Edmund Ho’s mother dies at 93

Ho Chan Keng, the wife of Ho Yin and the mother of Macau’s first Chief Executive Edmund Ho, has died at the age of 93 after a prolonged illness.
She passed away late on Thursday night at Kiang Wu Hospital, according to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Once a famous Chinese opera singer, Ho Chan Keng was also the wife of deceased Macau leader Ho Yin, who previously served as the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Ho Yin was responsible for establishing Banco Tai Fung, which initially functioned as a bureau de change. He had travelled to Macau from Hong Kong and before that, Guangdong Province in mainland China, while fleeing the Japanese invasion of the Second World War.
He rose to power in Macau in the early 1950s after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, due to his ability to forge consensus between different and often competing interest groups. Ho’s diplomacy was instrumental in bringing the Chinese communists, the right-wing authoritarian regime in Lisbon and Macau’s various triad gangs to the table.
With his reputation as a problem-solver, Ho Yin rose to numerous positions of power. He was a member of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the vice president of Macau’s legislature and the chairman of around 200 companies and community organizations.
Ho Yin died in Macau in 1983 aged 75, leaving the family business to his son Edmund, who later became Macau’s first Chief Executive. DB