Publication: The Straits Times, p A4 Date: 5 August 2011 Headline: Writer Li Lien Fung dies at age 88

Lien Fung dies at age She was a prolific columnist and keen supporter of the arts

Madam Li with Mr Ho Rih Hwa when he was W g q m ' s am4asdor to Belgium The couple met at Cornell University In the US a d married in 1946. ST FILE PHOTO

BILINGUAL writer Li Lien Fung died on Wednesday night at the age of 88.

The wife of former ambassador to Thailand Ho Rih Hwa suffered a mas- sive brain haemorrhage and slipped in- to a coma on Monday.

The family said she died peacefully at the National University Hospital at 11.30pm with family members by her side.

Madam Li, the mother of business- man Ho Kwon Ping, writer Ho Min Fong and architect Ho Kwon Cjan, was a prolific writer and a keen sup- porter of the arts.

She senred as chairman of the Singa- pore Totalisator Board ~ r t s Fund and wrote the popular bilingual Bamboo

Green column in The Straits Times - between 1979 and 1984, then again from 1993 to 1998. She also was a col- umnist for Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao from 1998 to 2009.

Many will remember the colourful reminiscences of her life growing up in China where she was born.

She published a collection of essays on life in China at the tender age of 13, moved to Hong Kong in. 1937, and then to the United States in 1940.

She read chemistry at Mills Col- lege, California, and took her Master's in Literature at Cornell University, where she met her Singaporean hus- band. They were married in 1946.

Madam Li also had keen business acumen and, together with her hus- band, expanded her father's business - Wah Chang Group, which deals in

Malam LT in a photo taken in 1998 Her son, Mr Ho Kwon Pi said Ns mother was a l ~ d ~ - w m e d * n r ~ l r . ~ t h a ~ ~ & ~ * r m l d B T n l ~ ~ ~ l ~ ~

manufacturing and trading. In Thailand, where Mr Ho was Sin-

gapore's ambassador from 1967 to 1971, the couple built a string of suc- cessful. tapioca, bean vermicelli and wheat flour factories %fore returning to Singapore. Mr Ho died in 1999.

A generous woman, she celebrated her 78th birthday 'by presenting $500,000 to the Singapore Manage- ment University to establish the Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia Public Lec- ture Series. The lectures feature entre- preneurs, business and political lead- ers. She later donated $1 million to set up the Lien Fung's Conoquium, which aims to enhance awareness and appre - ciation of cultural and societal issues.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping said: "My moth- er was a lively and quick-witted per- sonality with a stropg conscience

about the world that she passed on to me.

"She was a prolific writer and a good mother. I will miss the times when just the two of us wouldgo for dinner arid get tipsy on sake. I will al- so miss our regular Sunday lunches where the whole family would gath- er."

Her daughter, writer Ho Min Fong, added: "There are countless positive adjectives to describe her. She was kind, cogent, warm, Iively, vivacious, curious and compassionate. Above all, she was a good mother."

Madam Li's wake is held at 36 King Albert Park. The funeral is on Sunday afternoon.

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Source: The Straits Times O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.