Victoria Tang-Owen on her famous dad and starting Thirty30 creative agency with her husband
The Hong Kong designer, photographer and multidisciplinary creative talks about finding her rebellious streak and stepping out of her famous father David Tang’s larger-than-life shadow
I was born in London, and my brother, Ed, came two years after. Two years later, we moved to Hong Kong, and I went to St Paul’s Co-ed, which was very academically challenging. My son goes there now, and in my opinion it’s tougher nowadays. Ed and I were active at school. We did well, having not had strict parents.
Left to my own devices
I had a very happy childhood. My relationship with my brother was very tight. My parents (the late businessman David Tang and former actress Susanna Cheung) divorced when I was 10, so I had to learn to be independent, because my father was always working. My parents were very socially active. They just let us do what we wanted. A separation forces you to become independent in some ways, having to take care of a younger sibling, even though now he thinks he’s more of the boss than I am!
Striking a balance
My mum taught me how to live the Hong Kong way of life, and my dad gave me an international perspective. Mum was very down to earth and my dad was larger than life. On reflection, they gave me the opposites; I’ve always been on this weighing scale, in the middle, doing a balancing act.
Host with the most
My dad gave so much to the outside world that we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with each other. When we were together, we just wanted to have a good time, so we didn’t talk about business. I’d lived with my mum throughout my parents’ separation, but I saw him often, mostly for family dinners. He loved hosting. The only way I saw into his work ethic was when I became a designer, then creative director of Tang Tang Tang Tang, a lifestyle store he founded in 2013.
