William Mong Man-wai, philanthropist and founder of Shun Hing Group who was known as the 'king of rice cookers', died yesterday at the age of 82 at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.
Mong had been in hospital for several months, and his family was present when he passed away. The group said it would announce details of the funeral later.
Mong, called the 'king of electric appliances' or the 'king of electric rice cookers' because of his pioneering introduction of Japanese appliances to Hong Kong after the second world war, was born in Hong Kong on November 7 1927, to a Japan-born Chinese. His father worked in the Hong Kong branch of Mitsubishi before he opened a shop called Yue Shun Cheung with his two brothers, selling electric appliances, construction material and food additives.
Mong went to La Salle College and was admitted to the then Tsinghua College in Beijing to study aviation engineering, but was forced to leave because of the civil war.
In 1949 his father sent him to study in Japan for two years. He returned to Hong Kong and founded Shun Wo Company in 1952, mainly importing ceramics. On August 15 1953, Mong used HK$30,000 to set up Shun Hing Hong. As his father had business connections with Panasonic, he started importing Japanese-made goods.
He married Serena Yang Hsueh-chi in 1958 and they had three sons and three daughters. The couple divorced in 2002 and had a legal dispute over HK$4.6 billion of family assets, but later settled out of court.