He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East Asian and Hong Kong entertainment industry.

They established the company that would later become the Shaw Organisation, and were involved in distributing and producing films in Southeast Asia.

[14] Tianyi produced what is considered the first sound-on-film Chinese talkie in 1931,[15] and made the first Cantonese sound film in 1932.

[27] This company would eventually produce over 160 Malay films,[28] many of them starring and directed by P. Ramlee, until their studio at Jalan Ampas ceased production in 1967.

[29][30] The period between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1960s is known as the Golden Age of Malay Cinema, with over 300 films made between MFP and Cathay Keris.

Shaw copied Hollywood by setting up a permanent production site where his actors worked and lived on 46 acres purchased from the government in Clearwater Bay.

[35] The popular nostalgic costume dramas of Shaw Brothers celebrated traditional Chinese values and culture, which was in contrast to the then anti-traditional ideology of Communist mainland China (particularly during the Cultural Revolution), but fit with the policy of the Nationalist government of Taiwan and US anti-Communist strategy, while not conflicting with the less provocative approach of the colonial government of Hong Kong.

[36] Shaw Studios also popularised an early (Wuxia) variant of kung fu film genre that had influence on directors such as John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.

[2][37] The studio, which held virtual monopoly of filmmaking in Hong Kong, declined in the 1970s, partly due to competition from Golden Harvest formed by Raymond Chow and employing many former ex-employees of Shaw that have been dismissed.

[38] Shaw also looked for opportunities in the United States and co-produced a handful of US films, including the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner.

[39] In 1967, he co-founded TVB, the first free-to-air television station in Hong Kong, growing it into a multibillion-dollar TV empire with channels broadcast in 30 markets including the US, Canada and Taiwan, making it the world's largest producer of Chinese-language programs.

[37] Shaw was one of the largest shareholders in Macy's after buying 10 percent of its preferred shares for US$50 million when it was nearly bankrupt in 1991.

[5][33] Shaw had four children with his first wife: sons Vee Meng and Harold, and daughters Violet and Dorothy.

[43] His body was transferred from the United Christian Hospital to the Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point on 10 January 2014.

Many local leaders attended the funeral that day, including former chief executives Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang.

PRC president Xi Jinping, former premier Wen Jiabao and National People's Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang sent messages of respect.

He received a knighthood in 1977 from Queen Elizabeth II and the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) from the Hong Kong government in 1998.

[42] In 1984, he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Hong Kong to honour an outstanding contribution to applied visual arts, as well as to the community and cultural developments.