Oei Tiong Ham
Oei Tiong Ham ( Chinese 黄仲涵 , Pinyin Huáng Zhònghán ; * 1866 in Semarang , † 1924 in Singapore ) was the founder of the first Southeast Asian multinational conglomerate and the richest man in Southeast Asia. He was the leader of the Chinese Semarang community and was also called the Sugar King of Asia .
Life
Oei Tiong Ham was born in Semarang , Jawa Tengah ( Indonesia ) in 1866 , the second of eight children in the family. He is from Tongan in Fujian , China . He went to a private Chinese school and learned Malay by himself as a child .
His father Oei Tjie-sien (黄志信, Huáng Zhìxìn) laid the foundation for the Oei Tiong Hams empire. He acted in Semarang with incense and Gambir . In 1863 he founded Kian-gwan Kongsi (建 源 公司, Jianyuan Gongsi).
Services
Oei Tiong Ham first got rich with the export of agricultural products and the opium trade . At the turn of the century he became the richest man in Southeast Asia. His company had offices in Bangkok , Calcutta , Singapore , Hong Kong , Shanghai , London and New York . His conglomerate also included land and factories in Java , a bank, a broker in London and a fleet registered in Singapore.
Oei set great store by good contacts with the Dutch colonial rulers and was the first Chinese abroad to wear a western suit.
When he suddenly died of a heart attack in 1924, he left a fortune of 200 million Dutch guilders .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oei Tiong Ham |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Huáng Zhonghan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Indonesian entrepreneur and richest man in Southeast Asia in his day |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1866 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Semarang |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1924 |
| Place of death | Singapore |