James She Fung Tang

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Douglas Lamb, James She Fung Tang's son-in-law, husband to his youngest and spoiled daughter, Lily.

On behalf of the Tang family, we would like to thank everyone for coming, for your prayers, love, cards, flowers and support for the family's loss of a husband, brother, father, father-in-law and grandfather.

James She Fung Tang was born in Canton, China on August 11, 1928. He was the 3rd of 4 children. He moved to Hong Kong as a teenager where he met May Sui Yu and married at the age of 24 on June, 1953. A year later, their 1st child Liz was born. In 1957, Mr. James relocated to the Solomon Islands alone to join his oldest sister's family business as a tailor. His wife and daughter Liz reunited with him a year later. They then had 5 more children. In 1975, James and his family moved to San Francisco to seek better opportunities and to continue his career as a tailor. He first owned a sewing shop in Chinatown for a few years and dabbled in the laundry coin-operated business for another few years. James realized his true passion was in tailoring and opened up a shop in the Richmond District on Geary Blvd. until he retired at the age of 65.

James was a great father. He was very strict with his children except with his youngest daughter, Lily. All his children knew that if they did something bad, Dad would bring out his famous feather duster. From what I heard, the feather duster was NOT used for dusting!

To James, family was always priority. He worked very hard to provide and teach the importance of family values in his children.

James' greatest pleasures were family gatherings and good food with wine or beer. His favorite foods were prime rib, dim sum and seafood. He had never complained about his health and did not like visits to the doctor. In the early 1980s, James was diagnosed with diabetes. Taking his doctor's advice lightly, he continued to live life to the fullest.

This February, James suffered a fall. He was admitted to Seton Hospital where he was treated for an injured leg and where doctors discovered he had pneumonia. He was successfully treated for the pneumonia with antibiotics at the time and was admitted to the St. Francis Pavilion for rehabilitation for his leg.
Over time, his health deteriorated with returning pneumonia. Over the Labor Day weekend, James was taken back to Seton Hospital for another case of pneumonia. Antibiotics were administered and he recovered. James was released later that week and returned back to St. Francis Pavilion for further rehabilitation.

Last Saturday, James wanted to start an early celebration of the Autumn Moon Festival and enjoyed two of his favorite foods: moon cake and porridge with preserved pork and thousand year old egg. He seemed to be in good spirits that day.

On Monday, September 12th, the start of the Autumn Moon Festival, James suffered complications due to pneumonia. He passed away at 6:15 pm at the age of 84.

James is survived by his wife May Sui Yu, their 6 children and spouses and 9 grandchildren; they all are living in the Bay Area:

• Oldest daughter Liz, partner Herb and son Andrew and future daughter-in-law Sabrina.
• The 2nd Oldest is his Son Jimmy, with his wife Cindy and their daughter Juliana and son Colton
• The 3rd child is his Son David, with his wife Selena and their 2 daughters Angie and Cathy
• The 4th is his Daughter Jan, with her husband James and their two sons Jonathan and Jordan
• The 5th child is his Son Tom, with his wife May and their two daughters Rebecca and Isabella
• The 6th and youngest is his Daughter Lily with her husband me

James is also survived by his second oldest sister, Ona Quan who resides in Los Angeles with her family.