From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Term for foreign-born businesspeople in China
A taipan (
Chinese :
大
班 ;
pinyin : dà bān ;
Sidney Lau : daai6 baan1 ,
[1] literally "top class"
[2] ), sometimes spelled tai-pan , is a foreign-born senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in mainland China or
Hong Kong .
History
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taipans were foreign-born businessmen who headed large
hong trading houses such as
Jardine, Matheson & Co. ,
Swire and
Dent & Co. , amongst others.[
citation needed ]
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) and typan .
[3]
The term also refers to the
Chinese-Filipino
business oligarchs who own or have involvement in various businesses in the
Philippines and are the powerful billionaire-founders of Chinese-Filipino business empires. Examples of taipans are: The
López family of Iloilo of
Lopez Holdings Corporation ; the late
Henry Sy of
SM Investments ;
National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.;
Ramon Ang of
San Miguel Corporation ; and
Lucio Tan of
Philippine Airlines .
[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 ,
and was film adapted in 1986 , directed by
Daryl Duke .
The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in
Empire of the Sun .
Notable taipans
Anthony John Liddell Nightingale ,
Jardine Matheson (2006-2012), Hong Kong
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
John Charles Bois (1848–1918), Butterfield & Swire, Shanghai
See also
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 . 16 September 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2021 .
^ Nicholas D. Kristof (21 June 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 . 26 August 1993.
^
"The Taipan and the dragon" .
The Economist . 8 April 1995. Archived from
the original on 11 June 2014.
^ Rone Tempest and Christine Courtney (12 April 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.'