Hong Kong's Top Media Mogul to Retire at 104

Legendary producer Run Run Shaw, who built the Hong Kong film industry into a global player, will retire from Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB) at the age of 104. The retirement will be effective at the end of this year, TVB announced Wednesday.

Shaw will remain on as TVB’s chairman emeritus after turning over his post of 30 years to deputy chairman Norman Leung. Shaw had founded TVB in 1967 and built it into Hong Kong’s biggest terrestrial TV broadcaster.

“Sir Run Run Shaw has confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board, and that he is not aware of any matter relating to his retirement that needs to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company,” said the TVB statement.

Shaw was born in 1907 in Ningbo, in Zhejiang province as the youngest of six sons to a Shanghai textile merchant. His exact day of birth has been a matter of controversy, with his wife Mona Fong declining to confirm October 14 at the date. In 2007 Shaw’s nephew Marcus said the birthday was November 23, which corresponds to 14th day of the 10th month for the year 1907 by the Chinese calendar.

Shaw attended American-run schools. During holiday of his 19th summer he and third elder brother Runme Shaw went to Singapore to start a film market and establish the Shaw Organisation. In 1930 the pair founded the South Seas Film studio which later became the legendary Shaw Studios that became famous with the global popularity of martial arts films in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Shaw’s interest in films involved him in backing various Hollywood films, including Blade Runner. He also built up TVB into one of the world’s top 5 producers of TV programming.

Shaw’s first wife Wong Mei Chun died in 1987 at age 85. He remarried in 1997 in Las Vegas to Mona Shaw who had served as deputy chairman of TVB since 2000.