3 former Hong Kong leaders head funeral committee for educator Ng Hon-mun

Funeral proceedings for Ng Hon-mun, an influential pro-Beijing educator and long-serving Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, will begin on Wednesday, with three former city leaders heading the funeral committee.

Ng died peacefully on the morning of October 18, aged 100. His wake will be held at Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point from 5pm on Wednesday, followed by a memorial gathering at 7pm.

A public memorial service will take place at 10am on Thursday, according to an obituary seen by the South China Morning Post on Monday.

The obituary named former chief executives Leung Chun-ying, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as heads of the funeral committee.

Its deputy heads included Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki, Sun Shangwu, a deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king and Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee.

Born in Chiu Chow in 1926, Ng spent his childhood in Thailand and Hong Kong with his father, a member of the Communist Party of China. He was honorary chairman of the Pui Kiu Education Foundation.

He graduated from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in 1947 and joined Pui Kiu Middle School as a chemistry teacher. He spent his entire paid working life at the school, serving as principal from 1958 to 1985.

Ng served as a deputy to the National People’s Congress from 1975 to 2008. He also sat on the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Basic Law Committee under the NPC Standing Committee and was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers.

He was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, Hong Kong’s highest honour, by then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in 1988.