Chapter 25 Kah Kee, a figure in corporate history

On February 19, 1934, in a rice shop in Singapore, Tan Kah Kee Co., Ltd., the largest Chinese industrial group in Southeast Asia, announced that it would close two days later.The company's rubber factories, biscuit factories, sawmills, brick and tile factories, and pineapple canning factories were all closed, causing a large number of workers to lose their jobs and affecting the livelihood of 130,000 workers and their families. Tan Kah Kee (1874-1961) was the most successful overseas Chinese businessman in the past ten years.Southern Fujian and the Chaoshan area of ​​Guangdong have a tradition of going to Nanyang to survive since ancient times. Many people have become local wealthy businessmen because of this. They have become a very unique group of Chinese entrepreneurs. Until today, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and other countries are the richest people. Still a Chinese entrepreneur.They have made irreplaceable contributions to the economic rise of Southeast Asian countries. F. Swettenham, the British Governor of Singapore, once said, "Nine-tenths of the government's revenue comes from overseas Chinese, and they are hardworking and law-abiding. The gratitude to the overseas Chinese cannot be expressed in words.” Tan Kah Kee was born in Jimei, a small fishing village in Tong’an County on the coast of southern Fujian. , leading to bankruptcy.Tan Kah Kee was empty-handed and paid off his father's debts. He first opened a canned pineapple processing factory, and then joined the shipping industry with high risks and high profits during the First World War. Shen, but received huge insurance compensation from the French government. In 1918, with an insurance claim of 1.2 million yuan, he devoted himself to the emerging rubber plantation industry.He successively purchased thousands of acres of rubber plantations. In 1922, the economic crisis broke out in Europe, the stock market was sluggish, and the market price of rubber continued to decline. Tan Kah Kee went against the current and invested in the acquisition of nearly 10,000 acres of rubber plantations and 10 rubber factories, building the largest comprehensive in Southeast Asia. Rubber manufacturing factory.

Three years later, in 1925, the market turned upside down. With the recovery of the economy, the price of rubber soared from more than 30 yuan per load at the beginning of the year to 200 yuan at the end of the year. Tan Kah Kee became the "rubber king" in one fell swoop. More than 100 shops, more than 15,000 acres of rubber and pineapple gardens, 32,000 employees, and a total capital of 15 million yuan. Chen's "Rubber Kingdom" lasted only four years. In October 1929, a severe financial crisis broke out on Wall Street in New York, and the disaster quickly spread to the whole world. The United States was the main buyer of rubber from Singapore and Malayan. The shrinking demand led to the collapse of the market. Rubber is only worth 7 or 8 yuan per load. Compared with the hot ones a few years ago, it seems like a world away. A pair of rubber shoes used to sell for more than 1 yuan, but now it has dropped to 2 cents. In March 1930, a fire broke out in the Tan Kah Kee Rubber Factory, which made things worse. Stores all over the country closed down from time to time or managers absconded with money, and all real estate properties depreciated sharply.By August 1931, Tan Kah Kee owed nearly 4 million yuan in debt to the bank, and was forced to accept the reorganization request proposed by eight creditor banks including HSBC.In the next two years, the bankers were eager to reduce their losses, shut down the factories of the Chen Group and turned them over to retail sales. Tan Kah Kee was extremely distressed but helpless.Finally, in 1934, it was declared disintegrated and closed.

Tan Kah Kee’s business failure was related to his radical strategy of deliberate expansion. At that time, public opinion ridiculed him as “Meng Lang”. In addition, the lack of support from the financial system was also one of the reasons for the failure. According to the oral recollection of Chinese businessman Chen Weilong, Tan Kah Kee had During the crisis, Huaren Bank tried its best to only lend him 1 million yuan, which was far from quenching his thirst, so he had to accept the harsh conditions of the British bank. After May 1933, the global economic crisis had been relieved, and orders from Europe and the United States began to increase. The board of directors controlled by the British suddenly made a decision to sell all the rubber shoes produced by Chen’s company to a British trading company. Tan Kah Kee protested angrily and refused. After signing the contract, the board of directors finally enforced the agreement. A British director said, "My rights in the UK cannot be tampered with by people from other countries."

After the market closes, Tan Kah Kee will have no more masterpieces in the future.The reason why he is regarded as a model entrepreneur and a spiritual idol of overseas Chinese is because of his unswerving enthusiasm for helping students for decades.He believes: "The prosperity of a country lies in its people, and the development of its people lies in education, which is the foundation of a country." His continuous investment in education can be described as "crazy". Like Zhang Jian in Nantong, Tan Kah Kee vowed to transform his hometown fishing village. In 1914, he founded Jimei High School No. 2 Primary School, and then successively established Girls’ Primary School, Normal School, Middle School, Kindergarten, Aquatic Products, Business, Agriculture and Forestry, Chinese Studies College, and Kindergarten Normal School, etc. Gradually develop, built electric light factory, hospital, science museum, library, large stadium in the school.The famous "Jimei School Village" was built in the former remote fishing village.In the 1920s and 1930s, Jimei and Zhang Jian's Nantong, and Lu Zuofu's Beibei were the three most well-known models of new towns in China.While building Jimei, he also established more than 40 primary schools in Tong'an County, and successively subsidized 73 primary and secondary schools in 20 counties and cities in Fujian.In Singapore, Tan Kah Kee tried his best to advocate the establishment of Chinese schools, and successively donated funds to establish Chongfu Girls' School, Nanyang Overseas Chinese High School and Nanyang Girls' High School.

In 1919, while buying rubber plantations everywhere, he initiated the establishment of Xiamen University. At the fundraising meeting, he bluntly stated that his student aid was "forced by patriotism and ignorance", and he announced on the spot that he would donate 4 million yuan, of which The start-up fee was 1 million yuan, and the remaining 3 million yuan was paid off in 12 years. At that time, his accumulated assets were only 4 million yuan, which was equivalent to spending all his money to run a school. In 1929, the Chen Group began to run into trouble, but he still paid Jimei and Xiamen University on time. His eldest son, Chen Jimin, persuaded him to reduce capital to protect himself. , why worry about it.” When it was extremely difficult, he mortgaged the three buildings to the bank for loans, and made an astonishing decision to “sell the buildings and help Xiamen University”. In 1931, when HSBC and other creditor banks reorganized the company, the British directors could not understand Tan Kah Kee’s behavior of still helping students in a desperate situation. He said clearly, “I would rather close the company than stop the school.” The two sides saw each other, Finally, it was agreed that the financial support for Xiamen University and Jimei University was limited to 5,000 yuan per month.Later, Tan Kah Kee adopted the method of breaking up the whole into parts, and rented several profitable enterprises to his son-in-law and cronies, and agreed that when the year-end dividends were distributed, half or 30% of the other party's income would be used as school funds.He also donated 115,000 yuan to rich businessmen in his family, plus his own 160,000 yuan, to buy 400 acres of rubber plantations, which will be used as a fund for Xiamen University, with a monthly income of 2,000 yuan.By May 1936, Tan Kah Kee was really unable to help, so he had no choice but to write a letter to the national government, imploring the government to take Xiamen University into the national government. He was willing to donate all his properties unconditionally, and asked himself to cancel the position of director. In the letter, he blamed himself very much. Said, "Every time I read, I will try my best to develop a school, and I will do my best to fulfill the vocation of the people. I don't want to exhaust the economy. I don't want to end up doing good, and I'm sorry for the government." Two months later, the National Government approved the approval. At this time, Xiamen University has It developed into 9 departments of 3 colleges of liberal arts, science, law and business. It was one of the 5 universities with the most departments in China at that time. Famous scholars such as Lu Xun, Lin Yutang, and Gu Jiegang once taught here.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tan Kah Kee actively raised donations in Nanyang to support the Anti-Japanese War. In October 1938, overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia such as Hong Kong, Malaya, Indonesia, and the Philippines jointly established the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Association for Relief for Wounded Soldiers and Refugees" (referred to as Nanyang Association) to unify Leading overseas Chinese anti-Japanese and national salvation activities, Tan Kah Kee was elected as the chairman of the Federation. In the following years, the Federation established 702 grassroots national salvation organizations, which played a great role in recruiting troops and raising funds. According to the report of Military and Political Minister He Yingqin in 1939, the whole The annual military expenditure is 1.8 billion yuan, and overseas Chinese donations account for one-fifth. In March 1940, Tan Kah Kee led a delegation of overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia to return to China. They visited Chongqing and Yan'an successively, which greatly boosted the morale of the people.One year later, when the Pacific War broke out, the Japanese army invaded Southeast Asia and offered a reward of one million yuan to capture Tan Kah Kee. He fled to and from the Java Islands in Indonesia. He hid a small bag of "potassium cyanide" in his bosom, ready to die for his country at any time. At that time, there were many rumors that he had died in disaster. In 1945, Japan was defeated and Tan Kah Kee returned to Singapore. The news spread back to China and became a major joyous news. On November 18 of that year, the "Tan Kah Kee Safety Celebration Conference" was held in Chongqing. More than 500 people including Guo Moruo, Shao Lizi, Huang Yanpei, Tao Xingzhi, etc. During the meeting, Mao Zedong, who was far away in Yan'an, also sent a slip titled "Overseas Chinese Flag, National Glory". The participants all deeply agreed with Huang Yanpei's sigh, "The one who has made a fortune, and is willing to give it all, is only Mr. Chen. "

In May 1949, Tan Kah Kee was invited by Mao Zedong to return to China and settle down. On August 12, 1961, he died in Beijing.Before his death, he left a will, and the inheritance of 3.34 million yuan was donated to the construction of schools and township communities. His children, men without a job, are provided with living expenses of 20 yuan a month, and women are 15 yuan a month. If a person is married or has a funeral, each will pay 200 yuan.After his death, the funeral ceremony in Beijing was extremely grand.Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Zhu De personally carried out funeral funerals, and overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia automatically set up separate mourning halls to pay homage. In Singapore, 300 associations and nearly 10,000 people attended the memorial meeting. A pair of elegiac couplets were hung at the meeting. , the Leftist League "is a generation of righteousness and a generation of perfect people."

In January 1991, the Chinese Academy of Sciences named an asteroid "Tan Kah Kee Star." The so-called "sun and moon shine together", Chen Gong got it.