Florence Fang

Florence Fang (Chinese: 方李邦琴; born 1933/1934) is a Chinese-American businesswoman, publisher, and philanthropist active in the San Francisco area. She is the former owner of the San Francisco Examiner and other media titles and has been a fund-raiser for the Republican Party. She is the owner of The Flintstone House in Hillsborough, California, themed on The Flintstones cartoon series.

Florence Fang
Fang (third from right) breaks ground on the "Florence Fang Asian Community Garden" with Malia Cohen, David Chiu, and Nancy Pelosi in 2014
Born1933 or 1934 (age 89–90)[1]
Beijing, China
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Businesswoman, publisher and philanthropist
Known forOwner of The Flintstone House
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1960; died 1992)​
Children3 sons

Early life

Fang was born Li Bangqin (Chinese: 李邦琴; Wade–Giles: Li Pang-ch'in)[2] in Beijing, and moved to Taiwan in 1949 with some of her family.[3] Fang lived in Taiwan until 1960, when she met and married John Ta Chuan Fang and they migrated to San Francisco.[3][4][5]

Business career

Fang and her husband bought Chinese language media titles, before expanding into English-language titles including AsianWeek and the San Francisco Independent.[4]

By 2000, she had sold the "opulent" Grand Palace Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown.[6] In 2000, when the Hearst Corporation was facing antitrust concerns (including from Fang) over its acquisition of the San Francisco Chronicle, she acquired the San Francisco Examiner from them for $100 while also receiving a $66 million subsidy from Hearst to run the Examiner for three years, becoming the first Asian American to own a major daily newspaper in the US.[4][7][5] In 2004, she sold it to Philip Anschutz for $11 million.[7]

In 2008, Forbes reported that the Internal Revenue Service claimed that the Fang family had understated taxable income by $31 million in the years up to 2002.[7] Florence, her two sons and her dead son's estate launched four counter-claims.[7]

Philanthropy and political activities

Involvement in US politics

During Fang's ownership, the Grand Palace restaurant had been the "scene of many political gatherings", and the Fangs were "important fund-raisers" for the Republican Party, meeting President George H. W. Bush several times.[6] Bush appointed Fang to the Small Business Administration.[8] In 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle described Fang as having close ties to Democrat politicians as well, including Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein, and as having been "a key player in the elections of former San Francisco Mayors Frank Jordan and Willie Brown."[9] On the other hand, in 2000 it characterized Chinatown community activist Rose Pak, "who, until the Fangs gained ascendance with Jordan's election, had the ear of City Hall exclusively" as Florence Fang's "archenemy."[5]

Higher education

In 2013, Florence Fang donated $1 million to launch the "100,000 Strong Foundation" with the aim of promoting Mandarin language education in the US and sending 100,000 US students to study in China within four years.[10][11] From 2008 to 2013, she donated $2.5 million to finance a building of the School of Chinese as Second Language on the campus of Peking University, which was named the Florence Lee Fang Building.[11] In 2006, UC Berkeley's East Asian Library received $3 million from Fang.[11]

PR China and Taiwan

Florence Fang is the founder and (as of 2016) honorary president of the Northern California Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (also known as Chinese for Peaceful Unification-Northern California or Northern California Peaceful Reunification Society), an overseas chapter of the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification,[10] which is a subsidiary organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)[12] that promotes the goal of the PR China gaining control over Taiwan. Chinese media have reported Fang as saying that it was her aim to "prevent the spread of 'Taiwan independence' ideology"; and she called Taiwan a "fake democracy" at appearances with CCP officials.[10]

Florence Fang Asian Community Garden

The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden (FFACG) opened in 2014 in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, on land owned by Caltrain.[13] U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led the ground breaking ceremonies.[14] FFACG sits on the land of the former DeMattei farm, San Francisco's last commercial farm, which had been operating as late as 1988.[15]

WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall (in 2019)

WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall

Florence Fang initiated the WWII Pacific War Memorial Hall, a two-story museum in San Francisco's Chinatown inaugurated in 2015 on the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan that marked the end of World War II.[16] The historian Denise Y. Ho described it as an example of how museums "play an important role in 'telling China's story well' for global audiences," and as "look[ing] remarkably like a Chinese museum, featuring a sculpture 'Great Wall of Blood and Flesh' that evokes the Chinese national anthem."[17] After closing for 16 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum reopened in 2021 with a new exhibition focusing on the collaboration of the US and China against Japan during World War II, which Fang called "our [countries'] lasting memory" in a speech at the reopening ceremony.[16]

The Flintstone House from Doran Memorial Bridge, 2007

The Flintstone House

Since 2017, Fang has owned The Flintstone House in Hillsborough, a wealthy town south of San Francisco, having previously lived elsewhere in Hillsborough.[4][18] The house was built in 1976, and designed by the architect William Nicholson.[19] It was listed at US$4.2 million in 2015, but it is believed that Fang bought it for much less.[19]

She added large metal dinosaurs, Flintstones figurines, and letters on the grass that spell out "Yabba-dabba-doo", saying "I see any dinosaur, I buy it."[4] In 2019, the city of Hillsborough sued Fang for causing a public nuisance, and because her changes were largely without permits.[1][4][20] Fang engaged lawyers and made counter-claims for violating her First Amendment rights, discrimination and emotional distress.[1] The city's lawsuit was settled in 2021 with Fang receiving $125,000 to cover her expenses from the suit and the right to retain all modifications made, while agreeing to drop her countersuit about racial discrimination.[21]

Personal life

In 1960, she married John Ta Chuan Fang.[5] They had three sons.[3] Their eldest son James was a BART board member for 24 years until 2015, at which point he was described as "the last Republican holding office in San Francisco."[8][3] As of 2000, their second son Ted was publisher of the San Francisco Independent, and their youngest son, Douglas, earned a doctorate in computer science.[3] James Fang died in 2020 due to natural causes. Douglas Fang died from stomach cancer in 2003.[22][23] John Ta Chuan Fang died in 1992.[3]

References
  1. "Flintstone House legal drama: Both sides gear up for fight". Mercury News. 11 April 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  2. Xia Chunping 夏春平 (November 2000). "星条旗下演绎"天方夜谭"--旧金山探访亚裔英文传媒大亨、方氏报业帝国掌门人方李邦琴". China News. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  3. Sward, Susan; Staff, Chronicle (18 March 2000). "THE NEW OWNERS / Powerful Fang Family Resepected and Reviled". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  4. Wong, Julia Carrie (6 May 2019). "'I see any dinosaur, I buy it': at home with the embattled owner of the Flintstone house". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  5. Nakao, Annie; Fern, Elizabeth; EZ; Yi, Matthew; Bulwa, Demian (30 July 2000). "Fang family's story enters new chapter". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
  6. Nakao, Annie; Fern, Elizabeth (30 July 2000). "Fang family's story enters new chapter". SFGate. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  7. Janet Novack and William P. Barrett (3 April 2008). "Informer". Forbes. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  8. Derse, Nicole (2015-03-16). "How San Francisco Republicans went extinct". Campaigns & Elections. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  9. Matier, Phil (2019-03-24). "Flintstone House furor: Angela Alioto backing owner Florence Fang". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  10. Eades, Mark C. (2016-05-27). "Fang's "100,000 Strong Foundation": Education or Indoctrination?". Foreign Policy Blogs. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  11. Chang, Jun (2014-01-10). "Florence Fang: Daughter of two 'moms'". China Daily USA. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  12. Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (14 July 2020). "New book examines Neil Bush's China links". Axios. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
  13. Waxmann, Laura (September 30, 2018). "Bayview 'Growers Market' provides healthy food options grown by and for the neighborhood". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  14. Pelosi, Nancy (April 17, 2014). "Pelosi Remarks at Florence Fang Asian Community Garden Groundbreaking Ceremony". Nancy Pelosi Speaker of Government.
  15. Hartlaub, Peter (March 10, 2016). "The last San Francisco farm's stubborn final years". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  16. "Memorial hall reopens with a display of cooperation". www.chinadaily.com.cn. 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  17. Sorace, Christian; Franceschini, Ivan; Loubere, Nicholas (2019-06-25). Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi. ANU Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-76046-249-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  18. "Town sues Florence Fang, owner of iconic Flintstone house". South China Morning Post. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  19. "Infamous SF Power Broker Florence Fang Sued Over Flintstones House Lawn Ornaments". SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports. 16 March 2019. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  20. 'Flintstone' house sparks lawsuit from California town: 'It's an eyesore'. Matthew Cantor, The Guardian, 18 March 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  21. Mibach, Emily (2021-06-25). "Flintstone House lawsuit settled — the dinosaurs can stay". Palo Alto Daily Post. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
  22. "Douglas Fang, obituary 2003, San Francisco". The San Francisco Examiner. 10 October 2003. p. 13. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  23. "Douglas Fang -- Executive, 38". New York Times. Associated Press. 11 October 2003. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
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