Tan Kah Kee

This article is about the businessman. For the Singapore MRT station, see Tan Kah Kee MRT Station.

Tan Kah Kee
Born	October 21, 1874(1874-10-21) Tong'an County, Fujian province
Died	August 12, 1961(1961-08-12) Beijing
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Philanthropic work
Spouse	Teo Po Ke
Children	Tan Ai Li (daughter)
Parents	Tan Kee Peck (father)
Relatives	Tan Keng Hian (younger brother) Lee Kong Chian (son-in-law)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Tan.

Tan Kah Kee (simplified Chinese: 陈嘉庚; traditional Chinese: 陳嘉庚; pinyin: Chén Jiāgēng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Kah-kiⁿ) (October 21, 1874 - August 12, 1961) was a prominent businessman, community leader, and philanthropist in colonial Singapore, and a Communist leader in the People's Republic of China.

Biography

Early years

Tan was born in Jimei, Tong'an county, Fujian province, China (present-day Jimei District in Xiamen City), and went to Singapore in 1890, when he was 16 years old, to work for his father's rice store. After his father's business collapsed in 1903, Tan started his own business and built an empire from rubber plantations and manufacturing, sawmills, canneries, real estate, import and export brokerage, ocean transport to rice trading. His business was at its prime from 1912-1914, where he was known as "Henry Ford of the Malaya community, both in Malaya and his native Fujian province.

Establishment of education institutions

Tan was one of the 110 founding members of Tao Nan School. He set up the Jimei Schools (now Jimei University) in 1913. In 1919, he set up The Chinese High School, now named Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore. While in 1921, he set up the Xiamen University and financially supported it until the Government of the Republic of China took it over in 1937.

Personal

In 1920, he married his daughter Tan Ai Li to Lee Kong Chian, who worked under him and who later became a famous Singaporean philanthropist and businessman.

World War Two

Tan was one of the prominent ethnic Chinese Malayans to financially support Chinese efforts in the Second Sino-Japanese War which broke out in 1937 and organized many relief funds under his name. He was also a participant in the Legislative Yuan of the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing. After the Japanese invaded and occupied Malaya and Singapore during the Battle of Malaya and the Battle of Singapore, these contributors were defined as "undesirables" and were subjected to systematic extermination in the Sook Ching Massacre, although Tan survived. Tan strongly rejected proposals to attempt to negotiate with the Japanese, regarding any such attempts as characteristic of a hanjian (traitor of the Chinese), and petitioned the pessimistic Wang Jingwei to dissuade him from any such activities. Tan also exercised considerable effort against the then-governor of Fujian province, Chen Yi, for perceived maladministration.^[1]

Politics

Tan was the de facto leader of the Singaporean Chinese community, serving as chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and helped organise the Hokkien clan association. However, he lost this role when the Chinese Civil War divided the Singaporean Chinese community into Communist Party of China (CPC) and Kuomintang sympathizers. Tan was a CPC supporter as he was disillusioned with the corruption within the Nationalists.^{[citation needed]} After the Communist victory in China, Tan tried to return to Singapore in 1950, but was denied entry by British colonial authority which was concerned about communist influence in Singapore and Malaya. He then moved permanently to China and served in numerous positions within the CPC. He died in 1961 in Beijing and was given a state funeral by the People's Republic of China. In Singapore, the Tan Kah Kee Scholarship Fund, which later became the Tan Kah Kee Foundation, was established in memory of this philanthropy.

Later years

In 1943, while taking refuge in Java from the Japanese, Tan began writing his memoirs, The Memoirs of an Overseas Chinese of the Southern Ocean (simplified Chinese: 南侨回忆录; traditional Chinese: 南僑回憶錄; pinyin: Nánqíao Húiyìlù). This work became a valuable resource of the history of overseas Chinese.

Image gallery

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  Statue of Tan Kah Kee in front of his memorial hall in Xiamen University

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  A statue of Tan Kah Kee in front of the clock tower of Hwa Chong Institution

See also

• History of Singapore
• The Chinese High School (Singapore)
• Lee Kong Chian
• Tan Kah Kee MRT Station

References

Footnotes

1. ^ Boorman, Howard L. (1968). Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. II. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 252. 

General references

• Jiageng Chen, A. H. C. Ward, Raymond W. Chu, Janet W. Salaff (1994). The Memoirs of Tan Kah Kee. Singapore: Singapore University Press. pp. 366. 
• Yong Chin Fatt (1989). Tan Kah Kee: The Making of an Overseas Chinese Legend. Singapore: Oxford University Press. 
• Tan Kah Kee (1996) (in (Chinese)). The Memoirs of an Overseas Chinese of the South Seas. Taiyuan: Shanxi Guji chuban she. 
• Bonny Tan (1999-01-22). "Tan Kah Kee" (in en). Singapore Infopedia. Singapore National Library Board. http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_839_2004-12-28.html. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 

External links

• Tan Kah Kee Biography & Photo Album
• Tan Kah Kee Foundation Homepage.

Persondata
Name	Tan, Kah Kee
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 21, 1874
Place of birth	Tong'an County, Fujian Province
Date of death	August 12, 1961
Place of death	Beijing