Chen Jiageng was born in 1874 in Jimeisha, Tong'an County, Fujian Province, the son of an expatriate who ran rice in Singapore. At the age of 9, Chen Jiageng enrolled in a private school, and when he was 17 years old, after the death of his teacher, he came to Nanyang to help his father learn to take care of business at Shun An Rice Shop.
His father had several rice shops in Singapore, sourcing rice from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and other places, and then distributing it to rice shops in Singapore, Malaysia and other places, and the uncle in charge of the business was Tan Kah Kee. Chen Jiageng worked as an apprentice in Nanyang for three years and returned to his hometown to marry at the age of 20. Since then, due to the death of his mother and other reasons, he has traveled back and forth between Nanyang and Jimei many times, during which he has been taking care of his father's rice shop.
When Chen Jiageng was thirty years old, he went to Nanyang for the fourth time, at this time his father's rice business, due to negligence in management and other reasons, had gone bankrupt, and after liquidation, he still owed more than 200,000 yuan in foreign debt. Under English law, Chen Jiageng did not have to bear the debt for this; but Chen Jiageng made up his mind at this time, no matter how long it took, to pay off the debt for his father.
At the age of 31, Tan Kah Kee started a pineapple canning factory in Singapore. In the mountains of Singapore's water port, he built a factory with thatch, wood, etc., purchased second-hand machines, and spent 7,000 yuan to build his first factory, "New Lichuan". Soon, he and his friends jointly established the Nisshin Canning Factory. After a production season passed, Chen Jiageng earned the first bucket of gold in his life of about 40,000 yuan. After earning money, Chen Jiageng took out 20,000 yuan, returned to his old business, and opened a new Qianyi rice shop.
Doing the pineapple canned food business, Chen Jiageng is different from others. He visits the dealer with his assistant early in the morning every day, asks the customer about the daily sales situation and how much needs to be ordered, the specifications of the order, etc., and grasps the market situation in time to understand the customer's needs. Regardless of the quantity, he is comfortable with supply, so he gains most of the market share. In terms of procurement, he also personally procures good raw materials as much as possible. In terms of accounting for income, he also calculates costs and profits every day, achieves Nissin day, and grasps the financial situation every day. In terms of processing technology, he also improved the cutting process of workers and reduced the loss of processing links.
Under the careful management of Chen Jiageng, his canning factory is one of the few factories in Nanyang that can make money. Other canneries either lose money or make only a small amount of money. Chen Jiageng's factory is not only profitable, but also occupies most of the market share.
When Chen Jiageng was 31 years old, he earned a total of 60,000 yuan through a cannery and a rice shop. This was the beginning of Chen Jiageng's career.
At the age of 32, Chen Jiageng bought 500 acres of mountain land for five yuan per mu to grow pineapples. The pineapple garden was completed and profitable that year, and is the largest pineapple plantation in the vicinity. After learning that the rubber planting industry had a future, Chen Jiageng immediately bought rubber seeds and planted them in the pineapple garden.
At the age of 33, Chan and his partner leased an Indian rice factory in Nanyang, making cooked rice specifically for sale in India and making a lot of profits.
At the age of 34, Chen Jiageng paid off all the debts owed by his father, which gained a good reputation.
At the age of 35, he bought the leased Indian cooked rice factory in full. At this time, the profit of the cooked rice business plummeted, it was difficult to maintain, the partners forcibly withdrew, and Chen Jiageng operated alone. Unexpectedly, after the partner withdrew, the price of cooked rice rebounded, and Chen Jiageng made a profit of 60,000 yuan a year of cooked rice, which was more than the sum of the profits of other businesses. This year, Chen Jiageng earned more than 70,000 yuan.
By the age of 35, Chen Jiageng had assets of more than 500,000 yuan and initially completed the original accumulation of capital. More importantly, over the past four years, he has also initially mastered the true meaning of being a person and doing business. He said: "Laziness is the thief of the establishment, and diligence is the foundation of the construction of the industry; There is a strong spirit, and then there is a great cause. ”
At the age of 38, Tan's business developed in Thailand, where he established a pineapple plantation and canning factory, and bought rice and shipped it back to Singapore for processing before selling.
After the outbreak of the First World War, the canning business gradually declined, and Chen Jiageng gradually switched to the steamship shipping industry and marched into the rubber industry. He gradually reduced the cultivation of pineapples, expanded rubber cultivation, invested more land, and opened up more rubber plantations. At the age of 42, he converted the cannery into his first rubber factory.
Two of his freighters had been sunk in the Mediterranean during World War I, but neither of them had left him feeling retreating.
By the age of 50, Chen Jiageng owned a number of rubber plantations and a number of rubber processing plants, becoming the famous "rubber king" in Southeast Asia. At its peak, he employed more than 30,000 people in a variety of industries.
As an industrialist, Chen Jiageng was successful, and he created a great career in Nanyang. Chen Jiageng has created an immortal legend in the real industry, and what is more commendable is chen Jiageng's contribution to the country and his hometown in charity, education and anti-Japanese resistance.
When he was 20 years old, Chen Jiageng returned to his hometown from Nanyang to get married, and seeing the backwardness of education in his hometown, he mobilized his mother and wife to save 2,000 yuan from the wedding gift and founded a private school "Tizhai Xueshu", which was the beginning of Chen Jiageng's investment in running the school.
He once said: "Education is the foundation of the founding of the country, and the rejuvenation of learning is the natural duty of the people." When Chen Jiageng returned to his hometown for the fourth time at the age of 38, he learned that the population of the county was 400,000 people, only one public primary school, four private primary schools, and all the students added up to only 600 people. When the primary school opened, Chen Jiageng went to the countryside to investigate, only to see rural children wandering in the countryside in groups, unclothed, and deeply worried about the education in his hometown. To this end, we have increased investment in the establishment of education.
At the age of 44, he founded Nanyang Overseas Chinese Secondary School in Singapore, which was the highest school for overseas Chinese in Nanyang at that time.
At the age of 47, Xiamen University, founded by Chen Jiageng, officially opened.
There are many schools founded and donated by Chen Jiageng, and in terms of investment in education, Chen Jiageng can be said to have "destroyed the family and revitalized learning". Even in the most difficult times of operation, Chen Jiageng preferred to "sell the building rather than the xiamen big". He never hesitated to invest in education, but for his own life, it was simple and simple.
In his later years, he stipulated to himself that the daily food cost could not exceed five cents, and he often ate sweet potato porridge, pickles, peanuts, dried beans and so on. When he went out to run errands, he asked people to burn porridge and put it in the thermos and carry it with him; when it came to the meal, he found a flat ground on the side of the road, sat down to eat, and continued to work after eating.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Chen Jiageng was the most difficult period, and the global economic crisis spread, and Chen Jiageng's industry was also greatly affected, and the income could not be made endeavor. In difficult times, Chen Jiageng borrowed several million yuan from the bank, but still did not reduce the expenses of Jimei School Village and Xiamen University.
In 1950, Chen Jiageng settled in his hometown of Jimei and personally presided over the restoration and reconstruction of two schools in Jimei and Xiamen University. In order to support the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," he also took out a one-time 500,000 yuan to buy winter clothes for the frontline volunteers.
Finally, to quote the original words written by Mr. Chen Jiageng, I would like to conclude this article:
In the thirty years of my business here, the profits I have made have accumulated, totaling 19 million yuan. As for the expenditure, a total of 189 million yuan. My personal family expenses are only a few thousand yuan a year, and the monthly salary is enough to cover it. Excerpt from Chen Jiageng's Memoirs of Southern Overseas Chinese