CELEBRATING
A LIFE WELL LIVED.
In Loving Memory of...

by Mary Man Yee Fung

 

Fung Yee Wang was born on 5 August 1935 (the 7th day of the 7th month according to the lunar calendar) in an apartment in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, his place of origin being Jiujiang city, Nanhai District. The youngest of his twenty siblings, he was brought up by his third and sixth stepmothers after his birth mother passed away when he was one year old. His father was doing business in Mexico, and moved to Hong Kong because of the war, with the result that the family fortunes declined. From 1939 to 1946, his family took refuge in Saigon (the present Ho Chi Minh City). He studied at the Primary School affiliated to Tak Ming Secondary School, followed by the Diocesan Boys’ School and the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong.

 

When he was in Form 3, he joined the Hok Yau Club Choir and then the Language Class taught by Szeto Wah, where he met Au Wing Sang and Yau Shun Chiu. After entering the University of Hong Kong, he gradually withdrew from the Hok Yau Club.

 

While at the University, he lent a helping hand in organising activities of the Chinese Society, such as the summer camp and the performance of the play ‘The Song of Everlasting Sorrow’ and formed the University of Hong Kong Chess Club. In his Second Year he was elected Sports Master of the male team of St. John’s College Students’ Association and founded the Astronomy Club. In the summer of 1959, he took part in the performance of the play ‘The Legend of Yang E’. In September of the same year, he accompanied his sixth stepmother on her trip to Canton to visit their relatives. In the Fourth year of his tertiary education, in his Diploma of Education class he studied teaching methods in geography, Chinese and mathematics, and had his teaching practice in St. Paul Boys’ College. For a brief period he served as a substitute teacher in Chi Lin Buddhist Free School, and taught at his alma mater – Diocesan Boys’ School in 1961–64 and 1966–68. While at DBS he launched a newspaper for students called Olympus in 1964. In the meantime, he completed his M.A. in Education.

 

He travelled extensively during that period, having visited Honshu in July 1965 with the delegation organised by the Students’ Union of the University of Hong Kong. In October the following year, he represented Hong Kong in the 17th Chess Olympiad in Havana, Cuba. For a nearer destination, he visited Taiwan for three weeks in the summer of 1967 with the Geographical Society of the University of Hong Kong, and took time off to see relatives there.

 

On August 19, 1968 he took up his appointment as the Warden of Old Halls at the University of Hong Kong and ten years later, joined The Chinese University as Lecturer in Education. On 10 December 1969 he married Mary Man Yee Cheung at the City Hall of Hong Kong. In September of the following year he was invited to attend an international conference on the theme of lifelong learning in Belgrade.

 

As far as family life is concerned, his daughter Tanya was born in 1971, followed by Winnie in 1975. In the academic year 1972–73 he and Mary spent their study leave in the University of London, during which he was commissioned by Ling Kee to compile a world atlas for secondary schools in Hong Kong. After returning to Hong Kong, he joined a tour to China with Mary. In 1976, he went to England again to study for one semester, but unfortunately, in May, his skin became so itchy that he had to leave the country, and later withdrew his candidature.

 

His health remained a problem – his sense of smell and taste gradually deteriorated. It improved a little after acupuncture treatment but did not remain stable, much to the dismay of this gourmet.

 

Mary was on study leave in 1979. After visiting the University of Wisconsin for one semester, she was on her way to Toronto. Yee Wang, taking their two daughters, flew to Los Angeles to meet up with her to go to Toronto together. While in Toronto, they stayed with Mary’s elder brother. Mary would go to the University of Toronto Library to do research while Yee Wang would be responsible for taking and picking up their two daughters to and from the Mini School there. They returned to Hong Kong in July of the same year. Yee Wang joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong as Lecturer in Education on teaching method in geography in September and the family settled down in a flat on Babington Path until the summer of 1987, when they moved to the scenic Marina Cove in Sai Kung. From 1984 he served as Adviser to the Hong Kong Extra-curricular Activities Co-ordinators’ Association. In 1991 he became Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Chinese University

of Hong Kong until his retirement in 1994.

 

In July he moved, with his family, to Halifax in Canada and settled down in a house facing the sea on the scenic Ridgewood Drive. As soon as they moved in, Mary flew to Warwick in England for the defence of her thesis and was subsequently awarded doctorate in Translation Studies. In order to satisfy immigration requirements, he operated a coffee shop for eight months and also helped run the Chinese Society of Nova Scotia. On June 30, 1997 he watched the handover of Hong Kong with friends by using his newly installed satellite dish.

 

In February 1998 he received an open-heart surgery to replace his mitral valve in the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital and stayed in the Shatin Regal Riverside Hotel until the end of March. He moved back to Hong Kong in September 2000, and starting from October worked three days a week as Administrative Coordinator at the Centre for University and School Partnership of the Faculty of Education, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

 

In 2001 he was happy to take three tours, but there was one mishap. On 2 September he fell down when stepping on a swivel chair to fetch a book and broke three ribs, his lungs filled with blood. He was hospitalised until the 11th. On 18 September of the following year he had a stroke, causing impairment in his left hand and foot. After receiving treatment by the occupational and physiotherapists, he was discharged on 22 October. Having retired from the Chinese University for a second time, he flew with Mary in June 2003 to North America to visit their children and relatives. He moved with his family to Pokfulam Gardens after returning to Hong Kong. To implement his plan of residing in Canada, he went to Vancouver to look for a flat in June 2005. Unfortunately, he stepped on a big dog lying in the living room of a friend and fell down, causing him to bleed profusely. After recuperating for a month, he returned to Hong Kong and decided to stay put there. So, he and his family made their home in Pokfulam Gardens by merging two flats, before moving to Tanner Hill in 2017, and have lived there until the present.

 

His publications include papers (over sixty in Chinese and over twenty in English) and a dozen books on education, extra-curricular activities, map-reading and chess.

 

All his life, he had a deep love for his country, concern for society and enjoyed making friends. He lived a caring and fulfilling life, and will be remembered by his friends and those whose lives he had touched.