red Cross and the Young Women's Christian Association and has been a tireless worker for community causes. She encouraged three of the couple's four children to pursue medical careers.

'The Lis are the last truly aristocratic family in Hong Kong,' said journalist Frank Ching, who is writing a book about the family. 'A history of the Li family is a history of Hong Kong.' Patriarch, Li Fook-shu, known as 'F.S.', was the first Hong Kong Chinese to qualify as a chartered accountant. He set up his own firm F.S. Li and company and went on to become an urban councillor, legislator and executive councillor. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1961 and awarded an OBE in 1963.

'He played a very important role during the Cultural Revolution,' said Ching. 'His name was on a death list because he was so critical of the Chinese authorities.' Li Fook-shu's younger brother, former appeal court judge and preliminary working committee member Simon Li Fook-sean, 72, will assume the family mantle.