Lin Siqi lived in Kowloon Tong when he was young, and enrolled in Pui Ching Primary School in Hong Kong and Minsheng College in Middle School. From 65438 to 0936, Lin Siqi, who already knew Cantonese and Chaozhou dialect, went to Gulangyu, Fujian with his parents to attend a bible study class, stayed for several months, and learned Mandarin and Minnan dialect. 1940, he was ordered by his father to go to Saigon, Vietnam on business, during which he was accidentally knocked down by a French military vehicle, and his leg was once in danger. After returning to Hong Kong, Lin Siqi enrolled in Lingnan University in Guangzhou, majoring in economics, and graduated from 1947. After graduation, I went to Pennsylvania to study for an MBA at Temple University. 1948 studied economics at new york University after graduation, but returned to Hongkong from 1950 before graduation. After returning to Hong Kong, Lin Siqi lived in Sha Tin. He is mainly responsible for managing his father's Ka Wah Bank and serving as the general manager. In addition, he is also engaged in industry, commerce and education. He also ran for the Hong Kong Urban Council election of 1957, but lost. However, in 1967, the "June 7th Riot" launched by the left broke out in Hong Kong. Feeling that the future of Hong Kong was bleak, Lin Siqi decided to immigrate to Canada alone with his wife and daughter. As for the Lin Zifeng family, they have no intention of running Ka Wah Bank. They first sold the bank to the American consortium at 1970, and then fell into the hands of Liu Can, an overseas Chinese businessman in Singapore at 1974. Lin Zifeng's family gradually faded out of banking business.
In fact, as early as 196 1 years ago, Lin Siqi went to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, Canada, and was deeply attracted by the beautiful local scenery. So after immigrating to Canada, Lin Siqi's family also decided to settle in British Columbia. But Lin Siqi was 44 years old when he immigrated to Canada, and it was difficult to start a career there. At first, he and his family rented a one-bedroom suite, and soon spent half of the 60,000 Canadian dollars. Plus, when I first came here, I couldn't find a job, and life was once difficult.
Nevertheless, Lin Siqi, who is engaged in banking in Hong Kong, is determined to join the real estate market. In addition to reading many books on real estate, he also enrolled in the real estate appraisal course of the University of British Columbia night school, and then got the diploma of 1972. On the other hand, he and his friend Jun Chen established Sunnyvale Development Co., Ltd. on 1968, and formally entered the Canadian real estate market. Through family ties, he successfully lobbied many Hong Kong businessmen, such as Henry Fok, Lee Shau Kee and Feng Jingxi, to invest in Canadian real estate, and then set up more than 20 real estate companies, and let them serve as the company's chairman and general manager themselves, taking care of the business in person, so as to master a lot of money and make huge profits in the real estate market.
1972, Lin Siqi officially obtained Canadian citizenship, and founded Canada International Real Estate Co., Ltd. the following year. At that time, it was the international oil crisis and the American real estate market was in a downturn. Lin Siqi bought the insurance exchange building in downtown San Francisco for $4 million. However, on the eve of buying the building, he was bought by a Jewish businessman with a preemptive bid of $4.25 million. Nine months later, the wealthy Jewish businessman put the building up for sale again. This time, Lin Siqi proposed to the wealthy businessman to borrow $5.4 million at the annual interest rate in the form of a seven-year loan, and then buy the building at the same price. Lin Siqi's suggestion was accepted by wealthy businessmen, and finally the building fell into his hands. Soon after, the oil crisis was solved and the real estate market rebounded rapidly. Lin Siqi sold the insurance exchange building to a British real estate developer for $22.5 million, and the book income before and after was as high as $65,438 +0.7 1 10,000.
Lin Siqi has been involved in the real estate market for more than ten years, and his business has expanded to the whole western North America, with a total income of over 100 million Canadian dollars. He is one of the richest people in British Columbia. However, in 1982, at the age of 60, Lin Siqi chose to retire and set up the Lin Delu Couple Foundation, focusing on charity. Over the past few years, we donated 1 10,000 yuan to the University of British Columbia, Victoria University and Weizhen College in Canada, and also contributed 1983 to build the Vancouver Zhongshan Park, 1985 to build the Canada Pavilion of the Vancouver World Expo, and 1988 to build the Simon Fraser University International Exchange Center.
Lin Siqi contributed a lot to the University of British Columbia, especially 1985, and the library was donated by Lin Siqi again on 1992 and expanded into Lin Delu Management Research Center. He loves gardening and donated Qiqi Asian Garden to the botanical garden of the school. Other sponsors of the school include Lin Delu Chair in Multicultural Education and Dorothy Lin Chair in Special Education. In Hong Kong, Lin Siqi also invested in the construction of the East-West Academic Exchange Center of Baptist College, which was later renamed as Lin Siqi East-West Academic Exchange College19931. Lin Siqi was awarded the 1988 Canadian Staff Medal by the federal government in Ottawa because of his outstanding performance in the business world and his important contribution to Canadian society. In July of the same year, he was nominated as the Governor of British Columbia by Canadian Prime Minister Mauroni. Lin Siqi then officially took office on September 9, becoming the first Chinese governor in Canada and the second non-white governor in Canada. The first non-white governor in Canada was Lincoln Alexander, who served as governor of Ontario from 1985 to 199 1 year.
During his tenure, Lin Siqi enthusiastically performed his duties as governor, attended many public activities, entertained as many as 80,000 guests from all sides, and delivered more than 1000 speeches. In addition, he is committed to promoting racial integration and visiting every community in British Columbia to deepen mutual understanding among ethnic groups. At that time, it was the peak of immigration before the transfer of sovereignty in Hong Kong, so Lin Siqi helped Chinese who had just arrived in Canada to integrate into their new life. 1989, he commissioned movie stars Elliot Ngok and Ni Tian to shoot a short film about Canada, which was shown at the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong, stipulating that Hong Kong people who were allowed to immigrate must watch it in order to better understand life in Canada.
Lin Siqi's other deeds during his tenure included the creation of the Medal of British Columbia in 1988 at the suggestion of the Governor of British Columbia, Bill Vander Zalm, who also served as the medal manager. The Medal is the highest civic honor that the British Columbia government can award. The Medal is only awarded with first-class merit, which is specially awarded to people who have made outstanding contributions to British Columbia. 1989, Lin Siqi, who loves gardening, invited citizens and volunteers to participate in planting plants in the governor's garden to repair the damage caused by cold weather in winter.
During his seven-year career as governor, Lin Siqi has successively experienced three governors: Wen Dexin, Rita Johnston and Michael Hackett. Among them, in 1990, Wen Dexin was involved in a sensational interest conflict scandal because he sold his enchanted gardens amusement park to a wealthy businessman in Taiwan Province Province. The incident once plunged the British Columbia government into a constitutional crisis. After consulting legal advice, Lin Siqi decided to stand up behind the scenes to discourage Wen Dexin, which eventually led to Wen Dexin's resignation in April of 199 1.
1In August 1994, the Commonwealth Games was held in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. During her stay, Lin Siqi was responsible for hosting visiting Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Edward, and was awarded the title of CVO by the Queen. Lin Siqi stepped down as governor on August 26th, 1995. In recognition of his contribution during his tenure, he was awarded the Canadian Military Officer Medal and the British Columbia Medal by the federal government in the same year. Many places in British Columbia are also named after him, including Lin Delu Park in Yale Town, Lin Delu Campus of Douglas College in Noble Forest and Lin Delu Auditorium of Victoria University. Lin Siqi remained enthusiastic about public welfare activities in his later years and continued to participate in the activities of the China Overseas Chinese Mutual Aid Association. Although he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005, he still insisted on participating in charity. In addition to funding the restoration of Stanley Park in 2007, he also funded the construction of a speed skating hall for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 20 10, and planted cherry trees beside it in 2009. Lin Siqi's condition began to deteriorate in 2009, and her heart valve was abnormal, so she had to undergo major surgery. In the same year, he was elected as an outstanding entrepreneur in China, but he was unable to go to Toronto to receive the prize in person due to illness. Lin Siqi died of illness at his home in Vancouver at 0: 20 on 20 10+65438+ year1October 22, at the age of 87. His three daughters were with him when he died.
After his death, Canadian Prime Minister stephen harper, British Columbia Governor Steven poynter, Governor Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Luo Pinxin all issued statements in mourning, and many universities in the province flew flags at half mast. Lin Siqi's funeral was held in Richmond on June 27th, 165438+. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were scattered like her dead wife in Ingrid Bay, Vancouver.