Hong Kong Ballet's Daisy Ho takes the leap for fundraiser
Despite having no formal training, the Hong Kong Ballet's chairwoman is performing at a society ball this week in an effort to secure sponsors. Fionnuala McHugh learns about Daisy Ho’s fundraising plans
Once upon a time, in 1960s Hong Kong, there was a little girl called Daisy. She had an older sister, called Pansy, and a younger sister, called Maisy (and in the following decade, she’d have another sister, called Josie, and a brother, called Lawrence). Daisy liked ballet. When she was five, she began taking classes. After a while, her mother, being a good Hong Kong parent, told her to concentrate on her schoolwork. Which she did; even at that age, she was a focused little girl.
On Friday, Daisy Ho Chiu-fung will finally dance for her public. It’s unlikely that her parents – Stanley Ho Hung-sun, 91-year-old chairman of the Shun Tak Group, and Lucina Laam King-ying – will be present but the audience will consist of 300 members of Hong Kong high society.
She will not be performing a solo; the corps of this particular ballet will be the five members of the Ballet Ball’s gala committee, none of whom has had formal ballet training. The idea, which was Ho’s, is to solicit sponsorship.
Ho, who joined the board in 2008, is not just some tai-tai whiling away the hours. Her day job is deputy managing director and chief financial officer of Shun Tak Group. She and Maisy are also executive directors of Shun Tak Holdings, of which Pansy is managing director; it’s as if the three little Fossil girls in Ballet Shoes were recast in a corporate Hong Kong version of the novel.
Why take on more responsibility?