田家炳

繁體中文

田家炳（1919–2018），廣東大埔人，客家人，香港實業家同慈善家。1935年他不足十六歲時父親去世，被迫輟學從商，遠赴越南推銷家鄉瓷土，翌年創辦茶陽瓷土公司，成為越南最大的瓷土供應商；1939年汕頭淪陷，運輸中斷，他轉往印尼從事橡膠工業，白手興家。1958年，他因印尼排華風潮日趨嚴重，也為咗讓子女接受中華文化，毅然放棄當地如日中天的事業，舉家移居香港，在荒蕪的屯門填海建廠，創立田氏塑膠廠，生產塑膠薄膜同人造革，協助香港塑膠產品打入國際市場；1968年成立田氏化工有限公司，生產線逐步遷往元朗屏山。1982年他成立田家炳基金會，以「安老扶幼，興教育才」為宗旨，把大部分身家投入教育捐贈，一生在內地、香港、台灣捐建數百項教育設施，「田家炳中學」遍佈全國，他因而被譽為「中國百校之父」。2009年他把四座物業捐予基金會，並交予社會賢達管理，自己退居榮譽主席。2010年獲頒大紫荊勳章，2018年7月10日安詳離世，享年九十八歲。

English

Tin Ka Ping (1919–2018), a Hakka born in Dabu, Guangdong, was a Hong Kong industrialist and philanthropist. His father died in 1935 when he was not yet sixteen, forcing him out of school and into business; he travelled to Vietnam to sell kaolin from his home district, founded the Chayang Kaolin Company the following year and became Vietnam's largest supplier of the clay. When Shantou fell in 1939 and the trade route was cut he moved to Indonesia and built up a rubber business from nothing. In 1958, as anti-Chinese feeling in Indonesia deepened and to give his children a Chinese education, he gave up that flourishing business and moved his family to Hong Kong, reclaiming land at barren Tuen Mun to found Tin's Plastic Factory, making plastic film and artificial leather and helping Hong Kong's plastics products reach world markets; Tin's Chemical Industrial Co. followed in 1968, with production gradually shifting to Ping Shan in Yuen Long. In 1982 he set up the Tin Ka Ping Foundation — 'care for the old, nurture the young, promote education' — giving away most of his wealth, and over his lifetime he funded several hundred educational projects across the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan; 'Tin Ka Ping Middle Schools' can be found across China, earning him the name 'father of a hundred schools'. In 2009 he donated four industrial blocks to the foundation and handed its governance to public figures, becoming honorary chairman. He received the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2010 and died peacefully on 10 July 2018, aged 98.