Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) will award honorary fellowship to three distinguished persons in recognition of their outstanding achievements and exceptional contributions to society.
The recipients are: Mr Chan Cheuk-ming, Dr Agnes Miling Chan, and Mr Michael Li Hon-shing. The conferment ceremony will be held on 5 November (Friday).
Brief profiles of the three recipients are as follows:
Mr Chan Cheuk-ming
Mr Chan Cheuk-ming, also known as “Sham Shui Po Ming Gor (深水埗明哥)”, is a renowned and respected local philanthropist. He has been offering free meals to the poor and homeless in the Sham Shui Po area for over a decade.
Mr Chan started working in restaurants after his father died when he was 15 years old. He began running Pei Ho Barbeque Restaurant for serving local customers in 1983. The restaurant is best known for its tasty and low-cost meal.
In 2008, Mr Chan started collaborating with the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) to offer meal vouchers at an affordable price for the poor. With the help of other volunteers from various companies and organizations, he gives out free meals to the homeless, the elderly, and the ethnic minorities every week. Gradually, news about his philanthropy spread through the city and he became a household name for his benevolence. Mr Chan then set up a social enterprise, Pei Ho Counterparts, in 2014 to organize food giveaways.
Dr Agnes Miling Chan
Dr Agnes Miling Chan is a renowned pop singer, a Doctor of Philosophy, a professor at Japanese universities and a novelist. She finished her undergraduate degree in developmental psychology at the University of Toronto in Canada in 1978 and received her doctoral degree in Education at Stanford University in 1994.
Dr Chan started her singing career when she was 14 years old and soon became a household name not only in Hong Kong, but in the entire South East Asia. She debuted in Japan in 1972 and became a teenage idol there. Over the years, Dr Chan has released more than 100 albums and CDs in several different languages and published more than 100 books. Her thoughts and music have touched the hearts of many people throughout Asia.
Besides her singing career, Dr Chan has been devoted to community services. In 1998, she was appointed as the first ambassador of the Japan Committee for UNICEF. She travelled throughout Asia, raising funds and writing newspaper columns and magazines articles to advocate children welfare. Dr Chan is an Honorary Advisor of the Li Ka Shing School of Professional and Continuing Education (LiPACE) of HKMU.
Mr Michael Li Hon-shing, SBS, BBS, JP
Mr Michael Li Hon-shing is the Executive Director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners (FHKHO). He is also the Vice Chairman of Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Board in the Hotel and Tourism Institute, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Culinary Institute Training Board in the Chinese Culinary Institute, Honorary Chairman of Asia Art of Cuisine Society, and Chairman of GHM (Guangdong Hong Kong Macao) Hotel General Managers Society.
A highly respected practitioner, Mr Li is an expert in hotel management and has been a frequent spokesperson in current affairs involving the hotel industry. He leads his team at FHKHO to conduct research studies, give opinions in policy formulation and advise the government on macro policies related to the sustainable development of the hotel and tourism industry.
Mr Li has been very supportive of the HKMU's Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration and played an instrumental role in facilitating its partnership with members of the FHKHO when the School first launched its Management Trainee Programme (“MTP”) in 2018, making it possible for the School to guarantee internship places for all interested students of its hospitality programmes. Despite the challenges COVID-19 has posed on the hotel industry, owing largely to Mr Li's generous support, the School managed to maintain a considerable number of the management trainee positions.
