1962, the Singapore government hired him as the first president of the University of Singapore.
1June 2, 967, Singapore, the lion city, was immersed in a sad atmosphere and seemed to have lost all its spirit. At the same time, all the citizens spontaneously came out to see an old man off. Business people were shocked to hear that a generation of giants had passed away, while education mourned the loss of an excellent educator. China people all over the world are crying for the loss of a leader. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew also expressed deep sorrow and regret in his message of condolence. Li Guang was a famous industrialist in China, who caused many surprises before his death. The death of this rubber king, who devoted his life to culture and education, is not only a great loss for Singapore's business community, but also a great loss for the Chinese community in Singapore.
1893, Li Guangqian, a native of Furong Township, Meishan, Nan 'an County, Fujian Province, was originally named Li Yukun. His family was very poor when he was a child. However, it is rare that his father attaches great importance to children's education. Although he is in financial difficulties and doesn't have much money, he still has to scrimp and save for his children to study.
1In the autumn of 903, when Li Guang was only 10 years old the year before last, he followed his father to go abroad from Fujian to Singapore to make a living. Soon after sailing, the temperature became extremely low. At that time, most of the people on board were from Fujian, and most of them came to Nanyang from the mainland to make a living. Therefore, they wear little clothes and are shivering with cold.
Chen Jiageng was on board. He is a famous patriotic overseas Chinese. Seeing that everyone was frozen like that, he said to the warehouse keeper, "You inform everyone on board that everyone surnamed Chen will be given a blanket." Passengers on the bus, regardless of Zhang San Li Si, signed up to say their surname is Chen. It's really freezing. Take a blanket to keep out the cold first.
After that, Chen Jiageng visited the cabin, and he was relieved to see that everyone had received blankets. But when Chen Jiageng came to a corner of the hut, he saw a child shivering there. He felt very strange and asked, "Why didn't you take the blanket?" The child said, "My surname is not Chen, and I dare not pretend to be." This child is Li Guangqian, and his honest behavior left a particularly deep impression on Chen Jiageng.
When Li Guangqian came to Singapore, he entered the local English-Indian school. He kept in mind his father's teachings and insisted on learning Chinese in Zheng Yang school while receiving English education.
From 65438 to 0909, due to his hard work and outstanding achievements, Li Guangqian was sponsored by Wu Shouzhen, chairman of the local Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, to return to China and continue studying in Jinan School. Two years later, he was admitted to Beijing Tsinghua School (preparatory course) and then transferred to Tangshan Road Mine Special School.
19 1 1 year, the revolution of 1911 broke out, and the situation was very turbulent, which interrupted Li Guangqian's studies. He had to return to Singapore, and soon he was admitted to the local government-run Institute of Surveying, while studying correspondence engineering at an American university. Three years later, forced by life, I interrupted my studies again and began to make a living.
Li Guangqian is proficient in Chinese and English. Introduced by a friend, he came to China Domestic Products Company founded by patriotic overseas Chinese Zhuang Xiquan to do English documents and foreign-related work, and he began to enter the business world.
At that time, at the beginning of the Republic of China, the Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company published * * * and "Chinese Edition" new textbooks respectively. There are many overseas Chinese schools in Southeast Asia, but they still use old textbooks from the late Qing Dynasty. Li Guangqian had a keen eye and felt that it was now or never, so he contacted domestic publishing houses and bought a large number of new teaching materials for resale to overseas Chinese schools, earning a considerable income for the company.
19 16 One day, it was raining. Li Guangqian had a meal at a street stall after work. At this time, Chen Jiageng also braved the rain to buy food. When Chen Jiageng bought food bags, it rained harder and harder. Chen Jiageng's car is parked nearby. He didn't bring rain gear, so he couldn't drive. He is in a hurry. Li Guangqian knew Chen Jiageng and handed him an umbrella. Chen Jiageng was in a hurry and didn't come back with the umbrella head. "Go to my rubber company and get it back tomorrow."
The next night, after work, Li Guang went to Chen Jiageng's office to get an umbrella. Chen Jiageng told him to sit down and thanked him for borrowing his umbrella. Two people chat while drinking tea in the office. Li Guangqian just mentioned that Chen Jiageng gave him a blanket on the boat from Xiamen to Singapore to help him keep out the cold. He is still very grateful. Chen Jiageng just remembered and smiled.
During the chat, Chen Jiageng learned that Li Guangqian knows both Chinese and English, and his company is currently in the development stage, so he invited Li Guangqian to work in his rubber company.
Li Guangqian came to Qian Yi Company in Chen Jiageng, where he was mainly responsible for handling Chinese and English letters and external contacts. This "job-hopping" became an important turning point in his business career, and then he began to emerge in the business world.
During his work, Li Guangqian was shameless and studious, and soon mastered the knowledge of rubber business, and also got through the European and American markets. Because of his ability, shrewdness, skillful business and self-discipline, he was quickly promoted to manager of rubber trade department of Qian Yi Company, which was highly valued by Chen Jiageng.
Chen Jiageng's eldest daughter, Chen Aili, is 17 years old. She saw that Li Guang was young and promising. Later, Chen Jiageng intended to betroth her eldest daughter to him. After being proposed, Li Guangqian felt that Chen Aili was dignified, virtuous, peaceful and steady, but she was 27 years old. It is time to get married. So he agreed to this marriage.
From then on, Li Guangqian devoted himself to the cause of Qian Yi Company, while Chen Jiageng tried his best to give full play to his talents. He has worked in Qian Yi Company for 1 1 year. During this period, he learned a lot of business and management knowledge, accumulated a lot of experience, and maintained good relations with Chinese and foreign trade circles. All this paved the way for him to start his own career in the future.
1927, Li Guangqian prepared to start his own business, but he didn't have enough funds. At this time, a British businessman was preparing to return to China and wanted to sell the 1000 mu rubber plantation in Mapo at a price of 654.38+10,000 yuan, which was already very low at that time. After investigation, Li Guangqian decided to buy it.
However, Chen Jiageng was very cautious, so he strongly opposed it. He thinks that the price of rubber plantations is so low because tigers often hurt people in gardens. If you buy now, if the workers dare not cut the rubber, even if the rubber garden is cheaper, it will be deserted.
However, Li Guangqian has his own ideas. Before, he read in English newspapers that the government planned to clear the way around here and develop Mapo's career. As long as the road is opened and cars come and go, tigers will naturally disappear and the price of rubber plantations will double. He insisted on his own opinion, knowing that there were tigers in the mountains, so he agreed to tiger walking, raised money to buy a rubber garden and named it "Furong Garden" to commemorate his birthplace in Nan 'an County, Fujian Province.
Soon, Li Guangqian's prediction came true. The government built a road near this rubber garden, and the price of the rubber garden soared 2 ~ 3 times. 1928, Li Guangqian sold this rubber garden at a high price of about 400,000 yuan. In this way, in just one year, Li Guangqian made a net profit of about 300,000 yuan. It was with this money that Li Guangqian finally founded his first enterprise, Nanyi Rubber Company, in Mapo. His courage and foresight even made Chen Jiageng full of praise for him.
The third year of the company's opening coincided with the great depression of the world economy, and business was particularly difficult. In the case of weak capital and poor management, Li Guangqian barely managed to support himself by virtue of the good relationship he established with the industrial and commercial circles when he was in Qian Yi Company, and he was never crushed in the fierce competition of his peers.
193 1 year, the economic crisis is about to pass. Li Guangqian seized the opportunity of economic recovery in various countries, expanded funds, changed the company to Nanyi Rubber Co., Ltd. and became the chairman. On the one hand, he constantly expands business channels and develops foreign trade; On the one hand, it lost no time in diversified operations, including rubber manufacturing, planting, transporting film and glue, and also planting and producing yellow pears. A few years later, Li Guangqian's enterprises expanded to Thailand and Indonesia. By the end of 1930s, he had become a household name in Singapore, Malaysia and other places.
Although Li Guangqian has made such great achievements in business, he did not stop there, but continued to enter the financial industry. He first invested and co-founded China Commercial Bank.
1933, Huashang Bank merged with OCBC Bank and HSBC Bank and was named after OCBC Bank. The merged OCBC Bank is the largest of the four largest Chinese banks in Singapore. Li Guang was the vice chairman of the board of directors of the bank and later took over as the chairman.
Li Guangqian brought his years of experience to the financial field. With a keen eye and shrewd mind, under his leadership, OCBC Bank has achieved unprecedented development, with more than 20 branches in Singapore and branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai. OCBC Bank has become one of the most important financial institutions in Southeast Asia and the most important enterprise of Lee Group.
OCBC Singapore is now the leader of domestic banking industry, with 25 branches in Singapore, 30 branches in Malaysia and 60 branches around the world. By World War II, Li Guangqian was already a famous industrialist and financier in China at home and abroad.
After World War II, Li Guangqian's career has made great progress.
Singapore under the Japanese iron hoof is almost in ruins, especially the overseas Chinese have suffered serious career losses. Li Guangqian, who came back from the United States, was particularly sad to see all this, and immediately began to restore and rebuild Nanyi rubber enterprises to meet the huge demand of the post-war market. At the same time, he also tried his best to help the local economy recover and contributed to the post-war reconstruction of Singapore.
After the war, the market needs new forces to fill it. Li Guangqian has continuously explored the potential market, merged and founded one enterprise after another. By the end of 1960s, his rubber plantation had a total area of 654.38+0.85 million mu, and Nanyi Rubber Co., Ltd. had as many as 35 subordinate institutions ... Besides rubber enterprises, he had also set up pear factories, oil factories, color printing factories, fire-fighting equipment factories, timber factories, Nanyi biscuit factories, Nanyi planting companies, Nanyi United rubber companies and so on. ***23 limited companies, plus OCBC Bank and Oriental Life Insurance Co., Ltd.. , can be said to be a well-known millionaire. No one knows how much money he has.
Educate with your heart
For Li Guangqian, Chen Jiageng is the greatest mentor and friend in this life. During the 10 years when I worked beside my husband, I witnessed and personally felt Mr. Chen's lofty patriotism: regardless of personal safety, I worked hard for the overseas Chinese anti-Japanese movement; Pay attention to the cultural and educational situation in hometown and local areas, and invest in social welfare undertakings.
At the same time, Li Guangqian also believes that the reason why he was able to get an education when he was young is also because of the donation of well-intentioned people, and his road to study is so hard that he can no longer wronged the next generation. Li Guangqian is determined to use the money earned to support education and start cultural undertakings.
1934 took over as the chairman of Nanyang Middle School, responsible for the school's annual funds, construction costs, school building construction, and the library of Xinjian University. At the same time, he is also the director of nine middle schools and more than a dozen halls, including Nanyi School, Daonan School, Overseas Chinese Guidance School, Guanghua School and Overseas Chinese South School. He didn't do it for fame and fortune, but he was always diligent as long as he could help in education.
During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Li Guangqian founded "Ethnic Primary School" in Meishan, Nan 'an, his hometown.
1943, Guoguang Middle School was established.
1952, he donated millions of yuan to his hometown for the expansion of Meishan Xue Cun. In addition to restoring the primary school he founded in 1939, he also expanded Guoguang Kindergarten, Guoguang Middle School, Guoguang Hospital and Guoguang Theater. Meishan Xue Cun has therefore become a well-known learning village at home and abroad, with kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools, with a construction area of more than 50,000 square meters and complete welfare facilities. What makes him particularly gratified is that ethnic middle schools and ethnic primary schools have successively become key schools in Fujian Province, and ethnic hospitals have also become famous cancer hospitals in Jinjiang, Fujian.
1953, a nephew of Li Guangqian proposed to establish Nanyang University, the first Chinese university in Southeast Asia, and Li Guangqian immediately responded positively and sponsored it. He has repeatedly stressed that the purpose of running Nanyang University is to inherit and develop Chinese excellent culture and provide more opportunities for Malaysian youth to enjoy higher education. In the process of running a school, there were many difficulties and rumors, but Li Guangqian ignored them and continued to give strong support.
From 65438 to 0952, Li Guangqian set up the "Lee Foundation" with most of his property, and actively contributed to cultural, educational and social welfare undertakings. Until the death of Li Guangqian in 1967, the foundation still supported various scientific, technological, cultural and educational activities with donations according to his last wish of "taking it from all society and using it for everything".
Whether in the Mainland or overseas, as long as it is related to Chinese and education, Li Guangqian will do its best and spare no expense. His great contribution to education, economic development and social progress has won unanimous praise at home and abroad. 1957, Sultan of Johor, Malaysia made him Datuk. The following year, the University of Malaysia awarded him an honorary doctorate in law. 1962 1, the Singapore government officially announced the appointment of Mr. Li Guangqian as the first president of the University of Singapore. This is the highest honor in his life. At the inauguration ceremony, he said: "Our contribution to the country is greater than educating young people ... It is also fun to be educated by talents in the world."
1985101On October 22nd, Fujian Guild Hall in Singapore erected a bronze statue for him in Li Guangqian Memorial Pavilion of Nanqiao Middle School to commemorate his great contribution. Similarly, today, when we walk into the famous "No.1 School in the Hometown of Overseas Chinese"-Guoguang Middle School in Nan 'an, Fujian, we will also see the bronze statue of Mr. Li Guangqian. Although he has passed away, his educational philosophy and entrepreneurial spirit will still be with him.