Lim Peng Siang

Lim Peng Siang (Chinese: 林秉祥; pinyin: Lín Bǐngxíang; also known as Lin Bengxian; 1872–1944)[1] was a businessperson in Singapore and Malaya. Together with his brother Lim Peng Mao (Lin Bingmao), he founded the Ho Hong Group of companies in 1904,[1] which had interests in banking,[2] shipping, parboiled rice, oil mills, cement, coconut and other businesses.[3] He was a President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Chinese Advisory Board. Peng Siang Quay in Singapore is named after him.

Lim Peng Siang
林秉祥
Born1872
Amoy
Died1944 (aged 71–72)
NationalityNaturalized British subject
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Ho Hong Group; President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Early life

Lim Peng Siang was the son of Lim Ho Puah. His mother was the only daughter of Wee Bin, the founder of Wee Bin & Co. He was born in Amoy, Fujian, China in 1872.[4] After receiving his education in Chinese, he travelled to Singapore when he was still very young. Like his father, Lim Peng Siang was naturalised as a British subject, in 1902. He received private tuition in English, and was a student at the St. Joseph's Institution.[5]

Career

He joined the firm of Wee Bin & Co., which was then under the management of his father, and eventually rose to its head before setting out to start the Ho Hong Group. He took over the greater part of the firm's business, including the large steamships, when the firm of Wee Bin & Co. was liquidated in 1911[5][6]

In 1914, Lim Peng Siang founded the Ho Hong Steamship Company Ltd. He sold most of his shares in Ho Hong Steamship to the Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation in 1936.

He founded the Chinese Commercial Bank in 1912 together with other members of the Singapore Hokkien business community. Together with Lim Boon Keng, Seow Poh Leng and others he founded the Ho Hong Bank in 1917. In 1932, The Chinese Commercial Bank and the Ho Hong Bank merged with the Oversea-Chinese Bank to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, later known as OCBC.[4][7][8]

By the 1910s the Ho Hong Group was the most diversified group of companies in Malaya.[9] Companies in the group founded by Lim Peng Siang included Ho Hong Steamship Co. Ltd., Ho Hong Oil Mills Ltd., Ho Hong Parboiled Rice Mill, Ho Hong Bank Ltd., and the Ho Hong Portland Cement Works Ltd. He also had plans for a bucket-making factory, and for the reclamation and development of several big pieces of swampy land in a big industrial area in the immediate neighbourhood of Singapore Town.[5]

Public life

Lim Peng Siang was involved in the formation of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and was its President from 1913 to 1916, except for 1914 when he was Vice President. He was a member of the Chinese Advisory Board between 1921 and 1941, as one of the representatives of the Hokkien community. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Along with his brother, he was an honourable chairperson of the Hong Kong Fujian Chamber of Commerce between 1930 and 1941.[10] He was a director of a number of public companies, including the Central Engine Works Ltd. and the Central Motors Ltd. In his later years, he was less active in public life, and declined the offer of a seat on the Legislative Council several times, in order to concentrate on his industrial work.[5][11]

A Clinic In Amoy

About six months ago, a Mr Lim Peng Siang, an intimate friend of mine, doing banking and shipping business in Singapore, Hongkong, Amoy and Shanghai, returned to his village for a rest. One day a neighbour paid him a visit. This man had leprosy but thought it to be some kind of skin disease. Mr Lim then sent him to me for treatment. The response to treatment was very quick, he was so pleased that even now, he is used as an attraction for the sufferers of the same disease to come for treatment. With my cooperation a clinic was established by Mr Lim in his native place, Shima, two hours by launch from Amoy. Today there are about 85 receiving treatment.

— E. S. Cheong, [12]

Benefactor

It will be seen therefore how great a benefactor Mr. Lim Peng Siang has been to Singapore. It is hardly necessary to mention here how much a country depends on industry and shipping for its wealth and importance. It can be clearly seen to what extent Mr. Lim Peng Siang has contributed to both these factors. From time to time severe competition with other steamship lines reduced deck-passage rates to a ridiculously low figure and it also meant heavy loss to the firm: but this proved a boon to thousands of the labouring classes who were enabled to leave their homes in China and come to the Straits Settlements and the Netherlands East Indies to supply the labour market.

— Song Ong Siang, [5]

During the Great War he proved his patriotism by working hard in helping to raise money for the various funds, besides himself liberally contributing to such funds. He was never known to refuse help to a deserving cause, and innumerable were the charities to which he liberally contributed. He set an example worthy of being followed by the rising members of the Chinese community.

— Song Ong Siang, [5]

References
  1. The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya, 1912–1949 By Ching Fatt Yong, R. B.; p. 5, 258, 282
  2. Chinese Business Enterprise By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown; p. 137
  3. The Economic Growth of Singapore By W. G. Huff; p. 147, 225, 459
  4. Singapore By Gretchen Liu; p. 174
  5. One Hundred Years' History of the Chinese in Singapore by Ong Siang Song, 1923 - Page 114–116
  6. Ray, Rajat Kanta (July 1995). "Asian Capital in the Age of European Domination: The Rise of the Bazaar, 1800-1914". Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. 29 (3): 449–554. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00013986. JSTOR 312868.
  7. The International Expansion of Singapore's Largest Banks by Adrian E. Tschoegl Archived 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Capital and Entrepreneurship in South-East Asia By Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown, 1943- Brown Published by St. Martin's Press, 1994; ISBN 0-312-12096-6, ISBN 978-0-312-12096-2; p. 161
  9. Oei Tiong Ham Concern: The First Business Empire of Southeast Asia by YOSHIHARA Kunio*, Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 27, No.2, September 1989
  10. Chinese Sub-ethnic Identities in Nationalist Movements—A Study on Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1930s* (Draft Only) Kuo Huei-ying, Ph. D. Candidate, Dept. of Sociology, State University of New York at Binghamton hkuo@binghamton.edu, Paper Prepared to the Annual Conference on ‘Chinese Cities in Transition: The Next Generation of Urban Research: Part 4,’ Shanghai Academy of Social Science, Shanghai, July 7-9th, 2005 Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Chinese Leadership and Power in Colonial Singapore By Ching Fatt Yong Published by Times Academic Press, 1992; ISBN 981-210-028-8, ISBN 978-981-210-028-3; p. 71
  12. Dr E S Cheong, 'Amoy', in James L Maxwell, "Ridding China of Leprosy" The China Medical Journal 44 (1930): 781.

Further reading
  • Kuo, Huei-Ying (2014). Networks beyond Empires : Chinese Business and Nationalism in the Hong Kong-Singapore Corridor, 1914-1941. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 9789004281080. OCLC 890982337.
  • Asian Culture 28 (June 2004) by Singapore Society of Asian Studies: In the 28th issue of the journal of Singapore Society of Asian Studies, the essays in English discuss Lim Peng Siang and the building of the Ho Hong Empire in colonial Singapore.
  • Seaports of the Far East: Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial, Facts, Figures, & Resources By Allister Macmillan Compiled by Allister Macmillan Published by W.H. & L. Collingridge, 1925; p. 441
  • Yoshihara, Kunio (1988). The rise of ersatz capitalism in South-East Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780195888850. OCLC 17300915.
  • The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List for 1928 by Great Britain Office of Commonwealth Relations – Page 418
  • The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List for 1929 by Great Britain Office of Commonwealth Relations – Page 431
  • The Ship Compendium & Year Book Published by Compendiums Ltd., 1922; Item notes: 1922; Page 262
  • Lee, Poh Ping (1978). Chinese society in nineteenth century Singapore. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. pp. 100, 108, 112n, 136. ISBN 9780195803846. OCLC 4310983.
  • Sociétés et compagnies de commerce en Orient et dans l'océan Indien: actes du huitième Colloque international d'histoire maritime (Beyrouth, 5–10 septembre 1966). By Michel Mollat Published by S.E.V.P.E.N., 1966; p. 696
  • Tanjong Pagar : a pictorial journey (1819-1989) = Danrong Bage tu pian ji. [Singapore]: Tanjong Pagar Constituency. 1989. pp. 87, 88, 150. ISBN 9789813002272. OCLC 21873344.
  • Shinozaki 1982: 40–50
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