Once upon a time - in the year 1840 - a son was born to a poor Hakka family in a small village in the province of Guangdong, China. His name in Mandarin was Zhang Bì Shì. The Hokkiens called him Teoh Tiauw Siat. But he was best known by the Cantonese form of his name, Cheong Fatt Tze.
Not much is known about Cheong Fatt Tze during his growing up years, although we understand that by the time he reached 17, he had left China to seek his fortune in Southeast Asia. At that time, Southeast Asia, or better known as Nanyang (Land of the Southern Seas), was the land of opportunity, where hardworking Chinese immigrants could aspire to seek and find their fortune. He started his business life in Java, where he traded, invested, and sought all opportunities to succeed. He was fortunate to marry into an affluent merchant family, and his father-in-law helped him significantly in establishing himself.
Cheong traded in everything he could get his hands on: pepper, rubber, tea, coffee, tobacco, coconut, wine, rice and most likely, even opium. Through his ability to get along with the European authorities, he was able to acquire vast areas of wasteland for development. His investment is just as diverse, from textile to glassworks to cattle and to banks. By the time he reached the age of 36, he was already one of the most prominent residents of Java.
When the Dutch authorities decided to develop Sumatra, it offered Cheong an opportunity to be further enrich himself. In Sumatra he ventured into pepper, rubber, coffee and tea plantations, and was instrumental in the growth of Medan in northeast Sumatra.
A short distance off Medan is Penang, so it does not take long before Cheong eyed this regional centre as his Malayan base. With cooperation from a trading partner, he establish a firm in Penang dealing in exports from Sumatra. It was in Penang that he built his favourite home, one of many scattered throughout the region, including Jakarta, Medan and China. Why was he so attached to Penang?
One speculation held that his mansion in Penang was the home of his favourite wife, Tan Tay Po @ Chan Kim Po. Madam Tan was the seventh of Cheong's eight wives, and hold the distinction as being the only one to be mentioned in his will.
The success of Cheong's entrepreneurial prowess in the Nanyang eventually attracted the eye of the Chinese Government. In around 1893, on his way to London, China's ambassador to Britain even stopped over in Penang to consult with Cheong, whom he held in high regard. To the secret of his success, Cheong had this to say, as recorded by Ambassador Kung Chao-yuan:
I exhausted the land's resources and observed the changing times; what others sold off I stored up and what they desired to buy I supplied, looking for the expensive place to sell something that was cheap. I knew how to handle the unexpected and win; I practiced diligence and frugality and I selected the proper man on the proper occasion.
Cheong was remarkable in that he was able to work well with both the Manchu Government as well as the subsequent Nationalist Government of China. While Overseas Chinese were once regarded as pariahs, times were changing, and the Government of China began to see the benefit of tapping onto the commercial expertise and investment muscle of this group of nouveau riche Nanyang tycoons, of which Cheong was one.
A year after the initial overture from the Chinese Ambassador, Cheong Fatt Tze visited China to ascertain the country's potential. In 1892, his first project in China got off the ground. It was the Chang Yu Pioneer Wine Company in Chefoo, Shandong Province. The company produced red wine, white wine and brandy, radically Western products in entirely Chinese hands.
The following year, Cheang established the Imperial Bank of China, which was the Central Bank of the Manchu Dynasty. At the same time he was involved in fund raising for the construction of the Guangdong-Hangkow railroad. It was one of his many benevolent projects which included the fund raising for the first Chinese school in Malaya, the Chung-Hwa Confucian School at Maxwell Road, Penang, Eng Sin School in Singapore, and the Western program at Hong Kong University. His efforts did not go unnoticed by the China Government. In 1905, the Manchu Empress Dowager conferred on him the title of "Mandarin of the Highest Order", and promoted him to be China's Special Trade Commissioner for Southeast Asia.
His links to the Manchu Government probably did not sit well with the anti-Manchurian sentiments in the Nanyang, and this was reflected in the lukewarm reception to his later fund-raising projects. However, when the Republican Government of Sun Yat Sen came to power, Cheong was swift to realigned himself, and he remained a valuable agent to the new government, in the role of investor and moderniser.
In 1915, the 75-year-old Cheong headed a team of Nanyang industrialists to America to form a Trans-Pacific steamship line to ply between the US and China. Unfortunately, the project was not realised due to the uncertain political climate. The next year, Cheong was struck with pneumonia, and succumbed to the illness on September 11, 1916 in Jakarta, Batavia.
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