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Mrs Hardoon’s 70th birthday celebration
Print Edition
THE spacious Hardoon garden at 1375 Bubbling Well Road was the scene of great festivities on August 27, the occasion of the 70th birthday of Mrs S. Aaron Hardoon, widow of the late Jewish multi-millionaire. Outside the main gate of the garden a large archway of red was erected while innumerable lanterns and electric lights formed an illuminated entrance over the path leading from the main gate to the residential buildings of the garden.
Throughout the day, streams of local residents, including many leading Chinese and foreigners, visited the garden and paid their respects to Mrs Hardoon, known for her philanthropic acts.
Scores of Buddhist priests participated in the celebrations, as Mrs Hardoon is an ardent Buddhist, and the ceremony was performed in accordance with Buddhist rites. For the entertainment of the guests, actors were invited to give theatrical performances on a specially-erected stage in one of the residential buildings. Thousands of firecrackers were let off as a good omen for long life.
The guests were then invited to a spacious hall in one of the residential buildings where numerous red scrolls made of silk were hung on the wall, bearing characters eulogizing Mrs Hardoon’s deeds. Hundreds of baskets of flowers were in evidence, these being from the friends of both Mrs Hardoon and her deceased husband.
The late Mr Hardoon, who started his career as a godown watchman, eventually built a fortune reputed to be the largest in Shanghai. After his death, the estate had been administered by his widow who was once named as the defendant, in the British Court in China by some of her deceased husband’s relatives who claimed a share of the Hardoon millions.
— Excerpt from The North-China Herald, August 30, 1933
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