Hey all,
Now, who exactly is Tan Kah Kee? I'm sure all of you know that he's the founder of our school, but let me now give a more detailed introduction of this great immigrant that migrated to Singapore at a ripe age of sixteen.
Tan Kah Kee was born in Jimei, Xiaman, Fujian Province, China, in 1874 and died in 1962 in China. He grew up living in a small village with his mother. He migrated to Singapore when he was just 16 to work for his father's rice store. However, his big break came when his father's rice business collapsed. He decided then to start a company and from then on and built an empire from rubber plantations and manufacturing, sawmills, canneries, real estate import and export brokerage, ocean transport to rice trading.
With his fortune he made through his successful businesses, he contributed greatly to the community by donating funds to set up schools. The schools he set up include Jimei University, Chinese High School ( The school we study in), and the Xiamen University. Being a chinese, he was naturally very supportive of Chinese Schools and wished that all Chinese would learn their own language. Therefore, it is evident that he had made many contributions to Singapore and the society. I would be elaborating more on my next post about how his contributions made an impact on Singapore. Thanks
Jere-man signing off,
gdnite