Two foreigners received Shanghai’s top honor: Honorary Citizen. Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong presented the awards to Linda Tsao Yang, 90, Chairwoman Emeritus of the Asian Corporate Governance Association, and Wong Fatt Heng, 60, General Manager of Roche Diagnostics (Shanghai). Yang was born in Shanghai, but became an American citizen. She was involved in the environmental treatment program of Suzhou Creek in Shanghai, and helped to raise USD300 million in loans for the program. Wong, 60, was honored for bringing technologies into China that benefited the medical community, cultivated talent in the field of bioscience and promoted the development of clinical laboratory research. He was born in Malaysia, but his parents came from Guangdong province. Wong is also among the few people to be awarded all three Magnolia awards – silver (introduced in 1989), gold and honorary citizenship (both introduced in 1992). The Mayor also awarded 10 others Shanghai Magnolia Gold Awards in recognition of their contributions to the city’s development. The recipients come from the U.S., Sweden, France, Ireland, Ukraine, Italy, Singapore and Serbia. “Having lived and worked in over 20 countries, I have no hesitation in saying that the city of Shanghai is the essence of a modern metropolis, which looks to the future with bold determination and sharp focus,” said Marco Pellizzer, General Manager of the China Mainland and Hong Kong Region of CITS American Express Global Business Travel. He was speaking on behalf of the 10 gold recipients, the Shanghai Daily reports.