Media

Speaker/Author:  Prof. Anna Sohmen Pao
Moderator:  Mr Peter Sidorko (Librarian – HKU Libraries)
Date:   3 Oct. 2013 (Thursday)
Time:  7:15 - 9:00 pm
Venue:  Special Collections, 1/F, Main Library, HKU
Language:   English
Registration: http://lib.hku.hk/friends/reading_club/bt2013_04.html

About the Speaker/Author

Alongside a successful business career, Professor Anna Sohmen has devoted herself to education and the promotion of culture and the Arts. She helped develop the Chinese International School in Hong Kong in 1982, one of the first schools in Hong Kong to offer a dual language curriculum in Putonghua and English. In 2007, to commemorate 10th year of the return of Hong Kong to China, she has established a bi-lingual Chinese School in Shanghai, named after her late father, Sir YK Pao. YK Pao School (YKPS) is a non-profit Year 1-12 school and together with her youngest son, Philip Sohmen, has pioneered in unchartered waters in education in China.  In seventh years, YKPS has grown to 900 students.  This year (2013), YKPS started the third year of secondary school which is boarding. Professor Sohmen Pao was appointed by the Hong Kong Chief Executive as Chairman of the Hong Kong Academy for performing Arts. During her terms, she helped built the Film School, the Centre for Chinese Opera and a masters program at APA (now with Six Schools). Her current and former positions include:

1. Chairman of YK Pao School(Shanghai)
2.  Director, World Wide Shipping Limited (the family business, now BW Shipping run by her husband Helmut Sohmen and son Andreas Sohmen Pao)
3. Member of National CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference)
4. Standing committee member of Zhejiang CPPCC and Heilongjiang CPPCC
5. Honorary Chairman, The Chinese Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong
6. Former Trustee, Royal Opera House, UK
7. Chairman, Sino-British Scholarship Scheme

In Hong Kong, she has been involved with SME’s service, including committees in town planning, cutting government red tape, environmental issues in business and development of arts.  She has been a trail blazer in conserving heritage buildings, like the 19th Century French church in Hong Kong, founding of an old people’s home in housing estates and liver donation program.

About the Book

Sir Y.K. Pao, rose from modest origins to become, by the mid-1970s, the world's largest private shipowner. His Hong Kong-based company World-Wide Shipping diversified into property, hotels, retail, media, telecommunications, airlines and banking--a hugely influential business empire at a time of rapid regional growth. A philanthropist with extensive international connections, Pao became an unofficial Chinese ambassador at large, forging a strong relationship with the architect of China's reform, Deng Xiaoping, at the dawn of China's economic transformation and during the discussions about Hong Kong's future.

Anna Pao Sohmen was at her father's side during important events and key meetings with leaders around the world. In this affectionate yet unsentimental account, she recounts the pivotal role played by her father at a key historical juncture and the balance he struck between Chinese and British allegiance, between business and politics, and between capitalism and socialism.

Media Contact:  Mr. Gary Chin, Tel: 2859 2211 / Ms. Marina Yeung, Tel: 2859 8903