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1874 – 1961 An overseas Chinese legend, Mr. Tan Kah Kee’s legacies have inspired many in Southeast Asia. From immigrant origins, he rose to prominence as an eminent entrepreneur, social reformer, political activist, philanthropist, community leader and educationist. Tan Kah Kee passed away at the age of 86 in Beijing on 12 August 1961 and was accorded a national funeral by the Chinese Government for his immense contributions to society. This page is a timeline of details obtained from various literary sources about his life, his thoughts and his major contributions to social and economic progress in China and much of Southeast Asia.
Tan Kah Kee was born in Jimei village in Tong An District, Fujian Province, China on 21 October 1874. He received a traditional education at Nan Xuan Private School in the village.
In 1890, at age 16, Tan Kah Kee arrived in Singapore and joined his father, Mr. Tan Kee Peck, in the family’s rice trading business as an apprentice and bookkeeper. Tan proved himself to be an exceptional worker, and by 1892, he was put in charge of Chop Soon Ann company after his uncle fell ill and retired.
In 1893, Tan Kah Kee returned to his home village Jimei, China and married Mdm Teo Po Ke. He remained in Jimei for almost two years before returning to Singapore in 1895. He later made two more trips home, for his mother’s death and funeral, and returned to Singapore for the 4th time in 1903.
In 1903, Chop Soon Ann failed, leaving Tan Kah Kee to determine his own future.
With extraordinary fortitude and enterprise, he set about establishing a business of his own. One of his first businesses was Sin Lee Chuan, a small pineapple canning factory at Sembawang, which he started with a small capital of 7,000 Straits dollars. He subsequently bought over Jit Sin, one of the largest pineapple canneries. He then bought a 500-acre undeveloped land in Singapore and, after clearing the jungle, established the Hock Shan Plantation.
From the profits he made from the pineapple business, he revived his family’s old rice trade, setting up Khiam Aik rice mill at North Boat Quay, the original location of Chop Soon Ann.
1905 was the turning point in Tan Kah Kee’s business fortune. He set up his third pineapple cannery at Rochor River, and business boomed. Tan Kah Kee’s pineapple canneries did more than just build up his personal fortune; they were seen as the forerunners of an indigenous industrial revolution in Southeast Asia. It showed the rest of the region that with foresight, an understanding of technical processes and strong commercial impetus, industrialisation was possible.
However, towards the end of the year, more competition entered the booming pineapple industry, and profits dwindled. Tan Kah Kee understood that in order for his business to continue growing, he needed to capitalize on market forces and diversify into new markets and opportunities.
Sensing the potential of rubber , Tan Kah Kee allocated part of the Hock Shan pineapple plantation to planting rubber saplings in 1906. At that time, rubber was largely viewed as a European business dominated by large-scale European companies. Tan was undeterred. His foresight and bold decision proved to be astute, as rubber boomed in the subsequent years and became a mainstay in his business.
Tan Kah Kee strongly believed that education was the key to uplifiting society from poverty, ignorance and despair. In 1907, he founded Tao Nan School together with 109 other members of the Hokkien community.
As a strong supporter of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Tan Kah Kee joined the Tung Meng Hui in 1910 to resist the Qing Manchurian regime in China. Having seen the rapid growth of Western powers and rampant incompetence of a corrupt Qing regime, Tan Kah Kee became a firm believer of a Chinese revolution which would bring about a democratic leadership.
After the successful Xinhai Revolution in 1911, where revolutionists overthrew the Qing dynasty, an independent military government was established in Fujian. To assist the new Fujian Province Recovery Regime, the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan set up the Preservation of Peace Society, and Tan Kah Kee was elected President of the society. He raised more than $200,000.
Later in the year, after Dr. Sun Yat Sen was elected president of the Provisional Government of the newly established Republic of China, Tan Kah Kee raised an additional $50,000 to support Dr. Sun’s democratic government.
Tan Kah Kee helped set up Ai Tong School, which opened for classes on 12 Oct 1912, teaching a curriculum based on the fundamentals of Chinese values.
He later went back to China to set up Jimei School in his hometown. Jimei School officially opened in 1913, and Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore for the 5th time.
The First World War had broken out in 1914. Tan Kah Kee took a bold step and entered the shipping industry, which became a lucrative wartime undertaking. He leased a total of 4 vessels – and subsequently purchased two more – and started a successful shipping business.
Concerning rubber Tan Kah Kee went downstream, transitioning from rubber planting to the manufacture of various rubber goods, using the same workers who used to work at his pineapple canneries.
In the same year, he also set up Chong Hock Girls’ School.
Tan Kah Kee continued expanding his rubber business, and converted Khiam Aik into a rubber mill in 1917.
Tan Kah Kee also sent his younger brother Tan Keng Hean back to Fujian to assist in setting up the Jimei Secondary School and Jimei Normal School.
When the Tianjin floods in China struck, Tan Kah Kee led fundraising efforts for the Tianjin Relief Fund which was set up by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Tan Kah Kee founded The Chinese High School on 21 Mar 1919.
He also pledged $100,000 towards building the proposed Anglo-Chinese College. After plans for the college were aborted, he donated $30,000 to Anglo-Chinese School instead.
Tan Kah Kee decided to devote his life to promoting education, and returned to Jimei in 1919 to prepare for the founding of Xiamen University. He also organized Tong An Education Committee to provide annual financial help to more than forty primary schools in the Republic of China and a few in Singapore.
Xiamen University officially opened in 1921.
In 1922, Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore for the 6th time to expand his rubber business.
Tan Kah Kee founded the Nanyang Siang Pau Chinese newspaper. He also became the chairman of Ee Hoe Hean Club, an exclusive club for Chinese businessmen.
Tan Kah Kee reached the pinnacle of financial success in 1925, and was recognized as one of the earliest industrial pioneers in Southeast Asia. For that he was known as the Henry Ford of Malaya. At his peak, he owned more than 10,000 acres of rubber plantation.
In 1926, Tan Kah Kee expanded the campus of The Chinese High School; at the same time he founded Jimei Farming and Forestry School.
Soon, Tan Kah Kee’s businesses began to decline due to heavily depressed rubber prices, much of it brought on by the economic Depression in the west. He was forced to stop some of the building projects for Xiamen University and Jimei Schools.
Japan occupied Jinan, Shandong on May 3 1928, and killed more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians. When the news reached Singapore, Tan Kah Kee organised the Shandong Relief Fund to aid China and to create awareness of Japanese aggression in the country.
Tan Kah Kee was elected president of the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan in 1929.
Tan Kah Kee also made a generous $10,000 donation to Raffles College that year.
In Feb 1934, Tan Kah Kee Ltd. was liquidated and wound up. Despite major business losses, Tan Kah Kee continued, as much as he could – and with the assistance of his supporters – to finance the various schools he had founded or supported thus far.
After news reached Singapore that the Second Sino-Japanese War has erupted, Tan Kah Kee headed the Singapore China Relief Fund, and raised ten million Singapore dollars to support China in its resistance against the Japanese invasion.
On 19 Oct 1938, Tan Kah Kee was elected as president of the South-East Asia Federation of the China Relief Fund. When he heard that Wang Jingwei, a senior official in the China government, suggested holding peace talks with the Japanese, he was furious. He sent a cable to Chinese parliament strongly opposing Wang. He succeeded, and this episode was thereafter famously remembered as The Cable Motion in Chinese history.
Tan Kah Kee also actively organised public mass assemblies in Singapore to spread awareness of the Japanese aggression, and to garner and inspire support from the overseas Chinese in anti-Japanese efforts. He publicly encouraged the boycott of Japanese goods.
In 1939, Tan Kah Kee founded Nanyang Fishery and Marine School.
In 1940, Tan Kah Kee organised a 60-man Comfort Mission, whose objectives were partly fact-finding and partly to offer comfort and relief to Chinese who suffered at the hands of the Japanese invaders. Amongst other places, the team visited Chongqing (the wawrtime capital) and Yenan amidst the ongoing war.
In 1941, Tan Kah Kee was re-elected as president of the Relief Committee of Nanyang Overseas Chinese for China’s Refugees.
Tan Kah Kee also founded Nanyang Overseas Chinese Normal School in that year.
On 7 Dec 1941, the Japanese army launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, thus setting off the Pacific War with the United States and its allies. On 30 Dec 1941, the Overseas Chinese Mobilization Council was set up and led by Tan Kah Kee.
Singapore fell to Japan on 15 Feb 1942. During the Sook Ching massacre, Japanese hunted and killed any Chinese suspected of harboring anti-Japanese sentiments. Because of his social status and earlier involvement in anti-Japanese efforts, Tan Kah Kee was a prime target for the Japanese during the occupation.
Fortunately, Tan Kah Kee managed to avoid capture and escaped to Marang, East Java, Indonesia. Whilst in hiding, he wrote Memoirs of Nanyang Overseas Chinese, a valuable source of information for future historians.
After World War 2 ended in 1945, Tan Kah Kee returned to a hero’s welcome in Singapore.
In 1946, he founded and published Nan Chiao Jit Poh, a newspaper that was critical of the ruling Kuomintang, which was in a protracted war with the Communists in China. Tan Kah Kee was also openly supportive of Nehru in his battle for India’s independence.
In 1947, Tan Kah Kee organised a conference with Singapore Overseas Chinese, and criticized the Dutch colonialists’ cruel treatment of the Indonesian Chinese. He called for the imposition of economic sanctions on the Dutch government.
Tan Kah Kee founded Nan Chiao Girls High School in 1947.
He also founded the Jiyou bank in Hong Kong to finance the operation costs of the various Jimei schools.
In 1949, Tan Kah Kee returned to China for the first time since the end of the Second World War.
Tan Kah Kee decided to devote the rest of his life and fortune to reconstruction projects. He rebuilt the Jimei schools and Jimei University, and also proposed the building of the Hokkien Railway which would connect Jimei to the island of Xiamen. In 1950, Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore for the last time to wind up his businesses before retiring to his hometown, Jimei.
Tan Kah Kee passed away in Beijing on 12 Aug 1961. After a state funeral in Beijing, his cortege travelled by train to Jimei village where he was eventually buried in Aoyuan, Jimei.
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