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Jerrie Lo

Traditionally, starting a family might be considered a cause for belt-tightening and financial fastidiousness, but can you imagine actually making millions by rearing a child? That’s the strange reality for some in modern Chinese culture.
To encourage newlywed couples to have children, wealthy families in Hong Kong and East Asia often use cash, diamonds and even mansions as incentives to encourage the sprouting of a new family branch – and an extension of the family name.
Which Hong Kong TV and Canto-pop stars used to be national athletes?
Of course, there are some golden rules to keep in mind. For example, the gender (with greater payouts for a preferred male heir …) and the total number of children might also determine how generous the gifts might be. Another general rule? The more the merrier!
Meet four fortunate couples who received the most expensive “push presents” from Hong Kong tycoons simply for having a child.
Mario Ho and Ming Xi

In 2019, casino king (and Bruce Lee’s cousin!) Stanley Ho’s son, Mario, tied the knot with Chinese model Ming Xi. Months later, the couple gave birth to a boy – marking the Hong Kong tycoon’s first male grandchild.

In traditional Chinese families, a birth is usually celebrated even more if the baby is male, indicating an heir to the throne – so it was surely a very happy day for the Hos.

The proof? In 2020, Mario’s mother, Leong On-Kei, gifted the couple a HK$500 million (US$64 million) luxury home in Hong Kong’s Island View estate in Deep Water Bay as a “reward”, according to a report by Ming Pao newspaper.
Meet the 5 women competing for the title of China’s richest woman
Jacky Heung and Bea Hayden

Hong Kong actor Jacky Heung and Taiwanese actress Bea Hayden welcomed their first daughter during Mid-Autumn Festival in 2020. To celebrate the special occasion, crazy rich grandma Tiffany Chen bought a HK$170 million (US$22 million) sprawling mansion for the couple, reported China Times, spreading over nearly 5,000 sq ft (449 square metres) in Taipei’s Xinyi District.

Chen even showed off a few pictures of the flat’s minimally designed interior, swimming pool and big balcony on Weibo.
Kenneth Fok and Guo Jingjing

After having one of the most expensive weddings in Hong Kong, we are not super surprised that China’s four-time Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing and her husband, Hong Kong businessman Kenneth Fok, also got one of the biggest push presents.

The couple was gifted a HK$160 million (US$21 million) three-storey house at Beach Road in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong, by Fok’s tycoon father Timothy Fok after the birth of their third child in 2019, according to HK01.
5 Hong Kong stars who opened up about their mental health struggles
Lee Ka-shing and Cathy Chui

Of all the famous mums on this list, we’re perhaps most envious of the fabulous Cathy Chui, aka the TVB actress-turned-“hundred billion daughter-in-law”. Hong Kong business magnate Lee Shau-kee bought a plot of land at a record high price of HK$1.82 billion (US$230 million), reported HKCD, and used it to build three mansions as a gesture to celebrate the couple’s fourth child (you guessed it – a boy).
On top of that, Oriental Daily News also reported that Chui received big red packets for every baby born … and a HK$100 million (US$13 million) luxury yacht.
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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Crazy rich Asian ‘push presents’: Guo Jingjing and Kenneth Fok got a lavish multimillion-dollar mansion, plus 3 more OTT gifts wealthy Hong Kong families gifted couples just for giving birth

Mario Ho and Ming Xi, and Jacky Heung and Bea Hayden, are two couples who received some extravagant ‘push presents’ for having children. Photo: Mario Ho; Tiffany Chen/ Weibo

Mario Ho, son of tycoon Stanley Ho, and his supermodel wife Ming Xi. Photo: Weibo

Ming Xi gave birth to a son in 2019 Photo: @mingxi11/Instagram

Island View estate at Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong. Photo: HK. Centanet

A most prosperous couple: Jacky Heung and Bea Hayden. Photo: @heungjacky/Instagram

Inside Jacky Heung and Bea Hayden’s luxury Taipei home. Photo: Weibo

Kenneth Fok and Guo Jingjing back in 2014. Photo: SCMP Archive

Kenneth Fok and Guo Jing Jing’s house in Repulse Bay. Photo: Google Maps

Lee Ka-shing, Cathy Chui and Lee Shau-kee. Photo: @cathy_chui_official/Instagram

Old Hong Kong’s 50-year-old shipwreck: how the world’s largest boat, Britain’s RMS Queen Elizabeth, sank on the seabed of Victoria Harbour – and it’s still there!

The Seawise University cruise liner, formerly known as the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, sails across Victoria Harbour, before sinking suddenly in 1972. Photo: SCMP Archive

A postcard showing the only time all three of the world’s largest ocean liners were ever berthed together, in New York in 1940. Photo: Handout

Queen Elizabeth, painted in wartime grey, having just transported troops to the Middle East in 1942. Photo: Handout

Governor Sir David Trench (left) visited Seawise University and was introduced to Commodore William Hsuen by Tung Chao-yung (middle). Photo: SCMP

The Seawise University cruise liner, formerly known as the RMS Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, sailed across Victoria Harbour in 1971. Photo: SCMP

This aerial picture shows the Seawise University cruise liner, surrounded by fireboats, burning furiously at her anchorage. Photo: SCMP

Workmen breaking up the bow section of the proposed Seawise University, which was gutted and sunk in a disastrous fire on January 9, 1972. Photo: SCMP

From David Bowie to Bruno Mars, old Hong Kong’s tailors made suits for them all – even Giorgio Armani paid a visit to Sam’s Tailor in Tsim Sha Tsui

Tailoring to the tycoons (and everyone else), Hong Kong’s old tailors were sewn into the city’s fabric, as evidenced by this shot of shipping magnate Dr Stanley Ho being presented with an elegant worsted three-piece suit by Austin Reed, a British tailor, in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Sailors and other expatriates having suits and shirts made in a tailor shop in Hong Kong in April 1970. Photo: SCMP Archive

An open tailor shop at The State Theatre shopping centre in North Point, Hong Kong, in October 2020. Photo: SCMP

From left, Mark Cho and Alan See, founders of The Armoury and Drop93. Photo: Handout

Sam’s Tailor boss Manu Melwani made this blazer jacket with a special lining for George Bush senior at his request. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong tailor Raymond Lun at his boutique in Causeway Bay, from the book The Other Hundred Entrepreneurs. Photo: Leo Kwok

The Peak Tram, an old Hong Kong icon: taking millions of tourists a year to Victoria Peak, what can we expect from its sixth and latest upgrade since opening in 1888?

Hong Kong’s famous Peak Tram closes on June 28 for six months to allow the replacement of track and cabling and the introduction of new, larger carriages. Photo: Sun Yeung

The Peak Tram will suspend services from June 28, 2021, for six months as it is scheduled for an upgrade of its facilities. Photo: Nora Tam

A scanned image from a lantern slide showing the Peak Tram. Photo: Peter Zheutlin

Hong Kong’s venerable Peak Tram is a funicular railway that has been in operation since 1888. Photo: SCMP

Detail of the seats inside a carriage of the Peak Tram. Photo: Sam Tsang

Peak Tram, Hong Kong Island, in November 2019. Photo: Martin Williams

American screen legend Clark Gable boards a Peak Tram at the Barker Road stop during the filming of Soldier of Fortune in November 1954. Photo: SCMP

What was Nathan Road like in old Hong Kong? Bruce Lee’s former address and current home of The Peninsula hotel – the history behind the iconic shopping street and tourist hotspot

Neon signs and street lights glow above a busy night scene along Nathan Road in the crowded Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Getty Images

Exterior view of 190 Nathan Road, a Grade 3 Heritage Building in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: SCMP

The junction of Nathan Road and Gascoigne Road in 1950; on the left is the Alhambra Theatre. Photo: SCMP

St. Andrew’s Church on Nathan Road photographed in August 1966. Photo: SCMP

Bruce Lee and the Shamrock Hotel in the 1950s. Shamrock Hotel, which opened in 1952, is at 223 Nathan Road and was opposite to Bruce Lee’s residence (2/F, 218 Nathan Road) in the 1950s. The rooftop restaurant of the Shamrock was a popular place for Lee’s family to enjoy their tea. Photo: Hong Kong Heritages Facebook

Nathan Road in late 2012, showing why it is known as one of the most neon-lit streets in the world. Photo: Shutterstock Images

The junction of Nathan Road and Waterloo Road in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Google Maps

The Beatles, Cantonese opera, Alien and even Miss Universe … Old Hong Kong’s iconic cinemas saw it all – but which ones are still standing?

The Princess Theatre on the corner of Nathan Road and Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 1973. Photo: SCMP

Artwork of famous Hong Kong movie characters from the exhibition “Discover The State Theatre In All Of Us”, that ran in April and May 2021 at the State Theatre, one of the few old-style surviving cinemas. Photo: New World Development

The Princess Theatre, at one end of Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 1973. Photo: SCMP

The ticket for The Beatles show at the Princess Theatre in 1964. Photo: Handout

An exterior evening view of Lee Theatre in Causeway Bay, 1995. Like the Princess Theatre, it also doubled as a venue for stage performances. Photo: SCMP

Cantonese opera diva Pak Suet Sin presents Princess Alexandra with a jade statuette of the White Snake as a memento of a November 1961 performance at the Lee Theatre. Photo: Information Services Department

A total of 73 international beauties gathered at the Lee Theatre for the 1976 Miss Universe Pageant. The picture shows them parading in their national costumes at the opening ceremony. Photo: SCMP

The theatre at 277-291 King’s Road in North Point is one of Hong Kong’s last surviving post-war movie palaces and was classified as a Grade 1 historic building by the city’s Antiquities Advisory Board in 2017. Photo: SCMP

The parabolic rooftop of the State Theatre. Photo: SCMP

The lobby of the Sunbeam Theatre. Photo: SCMP

Converted from a nightclub in the 1970s, the Palace Theatre could seat an audience of more than one thousand people. Photo: Handout

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Chinese Olympic gold medallist diver Guo Jingjing received a home in Hong Kong’s exclusive Repulse Bay after her third child with tycoon husband Kenneth Fok
But Lee Ka-shing and wife Cathy Chui topped Guo and Fok with no less than three mansions from business magnate dad Lee Shau-kee to celebrate their fourth kid



Olympic diver Guo Jingjing and her tycoon husband Kenneth Fok got a fancy Repulse Bay home, while Lee Ka-shing and ‘hundred billion daughter-in-law’ Cathy Chui got no less than three properties …


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