Tan Kah Kee

Tan Kah Kee (Chinese陈嘉庚, Pinyin Chén Jiageng; Hokkien: Tân Kah -ki ⁿ; born October 21, 1874 in Jimei, Fujian Province; † August 12, 1961 in Beijing) was a Chinese philanthropist from Fujian Province. He emigrated as a young man to Singapore and came back in 1950 as a big industrialist.

In Singapore he initially worked in the rice trade of his father, later he settled pineapple canned produce. He owned plantations for rubber and could be processed commodity, up to 32,000 people were working for him in 1925. With the emphasis in Southeast Asia he entertained about 150 offices worldwide, it was considered as King of the rubber processing ( King of rubber) and Henry Ford of Southeast Asia. Over the following years the success of his business has been greatly diminished by the economic crisis. He sat down in Singapore and Malaya for his Chinese compatriots and promoted through the establishment of several schools whose education, also in English. Shortly before the Japanese conquest of Singapore during the Second World War, he fled to Java, where he wrote his memoirs in the subsequent period. When he was able to return after the war to Singapore, he received a congratulatory telegram from Mao.

As a committed patriot to Tan Kah Kee the formation of the youth had committed in his homeland and founded in 1913 in Xiamen Jimei at the first of many schools. Ten years later, he financed the establishment of the Xiamen University. Today ( 2004) there are 88 educational institutions in Jimei. A total of Tan Kah Kee supported 110 schools and training institutions in 20 countries of Southeast Asia.

Tan Kah Kees grave is located in the Turtle Garden, an island near Xiamen, which has the form of a floating turtle. Here he built a Liberation Monument, which commemorates the struggle against Japan and against the Guomindang. On a 28 -meter-high obelisk is an inscription of 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, an award for young inventor was named after him. In Singapore's rail network a subway station is named, near several schools to Tan Kah Kee.