Pioneering Paulines

Yau Fu Hong was born in Meixian (Mei-hsien). His family were Hakka merchants (the Hioe family) who made their fortune in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia); Yau’s childhood was spent between Batavia (now Jakarta) and Shantou (Swatow). As the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Yau moved to Hong Kong, enrolling in St. Paul’s College. He graduated in 1940. After Hong Kong fell, Yau returned to his birthplace (which remained under Chinese control), where he entered teaching and trading. Yau went back to Hong Kong after the war and assisted the family business, Yoeng Nam Hien, later becoming the company’s general manager. Yau had also founded Vanson Enterprises and Proud Luck Development, involving himself in the import-export trade across Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Indonesia, and property development in Europe and America.

In 1968, Yau joined the Fung Ying Seen Koon, a Taoist temple in Fanling. He served as the temple’s chairman from 1984 to 1990, during which he expanded upon the family tradition of philanthropy by building kindergartens, study facilities, elderly centres, and so on; he was further named the temple’s eternal chairman in 1992, and he was chairman of the Hong Kong Taoist Association from 2003 to 2004. He served as a Hong Kong Affairs Adviser to Beijing between 1995 and 1997 and as an HKSAR election committee member from 1996 until his death.

丘福雄生於廣東梅縣，家族爲客家商人，在荷屬東印度（今印尼）營商。丘氏幼居巴達維亞（今雅加達）及汕頭，抗戰爆發移居香港，入讀聖保羅書院，於一九四〇年畢業。香港淪陷期間，丘氏返鄕敎書、經商。及後日本投降，丘氏返港輔助家族事業榮南興，後任董事總經理。後來又創萬順企業、柏樂發展，經營港、臺、印尼、歐、美業務，從事貿易及地產業。

一九六八年，丘氏皈依粉嶺蓬瀛仙館學道，於一九八四至九〇年間任館長，期間擴大仙館慈善事業，成立幼稚園、自修室、老人服務中心等，貫徹家族既往敎育慈善事業，一九九二年更被推仙館永遠館長。一九九五年，丘氏獲聘港事顧問，助香港平安回歸，一九九六年獲選香港特區第一屆政府推選委員，二〇〇三年任香港道敎聯合會會長，二〇〇四年仙逝。