Name Tung Yung | Died April 15, 1982, Hong Kong | |
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Born 1912 ( 1912 ) Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China (current Zhoushan) Occupation Founder of Orient Overseas Container Line Children Tung Chee-hwa, Tung Chee-chen, Tung Chee Ping, Tung Yi-ping, Tung Siu-ping Grandchildren Audrey Slighton Tung Lieh-yuan People also search for Tung Chee-hwa, Tung Chee-chen | ||
Tung Chao Yung (traditional Chinese: 董兆榮; simplified Chinese: 董兆荣; pinyin: Dōng Zhàoróng) better known as 董浩雲, Chinese: 董浩云; pinyin: Dōng Hàoyún, born 18th of the eighth lunar month in 1912 (28 September); died 15 April 1982), also known as C. Y. Tung, was a Chinese shipping magnate, the founder of the Orient Overseas Line (now Orient Overseas Container Line or OOCL). He was the father of Tung Chee Hwa, the first chief executive of the Hong Kong S.A.R..
At the peak of his career, he owned a shipping fleet with over 150 freight ships; his fleet's cargo capacity exceeded 10 million tons. He was one of the world's top seven freight moguls; he was often called the Onassis of the Orient.
Tung believed in the importance of education. In September 1970, he bought the famous ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth to convert it into a floating university S.S. Seawise University to keep the World Campus Afloat program alive. On 9 January 1972, the ship caught on fire during refurbishing and sank into Hong Kong's harbour. The wreckage of the ship was featured in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun. He did not give up the plan because of this setback. He bought a smaller ocean liner Atlantic to complete the plan. He cooperated with various universities (e.g. University of Pittsburgh) to run the academic sea programme with the Institute of Shipboard Education entitled Semester at Sea.
Politically Tung was aligned with Kuomintang regime of the Republic of China on Taiwan; indeed the company emblem of the OOCL is a plum blossom, the national flower of the Republic of China. However, when the OOCL experienced financial trouble after his death the government of the People's Republic of China rescued the company. This paved the way for C.Y.Tung's son, Tung Chee Hwa, to become the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China in 1997.