Tuesday, January 1, 2013 | By: rudi butt

Dr. Philip Moore, A Prominent Asian Art Collector

Updated (partial) on January 1, 2013

Notable Doctors From the First 100 Years
A Biography of

Philip Moore 毛文奇
A prominent Asian art collector

Qualifications: M.B., B.S., HKU (1938); F.R.C.S., University of Edinburgh (ca.1947)

Philip Moore
(Updated February 24, 2013)born Mao Wen-cee  Mao, alias Philip Moore, (b. September 5, 1915, Shanghai – d. 2004, Hong Kong) was the son of a Chinese doctor who practiced in Hawaii. Mao's mother at the time when married to his father was an art student studying in Japan. When attending an English public school in Shanghai, Mao anglicized his surname to Moore (I'll find out the reason for that when I have time). Soon after graduating from HKU, he joined the Chinese Red Cross Relief Corps and went to China to work in the war zones, returning to Hong Kong after the city has fallen to the Japanese. Altogether Mao was with the Red Cross for 6 years (1939-1945). He worked for HKU as resident in Queen Mary Hospital and later at Kowloon Hospital (1950-1955). Thereafter he started his own private practice and finally retired in 1980s. He was a founding member of the Society of Anesthetists of Hong Kong and was elected President of HKCMA (1960-1962).

Mao had a profound interest in Aisan art and has beccome a  prominent collector as well as a scholar in that field. His enthusiasm was clearly manifested by his involvement in the leading organizations promoting Asian art and history: member, Oriental Ceramic Society in London (since 1965); founding President, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong (1974-1977), ; Honorary Advisor, Hong Kong Museum of Art (1974-2004); Chairman, Min Chiu Society 敏求精舍(1969-1971, 1974-1975); Founder and first Chairman (1980-1997), Chairman emeritus (since 1997), East Asian History of Science Foundation 香港東亞科學史基金會.

Mao married Barbara Chu (1940) who became a leading gynecologist in Hong Kong and was appointed an examiner for gynecology in HKU.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr Moore's private practice in the sixties was on Nathan Road, Kowloon. I remember visiting the place a few times as a kid. I was there not as a patient, but only accompanying my mother, a registered nurse, who used to pop in there to see one of her best mates who was working there as a practice nurse.

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