Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On yesterday conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family of renowned sinologist Jao Tsung-I who passed away in Hong Kong yesterday, aged 100.
Chui praised Jao for his “patriotic spirit and meticulous academic work”, describing him as a “model for all of us”. Chui said that Jao would be remembered for ever.
Jao taught Chinese culture, history and literature at the private University of East Asia in Macau, the precursor of the public University of Macau (UM), in the 1980s. The Macau government set up the Jao Tsung-I Academy in 2015.
Born in Chaozhou (then known in the West as Chiuchow) in 1917, Jao moved to Hong Kong in 1949. He was an acclaimed scholar who taught in France, the US, Singapore and India, as well as a prolific writer, poet, painter and calligrapher. He was widely regarded as one of the nation’s greatest sinologists.
