On May 26, 2022, a generation of Macau gambling king Stanley Ho died in the hospital due to ineffective treatment at the age of 98.
According to the description of the He family, Stanley Ho had a strong will to survive until the end, trying to open his eyes again to see the world, but because many organs had failed, the strong needle could not return to the sky, and finally he left the world he loved at 13:05 that afternoon.
But after a month and a half, that is, on July 8, Stanley Ho's funeral kicked off, and most people were buried after the first seven
Why is the funeral of gambling king Stanley Ho so special?
What kind of legendary life is behind the coffin made of 8 million Hong Kong dollars and the 50 million grand funeral?
Funeral of the century
On the one hand, the reason why it took so long to prepare is that Stanley Ho has a very high status in the political and business circles of Hong Kong and Macao, and all aspects of the details of the funeral need to be carefully considered and there can be no negligence.
On the other hand, Hong Kong believes in feng shui very much, especially the big families who do business attach great importance to it, and will definitely choose an auspicious day to be buried.
Through the funeral scene reported by the media, it is not difficult to see the grandeur of this funeral.
The first is to create a sea of flowers at the funeral, all of which are imported flowers and cost about 2 million;
The second is Stanley Ho's coffin, the main material is high-quality golden silk nan, this wood carries a natural fragrance, and has a good antiseptic effect, it is very rare, naturally expensive.
You must know that in ancient times, only princes and nobles were qualified to use this wood, and this coffin was made by craftsmen by hand, the price was about 8 million, not to mention other arrangements, this funeral is conservatively estimated to cost 50 million.
And the guests invited at the funeral are also political and business bigwigs, as well as many celebrities in the entertainment industry, which shows that Stanley Ho has a wide range of connections.
In fact, Stanley Ho's condition deteriorated in 2009, when Stanley Ho fell at the home of his fourth aunt on July 29 of that year, resulting in severe head injuries, and was rushed to the hospital after undergoing brain surgery
But Stanley Ho has been unconscious, and his condition was once speculated by the outside world, and even some media reported that Stanley Ho had passed away, but rumors were always rumors, and soon after, Stanley Ho miraculously appeared in the public's field of vision.
It is rumored that Stanley Ho's ability to survive this crisis has a lot to do with the seeding foundation. So what is a seed foundation?
Derived from the Hakka family, it means to select a treasure land of feng shui, put the living's hair, nails, intimate clothing, blood, birthday and other mixtures into a clay pot, and then bury it in the tomb, which is equivalent to building a living grave for the living, so as to eliminate disasters and prolong life for the living.
In fact, this practice of planting the foundation is very popular in Hong Kong, and some media broke the news that the local famous feng shui master Yu Zhilin, who found a treasure land for the gambling king in the town of Darenmiao next to the Gaozhou Reservoir in Guangdong as a place for the planting foundation.
Some local people also saw that there was a place with the words "Dr. Stanley Ho's Foundation Blessing Land", which said that it had a nose and eyes, but this is just a rumor, and the He family has never responded positively to the matter of planting Shengji in front of the media.
But it is worth mentioning that Stanley Ho fell into the hospital in 2009 and stayed in the ICU for a month, and the cost was as high as 300 million. The senior ward he lives in is also equipped with 7 industry-leading nursing teams, and the daily cost is also tens of thousands.
And in order to better take care of the gambling king's body in daily life, the He family hired 8 famous doctors, who were responsible for the care of his different organs, and 800,000 injections of brain health are also common for gambling kings.
In the eleven years from 2009 to 2020, Stanley Ho spent as much as 1.4 billion yuan on medical treatment alone, which is still a conservative estimate, for many people this is an astronomical amount, a lifetime can not reach, but for gambling kings, this is just a number, nothing is more important than their own lives.
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The family is in the middle
860,000 life-sustaining needles a day, 8 million to build a golden silk nan wooden coffin, how did Stanley Ho, who once relied on smashing huge amounts of money to continue his life, become a generation of gambling kings step by step?
Stanley Ho was born in Hong Kong, but his ancestral home is in Guangdong. And the He family is a very famous rich family since the Qing Dynasty, when Stanley Ho was born, the He family had become the head of the four major families in Hong Kong, which can be said to have a deep ancestral background. Stanley Ho's father was also the first Chinese parliamentarian Ho Sai Kwong, so when he was a child, Stanley Ho was a gentleman and never knew what money was.
At the age of 10, Stanley Ho was forced to study at the enviable Queen's College, Hong Kong's oldest government secondary school and taught mainly in English, but which only accepted men. Mr. Sun Yat-sen also studied at Queen's College, so the gambling king and Mr. Zhongshan are still alumni.
Stanley Ho originally thought that he could always live a carefree life, but when he was 12 years old, after his father and uncles failed to invest and speculate in stocks, and all the family assets were destroyed, Stanley Ho became a poor boy overnight, and was ostracized and ridiculed at school.
But there was no way for him to endure this humiliation in silence, because his father fled to Vietnam with his other siblings, but he and his mother were left in Hong Kong and moved from the original large villa to the village house.
After that, Stanley Ho saw the warmth and coldness of the world, and he could only rely on himself, so he began to study seriously, from the bottom of the whole grade to the top students, and with his excellent grades, he obtained a full scholarship to enter the University of Hong Kong. However, shortly after Stanley Ho entered university, war broke out and he had to drop out of school to make a living.
But at that time, the situation in Hong Kong was chaotic, and he could only sell his labor force in exchange for a meager income, such a day allowed Stanley Ho to see his head at a glance, and Stanley Ho, who was unwilling to be so at that time, hoped to go out and have a run, and he felt that this would live up to his life.
So after saying goodbye to his mother, Stanley Ho took the 10 yuan saved from several months of coolies in his arms and squeezed into the boat to Macau. Stanley Ho, who was not familiar with his life, was attracted by the prosperity of Macau when he first arrived in Macau, and in order to be able to establish himself in Macau as soon as possible, he found his cousin He Tung.
But Stanley Ho did not reach out for money, but hoped to use his cousin's connections to find a way out for himself.
After He Dong knew Stanley Ho's intentions, he showed a high degree of appreciation for him and expressed his willingness to help him match him to find an errand, so Stanley Ho smoothly entered the Macau CIMB Trading Company.
During his work in the trading company, he never revealed his relationship with He Dong, and completely relied on his own strength to establish a world in the company.
Because of his early education experience at Queen's College, he could speak English fluently and had excellent memory, which was very beneficial for trading companies that needed to operate externally, so Stanley Ho quickly gained the appreciation of his superiors, and soon he quickly rose to the top, became the company's right-hand man, and earned his first pot of gold.
It is precisely because Stanley Ho is a very hard-working person, so the boss often takes him in and out of some high-end drinking parties to meet some connections, and he and the original partner Li Wanhua also met unexpectedly at a drinking party.
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Marriage dividends
Gambling king Stanley Ho's success is half due to the support of his wife Lai Wanhua, so why say so? Why is Stanley Ho, who made his fortune in the gambling industry, called a patriotic businessman?
I have to say that Stanley Ho is really lucky, not only found his true love, but also enjoyed the dividends in this marriage.
At that time, relying on Lai Wanhua's family background, he not only founded his own trading company, but also accumulated a lot of important contacts and obtained Portuguese nationality, which is very important.
Before the 60s, Stanley Ho's main business was still in commerce and trade, although he had earned a lot of family property, but he always wanted to get involved in Macau's gaming industry, everyone knew that the gaming industry was a profitable industry, but at that time, Macau's gaming industry boss was the first generation of gambling king Fu Laorong, he had the exclusive right to operate the Macau gaming industry, and even his cronie Ye Han wanted to get a piece of the pie.
At that time, Ye Han was known as the gambling saint by the people, which shows the high degree of his skills, and later, because the Taixing company that had been in Fu Laorong did not develop further, Ye Han broke up with his old owner Fu Laorong and wanted to go elsewhere to seek opportunities to open casinos.
But Mr. Yip eventually returned to Macau. At that time, Fu Laorong had passed away, and the franchise license of the gaming industry had been occupied by the Fu family for 25 years, and it finally expired and needed to be re-bidd.
When he was in Hong Kong, he met Stanley Ho through Ye Deli, who was the key to Yip Han's bidding in Macau, because the rules of the Macau gaming industry at that time were that bidders must have Portuguese nationality and be very strong in terms of contacts and financial resources.
Stanley Ho has long had the idea of getting involved in Macau's gaming industry, but he has never found a way, and the olive branch thrown by Yip Han is exactly what Stanley Ho is looking forward to. But in order to be safer, Stanley Ho later found his former classmate Fok Yingdong.
In this regard, Yip Han, Stanley Ho, Yip Deley and Fok Ying Tung established Macau Tourism and Entertainment Co., Ltd., and successfully voted for the franchise rights of "White Dove Ticket" and "Shop Ticket" in Macau. In fact, at that time, Stanley Ho and they only exceeded Taixing by 12,000 yuan, which can be said to be a narrow victory.
And although he won the franchise, the Fu family has deep roots in Macau, and Stanley Ho has received death threats many times. But even so, Stanley Ho has never been afraid, he has publicly stated that if he is murdered, whoever can find the murderer within 48 hours can win a prize of 1 million.
After that, Stanley Ho's casino opened, and with the connections he had accumulated over the years, as well as his bright mind, he soon opened up a new situation in Macau. His casino gradually became the new protagonist of Macau, he also became the new generation of gambling king in Macau, and his casino fed nearly one-third of Macau's population and contributed to the prosperity of Macau.
In addition, Stanley Ho was also a very patriotic businessman, during the Anti-Japanese War, he risked smuggling contraband to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War, and spent a lot of money at many international auctions to bring the national treasures that were left abroad back to the motherland, including boxwood carved Dharma statues, bronze statues of horse heads, bronze sculptures, etc.
Not only that, he also set up a space foundation to provide financial support for the country's training of professional aerospace technical talents.
Because of Stanley Ho's outstanding contributions, he was also selected as a member of the Standing Committee of the 9th and 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and in the 08 Olympic Games, he was also selected as a torchbearer to carry the Olympic flame. And the death of Stanley Ho also marked the end of an era.