Tan Kah Kee

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Monument to Tan Kah Kee in Xianmen

Tan Kah Kee ( Chinese  陳嘉庚  /  陈嘉庚 , Pinyin Chén Jiāgēng ; Hokkien : Tân Kah-kiⁿ; born October 21, 1874 in Jimei , Fujian Province ; † August 12, 1961 in Beijing ) was a Chinese philanthropist from Fujian Province. He emigrated to Singapore as a young man and returned in 1950 as a major industrialist.

Life

In Singapore he initially worked in his father's rice trade, and later had canned pineapples made. He ran rubber plantations and had the raw material processed; up to 32,000 employees worked for him in 1925. With the emphasis in Southeast Asia, he chatted about 150 offices around the world, he was regarded as king of the rubber processing ( King of Rubber ) and Henry Ford Southeast Asia . In the course of the following years the success of his businesses was severely reduced by the economic crisis.

He stood up for his Chinese compatriots in Singapore and Malaya and, by founding several schools, promoted their education, also in English; he was significantly involved in the restructuring of the Association of Hokkien Chinese in Singapore, the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan ; From 1929 to 1950 Tan Kah Kee was the president of this community. Shortly before the Japanese conquest of Singapore during the Second World War, he was able to flee to Java, where he wrote his memoirs in the following years. When he was able to return to Singapore after the end of the war, he received a congratulatory telegram from Mao.

As a staunch patriot, Tan Kah Kee was committed to the education of the youth in his home country and founded the first of many schools in Jimei near Xiamen in 1913 . Ten years later, he funded the establishment of Xiamen University . Today (2004) there are 88 teaching institutions in Jimei. Tan Kah Kee sponsored a total of 110 schools and training institutions in 20 countries in Southeast Asia.

Tan Kah Kee's grave is located in the Turtle Garden , an island near Xiamen, which has the shape of a swimming turtle. Here he had a liberation monument erected to commemorate the fight against Japan and against the Guomindang . On a 28 meter high obelisk there is an inscription by Mao Zedong : " The standard bearer of the overseas Chinese, the glory of the nation ". Tan Kah Kee was buried with a state funeral.

In Singapore, a prize for young inventors was named after him. In Singapore's light rail network , a subway station near several schools is named after Tan Kah Kee and the asteroid (2963) Chen Jiageng , discovered on November 9, 1964, has been named after him since 1990.

Web links

Commons : Tan Kah Kee  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tan Kah Kee Inventor Award ( Memento from April 21, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) on tp.edu.sg, in the Internet Archive on archive.org, as of April 21, 2005 (English)
  2. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 16041
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Tan is the family name here, Kah Kee is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Tan Kah Kee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 陳嘉庚 / 陈嘉庚 (Chinese, traditional / short characters); Chen Jiageng (pinyin); Tân Kah-kiⁿ (Hokkien)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese philanthropist and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Jimei , Fujian Province
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1961
Place of death Beijing