The Continuity Challenge

Adrian Li is a scion to one of Hong Kong’s best-known and most wide-ranging families. How he has learned to appreciate the philanthropic efforts of his well-known father are a matter of patience and exposure.

- Ryan Swift

To say Adrian Li belongs to an illustrious Hong Kong family understates the case. The Li family is regarded as one of the Four Big Families of Hong Kong, and its members spread from business to government and law. Maintaining continuity that stretches back generations to the very founding of modern Hong Kong isn’t always easy. Philanthropy has been one of the ways in which families have sought to instill a sense of responsibility in young scions, and to help prepare them for a life of decision-making.

In Li’s case, a life of privilege had to be tempered by experiencing the ways in which people who are not so fortunate live. Li recalls being taken as a child to see Christmas carols at the Salvation Army. “It was quite a positive experience for me and my brother (Brian Li). We were in primary school, and we saw that it brings a lot of happiness to people’s homes.”

Li recalls from his youngest days that it was his grandmother, Daisy Li Woo Tze-ha, then involved in the Hong Kong Red Cross and St James Settlement, who pushed philanthropy into the family. “She influenced my father to be involved with different charitable organisations in Hong Kong, (and he) in turn introduced me and my brother to these initiatives.”

That grand motherly influence had an impact. Li recalls his grandmother fondly, describing her as “the first stage” in the Li’s relationship to philanthropy and society. Later on, when Adrian was in school in the UK, he would come back during the summer and participate in events at both the Red Cross and the St James Settlement, taking two weeks at each centre. “That let us look at the different initiatives, so from a very young age we got exposed to their works, and we saw how meaningful or how important these initiatives are.”