An overseas Chinese legend, Mr Tan Kah Kee's legacies have inspired many in Southeast Asia. From humble immigrant origins, he rose to a prominence which few can match. Best remembered as an eminent entrepreneur, social reformer, political activist, philanthropist, community leader, and educationist, he died at the age of 87 in Beijing on 12 August 1961 and was accorded a national funeral by the Chinese Government for his contribution to society.

Born on 21 October 1874 in Fujian, China. At the age of 17, Mr Tan arrived in Singapore to join his father, Mr Tan Kee Peck in the family's rice business.

Business reponsibilities came early as his father's business failed in 1904, leaving him much on his own. With extraordinary fortitude, enterprise and risk-taking ability, he set about establishing a business of his own which began in pineapple canning, then diversified into rice milling. He eventually found the mainstay of his fortune in rubber plantation. The switch from rubber plantation to rubber manufacturing was a move he made boldly, and it established him as one of the most successful Chinese overseas businessmen in the whole of Southeast Asia.

By the 1920s, he thus came to preside over a huge business empire which extended into most East and Southeast Asian cities, employed over 10,000 persons. It spanned areas as diverse as rubber plantation and manufacturing, shipping, import and export brokerage, real estate and rice trading.

His business success put him in the forefront of the leadership of the Hokkien community from which he originated. He held advanced views about social reform and criticised several outmoded practices then prevalent, such as gambling, opium-smoking and ritual extravagance.

An abiding interest that underpinned Mr Tan Kah Kee's multi-faceted public activities, sprang from his firm commitment to educational philanthropy. In 1894, at the age of 21, he established a school in his village in Jimel. In the decades, thereafter, his enthusiasm and passion for educational philanthropy grew, culminating in his endowment of the Xiamen university in 1921.