Florence Fang 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.
Early life
Fang was born Li Bangqin in Beijing, and moved to Taiwan in 1949 with some of her family. Fang lived in Taiwan until 1960, when she met and married John Ta Chuan Fang and they migrated to San Francisco.
Business career
Fang and her husband bought Chinese language media titles, before expanding into English-language titles including AsianWeek and the San Francisco Independent. By 2000, she had sold the "opulent" Grand Palace Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. It 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. In 2000, she acquired the San Francisco Examiner, receiving $66 million from them to run it for three years, becoming the first Asian American to own a major daily newspaper in the US. In 2004, she sold it to Philip Anschutz for $11 million. 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. Florence, her two sons and her dead son's estate launched four counter-claims.
The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden
On April 4, 2014, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led ground breaking ceremonies for the Florence Fang Asian Community Garden, along with then President of the San Francisco Board of SupervisorsDavid Chiu, Supervisor Malia Cohen, and other elected officials. FFACG is now the 2nd largest urban farm in San Francisco and the city’s largest community farm. FFACG grows and distributes 6,000 pounds of fresh produce every year, has over 60 volunteer farmers and operates a food pantry that serves 200 local families. FFACG sits on the land of the former Diana Street Farm, San Francisco’s last commercial farm, operating as late as 1988. FFACG is also the regular Food Bank distribution site and grass-root gathering place. from Doran Memorial Bridge, 2007
Since 2017, Fang has owned The Flintstone House in Hillsborough, California, having previously lived elsewhere in Hillsborough. The house was built in 1976, and designed by the architect William Nicholson. It was listed at US$4.2 million in 2015, but it is believed that Fang bought it for much less. She has 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." Fang is being sued by the city of Hillsborough for causing a public nuisance, and because her changes were largely without permits. Fang has engaged lawyers and is counter-claiming for violating her First Amendment rights, discrimination and emotional distress.
Personal life
In 1960, she married John Ta Chuan Fang. They had three sons. As of 2000, their eldest son James had been a BART board member for a decade, second son Ted is publisher of the San Francisco Independent, and their youngest son, Douglas, has a doctorate in computer science. Douglas Fang died from stomach cancer in 2003. John Ta Chuan Fang died in 1992.
