Ch'en Chia-keng 陳嘉庚 Alt. Tan Kah Kee Ch'en Chia-keng (1874 - 12 August 1961 ) , known as Tan Kah Kee, Singapore rubber and shipping entrepreneur, used his profits to found Amoy University, which he singlehandedly supported for 15 years, and other schools in his native village of Chimei, Fukien. During the Sino- Japanese war, as chairman of the Nanyang Overseas Chinese General Association for the Relief of War Refugees in China, he united Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia in support of China's war effort. After 1949 he lived in China and supported the Peking regime. Chimei village, T'ungan hsien, Fukien, was the birthplace of Tan Kah Kee. His father, Tan Ki Pei, left his wife and two sons in the 1880's and went to Singapore to seek his fortune. The success of the venture, even though moderate, was soon reflected in the fact that the boys were able to enter the village school in 1882, when Tan Kah Kee was nine years old.

In the fall of 1890 Tan Kah Kee, then 17 sui, made his first trip to Singapore to help in his father's business, which dealt chiefly with the sale of rice. In 1892 the boy was placed in temporary charge of the business during the absence of the uncle who was its manager. The following year at his mother's request Tan Kah Kee returned to his home in Fukien, to get married. He was then 20, and after the marriage he remained in the village for two years, not making his second trip to Singapore until 1895. On arrival in Singapore, he took over the management of the store from his uncle. In 1897 Tan Kah Kee's mother died, but he was unable to make the trip back to China until 1898 to make funeral arrangements. Tan made his third trip to Singapore in 1899, this time taking along his wife and his younger brother, Tan Keng Yen. In 1900 Tan Kah Kee returned to China again to attend to the final rites connected with the interment of his mother's remains. Although he had planned to return to Singapore immediately, he was detained in Amoy for about two years, attending to business matters. He did not make the next trip, his fourth, to Singapore until 1903.

In the meantime, partly because of his absence and partly because of the extravagance of his stepmother (the senior Tan had taken a subsidiary wife in Singapore), the family business had deteriorated. Eventually, it went bankrupt. Undaunted by this misfortune, Tan Kah Kee, a young man of 31, raised funds sufficient to build a small pineapple cannery in 1904. He soon added a rice store. The pineapple business developed rapidly, and Tan established his own pineapple plantation to supply fruit for canning. At that time, the rubber industry was just beginning in Malaya, and its prospects were uncertain. Although Tan Kah Kee was not the first Chinese in the area to take up rubber planting, he was one of the earliest entrants into the business, experimenting initially with some rubber trees on his pineapple plantation. That step launched him in the rubber industry, which was to constitute the foundation of his fortune. By 1906 he had honored the promise to his father's creditors that he would liquidate the debts outstanding at the time of the failure of the business. By this time his father had retired to their home village in Fukien, where he died about 1909.

In the meantime, the revolutionary upsurge of Chinese nationalism had reached the overseas Chinese. The T'ung-meng-hui, established by Sun Yat-sen in Japan in 1905, opened a branch in Singapore in 1907, with most of the Chinese leaders there joining the society. Although Tan Kah Kee did not then take an active part in the revolutionary movement, he did join the T'ungmeng-hui, and in 1909 he and other sympathizers cut off their queues. The Wuchang insurrection of October 1911 was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Chinese abroad. A month later, when Sun Yat-sen passed through Singapore on his way back to Shanghai to assume leadership of the revolution, Tan Kah Kee promised Sun that he would raise SSS50 thousand to support the republican cause. Tan fulfilled his promise. When the Fukien provincial leaders, following the lead of other provinces in China, declared themselves to be in favor of the revolution, Tan Kah Kee also raised SSS200 thousand among fellow Fukien provincials and remitted that amount to the revolutionary leaders in control at Foochow. This contribution from Malaya greatly bolstered the morale as well as the coffers of the revolutionary forces. The establishment of the republic in 1912 gave Tan Kah Kee, along with most overseas Chinese, hoped that China's difficulties were past and that the beginning of national construction had arrived. Tan's business, especially rubber planting, had prospered. In 1912 he took another trip home to Fukien, and he then decided that he should promote education among the children of his native district. He convinced the elders of Chimei of the need to send all children to school. His argument was particularly convincing because he was prepared to finance the venture. The primary school which Tan started in 1912 was later to develop into what was perhaps the greatest educational effort in China to be financed by one man, culminating in the establishment of Amoy University in 1920. In 1913, Tan Kah Kee went to Singapore again, this being his fifth trip. Before this time, he had attempted to extend his pineapple planting operations to Siam, but that venture was unsuccessful. In Singapore, however, Tan's firm still dominated the pineapple canning industry. The First World War initially affected Tan Kah Kee adversely, for his pineapple market in Europe was virtually cut off. But losses in that industry were soon to be more than compensated for in other areas.

In 1915 Tan Kah Kee took a bold step and entered the shipping industry, perhaps the most lucrative ofwartime undertakings. He chartered two vessels and put them into service on the Indian Ocean, plying between Singapore and Indian and Persian Gulf ports. Since he obtained government contracts for the transportation of supplies, he was protected from operating losses. The same year he entered the rubber manufacturing business, making use of his pineapple cannery workers. In previous years Tan had become an increasingly important rubber planter, and it was a natural step to begin manufacturing rubber goods. Shipping, however, remained the most lucrative of Tan Kah Kee's enterprises during the First World War. His business sense led him to be prepared for the refusals of the owners of the chartered vessels to renew the leases, and he purchased two ships. Both of these vessels were sunk by the Germans in 1918, but Tan was protected by insurance.

By 1917, the year of his wife's death, Tan Kah Kee had already become a millionaire. He felt that he now had the resources to proceed with his plans to improve education in his home area. He sent his younger brother home to Fukien to establish the Chimei Normal School to train teachers. With the end of the war in 1918, Tan Kah Kee, then worth about SS$4 million, felt that it was time for him to retire from active business and to devote his efforts to the promotion of education. He summoned his brother back to Singapore to take charge of his interests, and he returned to his home area to supervise the Chimei Primary School and the newly created Chimei Normal School. He also established a school of marine production and navigation. During this stay in his home district, Tan Kah Kee launched his most ambitious educational venture: the founding and operation of a university intended for the youth not only of Fukien province but of all Southeast Asia. Tan made an initial contribution of SS$1 million to establish the institution: he named it Amoy University, being careful to avoid glorifying his own name. He had hopes that other Fukien millionaires in the Southeast Asian regions would later, if not immediately, come to support the university, but his hopes in this respect were never fulfilled. Amoy University was officially inaugurated on 6 April 1921. The first board of directors included Huang Yen-p'ei, Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, David Yui, and Wang Ching-wei. Tan had offered the presidency of the university to Wang Ching-wei, who declined the honor. He then appointed Teng Ts'ui-ying, who was a counselor in the ministry of education in the Peking government. Teng wished to serve as president of the university without resigning his post at Peking. Greatly disappointed, Tan then turned to his friend Lim Boon Keng (Lin Wen-ch'ing, q.v.). Dr. Lim sacrificed a lucrative medical practice in Singapore to become president of Amoy University. He held that position from 1921 until 1937, when the institution was taken over by the Chinese government. Because Tan's enterprises in Singapore were faring well, he thought that he could continue to support the university for an indefinite period. In 1922 the brother whom he had left in Singapore to manage the business had to retire because of poor health. Accordingly, Tan Kah Kee once again left China for Singapore.

Tan was now at the peak of his business career. The postwar boom, especially in the rubber industry, still prevailed. In the three years from 1923 to 1925, Tan made more than SS$10 million, of which he spent nearly 3 million for Amoy University and the Chimei group of schools. His assets included 15,000 acres of rubber plantations, several raw rubber processing plants, a sawmill, a pineapple cannery, and a rice store. He paid special attention to expanding the market for his own rubber manufactures. By 1926, however, Tan Kah Kee's businesses had begun to decline. In 1928, after the Tsinan Incident of 3 May, the Chinese in Singapore launched a campaign for the boycott ofJapanese goods and organized a relief fund for Chinese war sufferers in Shantung. Tan served as chairman of the fund. The Nanyang Siang Pau [Nanyang commercial journal], a newspaper controlled by Tan, published accusations against a prominent Singapore businessman who was continuing to import Japanese products. Tan claimed that the fire which completely destroyed his main rubbermanufacturing plant was a retaliatory act. Even after claiming insurance compensation, Tan suffered a loss of SS$500 thousand. Tan Kah Kee's waning economic fortunes were affected further by the world economic depression, which struck Malaya's speculative rubber business in the years from 1929 to 1931. By 1931 Tan's financial position had so deteriorated that his bankers forced him to put all of his properties into the custody of directors appointed by his creditors. Tan retained the position of chief manager of the company, at a respectable monthly salary. He also endeavored to get the corporation to support the Amoy schools. The situation continued to worsen, and by the beginning of 1934 the corporation had to be liquidated. Tan escaped personal bankruptcy because of the transfer of his assets to the company at the time of its formation. The failure of Tan Kah Kee's rubber enterprises in Malaya came to the attention of the National Government at Nanking, where the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission even raised the question of offering government assistance to Tan. Nothing came of the suggestion.

Tan Kah Kee's principal concern was the fate of Amoy University. Even in his greatly reduced circumstances of the years before 1934, he had not interrupted his support. At the same time he had approached the National Government about taking over the institution. Tan again tried unsuccessfully to win the support of other Chinese millionaires. In 1936, however, he did raise enough to acquire a 400-acre rubber plantation for the university, enabling it to carry on for another year. In 1936 contributions came through the response of Tan's own son-inlaw, K. C. Lee (Li Kuang-ch'ien, q.v.), and of Tan Lark Sye, a distant cousin. After protracted negotiations, the ministry of education took over the university in 1937.

The war between China and Japan erupted in the summer of 1937. Although Tan Kah Kee was over 60 and had lost his fortune, his great patriotic contributions to China were yet to be made. In 1938 Tan was elected chairman of the Nanyang Overseas Chinese General Association for the Relief of War Refugees in China. The organization aimed at mobilizing contributions to the war chest of the Chinese government and was a federation of local relief associations organized in 12 basic areas. Four were British territories (Singapore, Malaya, Burma, and North Borneo) ; and the others were the Philippines, French Indo-China, Siam, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, South Borneo, and Hong Kong. Hong Kong, however, was never an active participant in the program. These areas covered virtually the entire Southeast Asian region. The Chinese living there had normally been restricted to their single territory; and even within a single territory, the Chinese communities were subdivided, usually along provincial lines. Never before had the Chinese in Southeast Asia been united in a single organization for a single objective. Tan's election to the chairmanship of the organization was a notable public expression of the confidence which overseas Chinese in the entire region had in him. The Nanyang Overseas Chinese Relief Association was officially inaugurated at Singapore on 19 October 1938. Tan Kah Kee's election to the chairmanship had the endorsement of the Kuomintang authorities, who recognized the high respect which Tan commanded in overseas Chinese circles. From 1938 through 1941, the association was an outstanding monument to overseas Chinese patriotism. For many reasons, including the steady devaluation of the Chinese currency and the varying restrictions of the governments administering the areas involved, it is impossible to determine the total amount of money raised by the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia for the Chungking war effort. Tan Kah Kee estimated that during the three years from 1939 through 1941, contributions from Southeast Asia averaged China 57,340,000, or about US$350,000, monthly. The association also enlisted the services of large numbers of men (an estimated total of over 3,000 during the course of the war) to go to China to assist in motor transport operations.

Late in 1939, with the approval of the Chinese government, Tan Kah Kee organized a comfort mission to visit the homeland. That mission, with Tan as its leader, toured China during 1940. The trip had great effect on Tan's political views. He was greeted with due respect at Chungking, but was disappointed in many of the government leaders he met. Although he had been a member of the T'ung-meng-hui branch at Singapore before 1911, he refused the overtures of ranking Kuomintang leaders who invited him to join the party. A visit to Yenan, the Chinese Communist wartime capital, won over Tan to the support of Mao Tse-tung. Tan was far from being converted to Communism ideologically, but he was impressed by the integrity and efficiency of the Yenan leaders, particularly in comparison with the methods of men holding power at Chungking. Tan then made a tour of the southern provinces, including Fukien. He felt that his native province was the most neglected of all the areas he visited, and soon afterward he launched an active, but ineffective, campaign for the removal of Ch'en Yi (q.v.), the wartime Nationalist governor of Fukien.

Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore on 31 December 1940. Although he now was openly critical of the National Government, he nevertheless continued to guide the affairs of the Relief Association and to raise funds for the defense of China. Despite his expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership at Chungking, Tan Kah Kee's personal integrity was endorsed by his overseas compatriots in 1941, and he was reelected chairman of the organization. The outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 ended the existence of the Relief Association, and Tan remitted all money on hand to China. The situation in Singapore became untenable after the Japanese occupation. On 3 February 1942 Tan Kah Kee had left for Sumatra on the way to Java. Soon the Japanese occupied that area. During the war years Tan Kah Kee, in disguise, lived in several parts of Java. Early in 1944 he began to write his memoirs. While livin
under cover in Java, Tan drew practical dividends from earlier investments in the Chimei school and Amoy University—the many alumni who were living in Java gave him financial support and protected him from discovery by Japanese agents. When the war ended in August 1945, Tan Kah Kee came out of hiding and returned to Singapore. On the way, he was given a great farewell at Jakarta on 2 October. Disregarding the advice of friends, Tan spoke frankly at that meeting, stating that although he had received many kindnesses from Chiang Kai-shek during his 1940 trip to China, he nevertheless felt it necessary to distinguish between personal feeling and the public interest. Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore on 6 October 1945. A celebration was held in his honor on 21 October, at which he repeated much of his criticism of Chungking. Earlier, on 18 October 1945, a public rally had been held at Chungking to celebrate Tan Kah Kee's return to safety. Most of the ten public organizations which sponsored that meeting in Tan's honor were Communist front groups. Government approval was shown, however—Shao Li-tzu (q.v.), a government official, presided over the rally. Prominent figures at the meeting included Huang Yen-p'ei Liu Ya-tzu, Kuo Mo-jo, and Shen Chün-ju. Mao Tse-tung sent a banner to the rally, and Feng Yu-hsiang composed a couplet to mark the occasion.

Tan Kah Kee turned at once to winding up the affairs of the relief association, and he started an investigation of the losses suffered by overseas Chinese during the war. He also attempted to ease labor-capital tensions which had emerged in Singapore after the war. However, the unprecedented unity of the overseas Chinese caused by the Japanese attack on China and strengthened by Japanese occupation began to disintegrate with the return of peace. For all his success in time of crisis, Tan was unable to reunify and lead the overseas Chinese in time of peace. Tan saw that the conflict between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communists was irrepressible, and he was certain of the latter's victory. Toward the end of 1946 he founded the newspaper Nan-ch'iao jih-pao, which was to become the mouthpiece of the China Democratic League in Malaya. Tan himself became increasingly outspoken in his attacks on the National Government of China.

In September 1946 Tan sent a message to President Harry S. Truman calling for an end to United States aid to the Kuomintang-dominated government, since that aid, in his view, was only serving to prolong the civil war in China. On 25 December 1947 he published an article predicting the failure of the American campaign to aid the Chinese Nationalists. Earlier, on 9 June 1947, Tan had issued a statement condemning the National Government as an inefficient dictatorship. His principal charge was that although China had regained Taiwan, an area of some 30,000 square kilometers, the Chinese government had lost Outer Mongolia, an area of over 1,500,000 square kilometers. Early in 1949, Tan Kah Kee made another trip to China, this time going to the Communistoccupied areas. He arrived in Peiping in time to participate in the preparations for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. When that group was formally convened in September 1949, Tan was the ranking overseas Chinese delegate to the meeting. The conference led to the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, and Tan was elected a member of the Central People's Government Council. Later in 1949 Tan made a tour of China. When he revisited Fukien, he was given a great ovation in Chimei. In order to wind up his personal and business affairs, he then returned to Singapore by way of Kiangsi, Kwangtung, and Hong Kong, arriving at Singapore on 15 February 1950. At a public meeting to welcome him on 4 March, Tan praised the newly established Communist regime. In May 1950 he published a collection of his writings under the title Impressions of New China.

In addition to his membership on the Central People's Government Council in Peking, Tan was appointed to membership on the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission and on the East China Military and Administrative Committee. In 1953 he participated in the committee for the drafting of the constitution of the People's Republic of China, and later he was elected a deputy, representing the overseas Chinese, to the First National People's Congress, which met in 1954 and adopted the constitution. He was reelected to the Second Congress in 1958, and was on the standing committee of both congresses. In October 1956, Tan helped to found the All-China Federation of Overseas Returned Chinese and was elected chairman of that group. In his last years Tan divided his time between Peking and his native Fukien province. He was past 80, and his health began to fail. In the early hours of 12 August 1961, Tan Kah Kee died in Peking. One of his sons, Ch'en Kuohuai was at his bedside. The funeral service was attended by many senior Peking leaders, including Chou En-lai and Chu Teh, and the remains were later taken for burial to Tan's native village of Chimei. The Peking government honored Tan by issuing a handsome illustrated volume, Ch'en Chia-keng hsien-sheng chi-nien ts'e, published in 1962, which gave an account of his life and the circumstances of his death. On the anniversaries of his death, special commemoration services have been held in his honor. A memorial hall was constructed on the campus of Chimei Normal School and was dedicated to him. In 1920, Tan Kah Kee gave his eldest daughter, Alice Tan (Tan Ah Lay), in marriage to K. C. Lee, at the same time that he appointed Lee general manager of the Tan business organization in Singapore. Tan's eldest son, Tan Kok Keng (Ch'en Kuo-ching) was made manager of the Chi Yu Bank in Hong Kong.