Tai-pan
A tai-pan (Chinese: 大班; Sidney Lau: daai6baan1,[1] literally 'top class'[2]) is a senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in China or Hong Kong.
History[]
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tai-pans were foreign-born businessmen who headed large Hong trading houses such as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Swire and Dent & Co. amongst others.
The first recorded use of the term in English is in the Canton Register of 28 October 1834.[3] Historical variant spellings include taepan (first appearance), typan, and taipan.[3]
The term also refers to the Chinese-Filipino business oligarchs who own or having involvement in various businesses in the Philippines and are the powerful billionaire-founders of Filipino-Chinese business empires. Examples of taipans are the late Henry Sy of SM Investments, Philippine transmission system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. (son of the late Henry Sy of SM and also served as NGCP president from June 20, 2010 to March 7, 2018) and Robert Coyiuto Jr., and Lucio Tan.[4]
In popular culture[]
The term gained wide currency outside China after the publication of Somerset Maugham's 1922 short story "The Taipan" and James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan.& later The 1988 TV Mini-Series "Noble House"
The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in Empire of the Sun.
Taipans[]
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- William Jardine,[5] Jardine Matheson (1843–1845), Hong Kong
- James Matheson, Jardine Matheson (1796–1878), Hong Kong
- Lawrence Kadoorie,[6] China Light and Power (1899-1993), Hong Kong
- Alasdair Morrison,[7] Jardine Matheson (1994-2000), Hong Kong
- Simon Murray,[8] Hutchison Whampoa (1984-1994), Hong Kong
- Percy Weatherall (born 1957), Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong
- William Keswick (1834–1912), Scotland
- Merlin Bingham Swire (born 1973), England
- Douglas Lapraik (1818–1869), England
- John Johnstone Paterson (1886-1971), Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong
- (1848-1918), Butterfield & Swire, Shanghai
See also[]
- Canton System, the single-port trading monopoly operative in China prior to the First Opium War.
References[]
- ^ Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", American Speech, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415.
- ^ 汉英词典 — A Chinese-English Dictionary 1988 新华书店北京发行所发行 (Beijing Xinhua Bookshop).
- ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn, 1989).
- ^ "The taipans — Chinese Filipino oligarchs". The Manila Times. September 16, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
- ^ Nicholas D. Kristof (June 21, 1987). "Jardine Matheson's Heir-Elect: Brian M. Powers; An Asian Trading Empire Picks an American 'Tai-pan'". The New York Times.
... William Jardine, the first tai-pan, a shrewd Scotsman ...
- ^ "Lawrence Kadoorie, 94, Is Dead; A Leader in Hong Kong'g (sic) Growth". The New York Times. August 26, 1993.
- ^ "The Taipan and the dragon". The Economist. April 8, 1995. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014.
- ^ Rone Tempest and Christine Courtney (April 12, 1994). "Hong Kong's New Business Dynasties : The great British trading houses rush to hire more Chinese executives, shed their colonial veneer before Beijing takes over in '97". Los Angeles Times.
Simon Murray was one of the last British 'taipans.'
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