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In Memory of
Sir Joseph E Hotung 何鴻卿 (1930-2021)
Dear friends, With the year 2021 soon coming to a close, we would like to thank you for your continuing support and engagement in our activities, and wish you a peaceful, safe, and happy holiday season. We hope to see more of you in 2022, as we continue to adapt to difficult conditions to bring you interesting events, both online and in person. Though we are saddened to have to report at this time that Sir Joseph Edward Hotung, businessman, philanthropist, and collector, passed away on 16th December in London at the age of 91; we also take this opportunity to celebrate him for a life well-lived. Knighted and recognized for his philanthropy to major institutions around the globe, he may be remembered most by our members for his enthusiasm for Chinese antiquities. Art was more than a personal passion for Sir Joseph. He saw "education in the arts as the key to personal growth and to opening doors to a broader and more sensitive perception of one's whole environment," an experience he clearly worked to make available to others. Sir Joseph called himself a “devotee” of Chinese jades, which he called “fine objects of spirit and character,” embodying not just a taste for beauty, but the values of Chinese civilization. No student of Chinese jades could miss knowing about the exceptional Joseph Hotung jade collection on exhibition at the British Museum and the basis for Chinese Jade – from the Neolithic to the Qing by Jessica Rawson, a study which became the “bible” on Chinese jades for a generation. More of his connoisseurship can be found in the collection of jades he donated to the Shanghai Museum, in display in the Joseph E Hotung Gallery of Chinese Jades. In Hong Kong, he made possible a unique exhibition of jade animals spanning 7000 years of Chinese history, gathered from local private collectors as well as the British Museum and Freer-Sackler Galleries. A trustee of the British Museum, Sir Joseph also supported the building of the gallery of Asian art that bears his name, first opened in 1992 and refurbished in 2017, with the Queen and Sir Joseph in attendance at both openings. The gallery that houses the Sir Percival David collection of ceramics was also made possible by his largesse. He has supported and served on the boards and councils of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Freer Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute, SOAS, the University of Hong Kong and too many other institutions to list in full here. He was knighted in 1993 and won numerous awards and honorary degrees for his contribution to arts and education. Born in Shanghai in 1930, Sir Joseph was the son of Edward Hotung and the grandson of Sir Robert Hotung. His early education was at the St Louis College in Tientsin, after which he studied for a year at the University of Hong Kong, obtained a university degree in economics from the Catholic University of America and years later an LLB from the University of London. Sir Joseph returned to Hong Kong after the deaths of both his father and grandfather only a year apart, and by the 1960’s had started his own business in property development. He quickly became prominent in the fields of finance and property investment, serving on the boards of multiple listed companies, including HSBC and HK Electric Holdings. Sir Joseph was also active in public service, serving on boards such as the Inland Revenue Board of Review and the Judicial Services Commission as well as being the first Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, to which he dedicated time, energy and financial support. After a lifetime of philanthropy, Sir Joseph Hotung’s lasting impact is felt in institutions across the globe, a recent gift being a donation to Imperial College for research on a vaccine against Covid-19. The OCS of Hong Kong is honoured to have once included this gentleman among our membership and on our executive committee, as a fellow collector and student of Chinese antiquities, and as a friend.
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