Hing Chao

Biography

Pursuing a cross-sector career, Hing Chao has been active in arts and culture, heritage and education, as well as international shipping over the past two decades. In the business sector, he has been at the forefront of thought leadership for maritime development within the Greater Bay Area, being also the founder of the Greater Bay Area Maritime Forum, the deputy chairman of the China Sub-committee of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, and a trustee of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

In the arts and culture sector, Hing is widely known for his pioneering and wide-ranging work on martial arts, including the creation of “Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive”, the largest martial arts archive in the world, which he co-founded with Prof. Jeffrey Shaw (City University of Hong Kong) and Prof. Sarah Kenderdine (EPFL). He has also created several ground-breaking martial art exhibitions, most recently “Way of the Sword: Warrior Traditions in China and Italy” (2021). Since founding Hong Kong Culture Festival in 2015, he has been driving innovation in cross-disciplinary artistic partnerships – involving martial arts, dance, music, and new media arts – in Hong Kong.

He has also made significant contributions to the research and revival of endangered nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province, through the activities of Orochen Foundation (which he founded in 2004). Its efforts include creating the most comprehensive Orochen music archive, “Orochen Cultural Preservation Project” (in partnerships with China National Museum of Ethnology), as well as preserving community oral history among North Tungusic groups in Hulunbuir.

He is the executive chairman of Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings, the executive director of International Guoshu Association and Institute of Chinese Martial Studies, the founder of Hong Kong Culture Festival, and the founder of International Martial Studies Conference.