Video | Inside David Tang’s exclusive China Club in Hong Kong with long-time member, designer Alan Chan
We get a rare peek inside the late entrepreneur David Tang’s opulent members’ club in the old Bank of China building with its contemporary Chinese art, well-stocked library, superb Cantonese food and Shanghai tea house vibe
Designer Alan Chan is a long-time member of China Club and only qualifies himself as an acquaintance of David Tang Wing-cheung, who died on August 30 from lung cancer in London at the age of 63.
“He said, ‘There are so many people who say they are a friend of David Tang, or Tang is their close friend. But those who have never had dinner, wined and dined with me should not call me a friend.’ So I’m not a friend of David Tang,” says Chan. “But, of course, I have spoken to him a few times, on different occasions.”
David Tang: the colourful life of the man behind Hong Kong’s fashion brand with a Shanghai twist
Chan knew the cultural ambassador before China Club was opened in 1991, and says its success led to the launch of Shanghai Tang three years later that eventually went global under Richemont in 2008, and was recently sold to Italian entrepreneur Alessandro Bastagli.
Tang was also involved in restaurants such as Island Tang and China Tang, and he decorated Howard’s Gourmet.
Less than a week after the flamboyant entrepreneur died, Chan took the Post on a tour of the club that takes visitors back in time to 1930s and ’40s Shanghai.
