Biography of tan lark sye lee

Born into of very limited means, and orphaned young, he had little chance of an education before he made his way to Nanyang in together with his brothers, at the age of Not long afterward, he left the company to set up a rubber enterprise with the help from his brothers, but the enterprise lost half its capital in a year. Tan then ran it alone and after several years, he built up his Aik Hoe Yihe rubber company and became one of the leading rubber industrialists of the region.

He expanded his business to all parts of Malaya, Thailand and India and diversified into insurance, paper and cement industries. His career as an industrialist peaked in the s, when his company reaped huge profits from the rising price of rubber. Tan was stripped of his Malayan citizenship in Singapore in by the Malaysian Federal Government as a suspected communist, and remained stateless since then.

Tan died in in Singapore at the age of 76, leaving behind 11 sons and 3 daughters.

How did tan lark sye get rich

Tan was an activist, and like other entrepreneurs of his time, he believed in the value of education. As chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the s, he fought for citizenship for Chinese people in Singapore and for the Chinese language to be one of Singapore's official languages. As the long-time president of the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, Tan Lark Sye contributed generously to charitable and educational causes throughout his life.

His contributions to education, however, were not confined to Chinese schools.