Eu Tong Sen

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Eu.
Eu Tong Sen
Traditional Chinese: 余東璇
Simplified Chinese: 余东璇

Eu Tong Sen (born 1877, Penang; died May 1941, Singapore) was a leading businessman in Malaya and Singapore during the late 19th and early 20th century. His father, Eu Kong, was a Chinese immigrant from Foshan, Guangdong to Gopeng, Perak. While a child, Eu Tong Sen was sent by his father back to China to study; however, at age 13, his father suddenly died and he inherited the family estate and tin mining business. Two years later, he returned to Malaya to manage the business.[1][2] Aside from his involvement in the tin mining and rubber industries, he was also responsible for extending the family business of traditional Chinese medicine manufacturer Eu Yan Sang into Hong Kong; he felt it was necessary to diversify out of the tin industry, which was coming under increasing government regulation. He also established a remittance business in 1914, which reached throughout Malaya as well as the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, and southern China. His other commercial interests included shareholding in opium farms in Singapore and Penang.[1][3]

Outside of his businesses, Eu was an early admirer of the Shaw Brothers and invited them to Singapore as his guests.[4] He had a large family, with three wives and twenty-five children.[5] In 1919, Singapore's Wayang Street was renamed to Eu Tong Sen Street in his honour.[6] He also organised and oversaw the 1928 construction on that same street of the Majestic Theatre, a performing hall for Cantonese opera, and for forming an opera troupe to perform there, all in order to entertain one of his wives who was a fan of Cantonese opera.[7] Later, he would become the first non-European commoner to be admitted to the Royal Ipoh Club.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b History. Eu Yan Sang International Ltd. (2000). Retrieved on 2007-08-09.
  2. ^ "Eu Tong Sen". Singapore Infopedia. (1999). Singapore: National Library of Singapore. Retrieved on 2007-08-09. 
  3. ^ LIAN, Kwen Fee; WE Koh Keng (October 2004). "Chinese enterprise in colonial Malaya: the case of Eu Tong Sen". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 35: 415–432. doi:10.1017/S0022463404000219. 
  4. ^ "名人軼事：邵逸夫　兩個女人成就的一代影視大亨", People's Daily, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-08-09. 
  5. ^ Lee, Pui-Tak (2006). "Voicing from afar: Family and Business Networks in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries". 26th International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Finland: Department of History, University of Helsinki. 
  6. ^ "Eu Tong Sen Street". Singapore Infopedia. (2003). Singapore: National Library of Singapore. Retrieved on 2007-08-09. 
  7. ^ "Majestic Theatre". Singapore Infopedia. (1999). Singapore: National Library of Singapore. Retrieved on 2007-08-09. 
  8. ^ Anbalagan, V. "Majestic Royal Ipoh Club stands proud", New Straits Times, 23 February 2000. Retrieved on 2007-08-09. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Chung, Stephanie (2006). "The Transformation of an Overseas Chinese Family - Three Generations of the Eu Tong Sen Family, 1822-1941". Modern Asian Studies 39 (3): 599–630.