Oei Tiong Ham (b. 19 November 1866, Semarang, Indonesia–d. 6 June 1924, Singapore) was a successful Indonesian Chinese businessman.1 He built the Oei Tiong Ham Concern (OTHC), which was then one of the earliest business empires in Southeast Asia. He was also known as the “Sugar King of Java”.2
Early life
Oei Tiong Ham was born in Indonesia to Oei Tjie Sien. The elder of two sons, he was educated in a Chinese school. In 1885, he joined Kian Gwan Kongsi, a multi-national trading company that his father established in 1863.3
Semarang, Indonesia
With his wealth and business connections, Oei exerted significant influence over the Chinese community in Semarang.4 During that time, many Chinese were legally required to wear the traditional Chinese attire. In November 1889, Oei submitted a request, through his Dutch lawyer Baron C. W. van Heeckren, for permission to be dressed in European fashion. He became the first Chinese in Indonesia to dress in this manner. Subsequently, he was also the first Chinese in Semarang to cut his queue (or towchang, long hair worn in a back braid).5
The visits he received from distinguished guests – such as the King of Siam, and the crown princesses of Denmark and Greece – were a testament to Oei’s reputation and social status.6
Oei Tiong Ham Concern
Oei’s most famous legacy is the Oei Tiong Ham Concern (OTHC). It was the largest conglomerate in the Dutch East Indies in the early 20th century. It began with Kian Gwan Kongsi, which Oei inherited from his father in 1890 and converted to a limited liability company in 1893. The firm’s main business was trade in commodities, such as rubber and coffee. In addition, it operated pawnshops and postal services. It was also involved in logging and the highly lucrative opium trade. Between 1890 and 1904, Oei made a profit of 18 million guilders from the opium trade alone.7
Unlike many Chinese businessmen, Oei relied heavily on written contracts. His main debtors in the 1890s were owners of sugar factories in East Java, who could not repay their loans. With the written contracts, Oei legally acquired the collaterals, including five sugar factories, for the loans he extended. Sugar factories thus became the backbone of OTHC. Widely considered the most successful sugar merchant in the Netherlands East Indies, Oei was nicknamed the “Sugar King of Java”.8
OTHC started to expand rapidly in the 1890s and became a group with a diversified business portfolio by the early 1910s. Its exports included agricultural and forestry products.9 It was the largest ethnic Chinese business conglomerate in pre-war Asia. Oei did not rely on family members to run his business enterprises, but employed talented outsiders, such as ethnic Dutch directors, managers and engineers. Nevertheless, it remained a family business with ownership firmly held by the Oei family.10 To coordinate the finances of his business, he established a bank called N.V. Bankvereniging Oei Tiong Ham.11
After Oei’s death, OTHC continued to grow. However, on 10 July 1961, the Pengadilan Ekonomi (the court for economic crimes) in Indonesia issued a confiscation order on OTHC in Indonesia. The company and its owners were charged with economic crimes against the country.12 According to a government official, these crimes included violating foreign exchange rules for millions of rupiahs.13 OTHC was then nationalised and renamed on 12 October 1964 to PT Radjawalli. However, the overseas subsidiaries remained with the Oei family.14
Life and business in Singapore
In 1920, Oei left Semarang to settle in Singapore. It was suggested that he did so probably because he did not agree with the Dutch succession law. The Dutch civil law gave daughters the right of inheritance. Apparently Oei did not want any of his daughters to inherit his fortune. Another likely reason was that he wanted to avoid paying the 30 percent tax imposed on the excess profits he earned during World War I (1914–18).15 The law required all citizens to report to a Dutch consulate within three months of arrival in a foreign country, or risk having their citizenship revoked. Oei chose not to do so and conveniently had his Dutch citizenship forfeited.16
Oei’s businesses in Singapore included Kian Gwan Kongsi’s branch office established in 1914.17 He was also the chairman of Heap Eng Moh Steamship Company Limited, a Singapore company registered at 22 Telok Ayer Street that he had bought in 1912.18 In 1919, when Overseas Chinese Bank was formed, he was one of the first subscribers to its shares.19
In Singapore, Oei gave generously to many causes, including $150,000 for the construction of a central hall for Raffles College.20 In recognition of his generosity, Oei Tiong Ham Hall at the then-University of Singapore was named after him.21 Other organisations he donated to included the Chinese High School, St Andrew’s Medical Mission and the Japanese Earthquake Relief Fund. He contributed land later used to build Toh Lam School on Armenian Street.22
Wives and children23
Oei had eight official wives, who bore him 13 sons and 13 daughters.24 He was concerned with succession planning and perceived having a son as a valuable business objective. He ultimately appointed nine sons from three wives as his heirs. This practice was allowed under the English law, as he was a British subject in Singapore.25
Wife |
Daughter (s) |
Son (s) |
Goei Bing Nio, Oei’s first wife, was hand-picked by his parents |
Oei Tjong-lan Oei Hui-lan, better known as Mrs Wellington Koo |
- |
The Khiam Nio |
Oei Djoe Nio |
- |
The Tjik Nio |
Oei Hwan Nio |
Oei Tjong Tee |
Ong Tjiang Tjoe Nio |
Oei Siok Kiong Nio Oei Bien Nio |
- |
Ong Mie Hoa Nio |
Oei Swat Nio |
Oei Tjong Hauw |
Njoo Swat Ting Nio |
Oei Siok Ing Nio |
- |
Ho Kiem Hoa Nio (alias Lucy Ho), moved to Singapore with Oei. She lived with him until his death. |
Oei Twan Nio |
Oei Tjong Le |
Tan Sien Nio |
Oei Siang Nio |
- |
A vast estate
Oei died of a heart attack in 1924 at 59 years old.26 His daughter Oei Hui-lan believed that he was poisoned. Oei’s body was shipped to Semarang for burial in his father’s tomb.27
Of the nine sons who were made Oei’s rightful heirs, only two, Tjong Swan and Tjong Hauw, reached maturity at the time of his death. The other children not selected to be his heirs received substantial amounts of money from his estate, which was estimated to be worth two hundred million guilders.28
Author
Lee Hwee Hoon
References
1. Leo Suryadinata, Prominent Indonesian Chinese: Biographical Sketches (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2015), 75, 194. (Call no. RSING 959.8004951 SUR)
2. Yoshihara Kunio, ed., Oei Tiong Ham Concern: The First Business Empire of Southeast Asia (Kyoto: The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 1989), 1. (Call no. RSING q338.092 OEI)
3. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 3, 25; Suryadinata, Prominent Indonesian Chinese, 194.
4. Michael R. Godley, The Mandarin-capitalists from Nanyang: Overseas Chinese Enterprise in the Modernisation of China 1893–1911 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 18–19. (Call no. RSING 309.15103 GOD)
5. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 25, 136–37.
6. Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora (New York: Kodansha International, 1994), 150. (Call no. RDLK 909.04951 PAN)
7. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 1, 73, 136, 138–39.
8. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 75.
9. “The Years of Expansion and Diversification,” New Nation, 24 August 1971, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
10. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 1, 63–64, 112.
11. “The Years of Expansion and Diversification.”
12. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 1, 96–106.
13. “Oei Family Business Is Seized,” Straits Times, 10 February 1961, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
14. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 1, 96–106.
15. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 7, 64.
16. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 64.
17. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 141.
18. Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984), 353. (Call no. RSING 959.57 SON-[HIS])
19. Heidi Dahles and Otto van den Muijzenberg, eds., Capital and Knowledge in Asia: Changing Power Relations (London: Routledge, 2003), 161. (Call no. RSING 338.095 CAP)
20. Godley, Mandarin-capitalists from Nanyang, 19.
21. “Varsity ceremony to honour ‘Sugar King’,” Straits Times, 23 December 1966, 7. (From NewspaperSG)
22. “Mr Oei Tiong Ham Dead,” Malayan Saturday Post, 21 June 1924, 7. (From NewspaperSG)
23. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 19–20, 25, 150, 152.
24. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 78.
25. “The Years of Expansion and Diversification.”
26. “Mr Oei Tiong Ham Dead.”
27. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 128, 131, 149, 152.
28. Kunio, Oei Tiong Ham Concern, 79, 137; “The Years of Expansion and Diversification.”
Further resources
Wellington Koo, No Feast Lasts Forever, with Isabella Taves Koo (New York: Quadrangle, 1975). (Call no. R 327.20924 KOO)
Onghokham, The Thugs, the Curtain Thief, and the Sugar Lord: Power, Politics, and Culture in Colonial Java (Jakarta: Metafor, 2003), 205–23. (Call no. RSEA 959.82 ONG)
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