Tan Kah-Kee: The Making of an Overseas Chinese Legend (revised ed.)
Ching Fatt Yong
Singapore: World Scientific, 2013
ISBN: 9789814447898

This is an in-depth study of one of the most important and prominent Hua-ch'iao (Overseas Chinese) of twentieth-century Southeast Asia and China - Tan Kah-Kee (1874-1961). For a Chinese immigrant in Southeast Asia to make good is not unique, but what is unique in Tan Kah-Kee's case is his enormous contribution to employment and economic development in Singapore and Malaya. He was the only Chinese in history to have single-handedly founded a private university in Amoy and financially maintained it for sixteen years. He was the only Hua-ch'iao of his generation to have led the Chinese in Southeast Asia to help China to resist the Japanese invasion in a concerted and coordinated manner. Moreover, he was the only Hua-ch'iao leader to have played both Singapore and China politics and affairs in close quarters, rubbing shoulders with British governors, Chinese officials and commanders. Finally, it is important to point out that Tan Kah-Kee was the only Hua-ch'iao in his time to have combined his community and political power and influences for the advancement of community, regional and national goals.

This revised edition sets the scene by providing a historical background of China where he was born and Singapore where he prospered under colonial rule. It then goes on to analyse his entrepreneurship, his community and power bases, his educational investment as a strategy for nation-building, his non-partisan leadership in China politics, his contribution to the defence of Singapore in 1941 and 1942, his support for Mao Tse-Tung in the Chinese Civil War (1946-49) and his personal participation in China's nation-building programs (1950-61). While the book closely covers his career in Singapore and his final exit to China in 1950, it highlights his roots in Singapore and his numerous contributions to his adopted land in the fields of business empire building, education, philanthropy, community services, and political leadership and power. He left behind worthy legacies, some of which, such as education and "the Spirit of Tan Kah-Kee" are still being felt in Singapore and in his home province, Fukien.