HONG KONG — David Tang, founder of Chinese luxury brand Shanghai Tang, has died.
The 63-year-old businessman had been suffering from health problems, which Tang revealed in an advice column he penned regularly for The Financial Times.
Ewan Venters, chief executive officer of Fortnum & Mason, wrote in a tweet that Tang had passed away on Tuesday evening.
Gilbert Harrison, chairman of Financo, said he knew Tang for more than 25 years.
“He was a pioneer and one of the most interesting people I have known — very creative, fun and ambitious. As a somewhat aristocrat, he knew his Asian and English heritage. He always said he was ‘yellow on the outside and white on the inside,’” Harrison said.
Furniture designer Viscount David Linley said they met in 1987 through a friend named Charles Butter – while Linley in Hong Kong – and touted Tang as “an amazing polymath.”
“He was so accomplished in so many things,” said Linley. “From being an art collector to being a crossword puzzle doer to understanding about education, the arts, and fashion. He’s the only person I know to get Wellington boots made by Lobb. And that’s just one side of him. Style, elegance, with, bon rapport and bringing people together…”
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