In recent days, North Point of Hong Kong has become a hot topic. If you want to talk about the most distinctive street market in North Point, it is Chunyang Street, which has a history of nearly a hundred years. Chunyang Street, the only open-air traditional market in Hong Kong where trams and rails pass through, is slowly driving in, attracting many passengers to take photos. It should be one of the rare unique tourist landscapes in the world.
The name of Chunyang Street is to commemorate Guo Chunyang, an overseas Chinese businessman from Fujian who developed the North Point in the 1920s. Here, let us regain the dramatic life of the forgotten "sugar king" Guo Chunyang!
Wherever Guo Chunyang set foot, the commercial territory is blooming everywhere
Gulangyu No. 70 Huangyan Road Villa
Xiamen Gulangyu has a Jinxiang Road built in the 1920s. It was developed by Guo Chunyang, an overseas Chinese, after World War I. This road is also named after his tea shop number "Jinxiang" in Xiamen. At that time, Guo Chunyang was one of the four major sugar merchants in Indonesia. All the shops on both sides of Jinxiang Road were built by Guo Chunyang.
Villa No. 70, Huangyan Road, Gulangyu Island is Guo Chunyang Villa. It is an English-style villa with spacious corridors and ancient banyan trees in the courtyard. It has a history of more than 200 years and is very quiet.
Read the "Taiwan Studies Research" published by the National Taiwan Library in 2016. There is a paper written by Shi Mingying, "The Forgotten Merchant Guo Chunyang: Theme of the activities of the Japanese rule (Note: Japanese colonial rule)". There is a sentence in the article: " Guo Chunyang (1860-1935)'s career has always been a rich businessman in a mysterious way; even the news reports of the Japanese administration (Note: Japanese colonial rule) at that time regarded his descendants as nephews. "
In this way, even Guo Chunyang, a tycoon in the business world, had to peel off his cocoons to present his legendary life more comprehensively.
"Sugar King" Guo Chunyang
Guo Chunyang, once ranked one of the "Four Great Sugar Kings" in Indonesia. Later, he went to Taiwan, China and became a business tycoon who calls for the wind and rain. He entered his middle and late years, and his career map expanded to Hong Kong and other places.
In fact, the famous Chunyang Street in the North Corner of Hong Kong is just a major industry under Guo Chunyang’s name. Guo Chunyang's career map has been found in Indonesia ( Java ), to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore , and China. He has never been inferior to others in these areas such as hospitals, schools, poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation. For example, the largest garden Guozhuang in Hangzhou is Guo Chunyang's asset. For more than a hundred years, time has passed, and time has washed away and forgotten this business figure and his Guo family's business kingdom. Guo Chunyang's name is also hidden in history.
Guo Chunyang, whose courtesy name is Fansheng, is also known as Zhenxiang, and there is also another name called Shilin. Guo Chunyang was born on June 25, 1860 (the tenth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty). His ancestral home is Liaodong Society, Jiaomei Township, Tong'an County, Fujian Province. Due to the adjustment of zoning after liberation, Jiaomei in Tong'an, Xiamen was included in Zhangzhou City, which is today's Zhangzhou City, Longhai .
Guo Chunyang's father Guo Hebei died early. When he was young, he grew up with his grandmother Xu. Guo Chunyang is the third son of Guo Hebei and Huang's Liu Niang (mother). When he was young, Guo Chunyang lived a hard life of one meal a day. His uncle Guo Hedong went to Java to make a living in his early years and had a successful career. In 1877, 18-year-old Guo Chunyang traveled across the ocean and defected to his uncle in Indonesia to study trade management. (Note, there are many versions of Guo Chunyang's time to go to Indonesia, and there are sayings that he is 16, 17, and 18 years old.)
Guo Hedong Co., Ltd. (Jinmaozhan)
After arriving in Indonesia, Guo Chunyang helped in the sugar factory run by his uncle, starting from an apprentice. Later, Guo Chunyang and his uncle Guo Hedong's son Guo Hongmiao and others jointly founded Guo Hedong Co., Ltd. (Jinmaozhan), engaged in the export business of tea, rice, and Java sugar.
Days later, Guo Chunyang acquired all shares in just a few years and became the head of the sugar factory. During World War I, sugar prices plummeted, but Guo Chunyang was confident that the price of sugar prices would rebound rapidly after the war.It is precisely because of his foresight and foresight in business that he once jumped among the four major sugar kings in Java.
In order to investigate the sugar industry market, Guo Chunyang entered the Taiwan Island in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of his sense of the business opportunity of growing tea, he decided to start a business independently and settled in Taiwan to operate tea. Of course, this also has an era background. When Taiwan was colonized by Japan, sugar, as a strategic material, its operating rights have always been controlled by the Japanese. It was also a helpless move to transfer the business target to Taiwan tea.
Guo Chunyang is in the tea factory in Dadaocheng, Taipei
From relevant historical materials, in 1887, 28-year-old Guo Chunyang settled in the "Jinmao Tea Shop" in Dadaocheng, Taipei (now Section 2, Yanping North Road, Taipei City). At that time, Taiwan's oolong tea was mainly produced in central Taiwan and was controlled by European and American merchants. However, Guo Chunyang, who refused to admit defeat, took a different approach and encouraged farmers in northern Taiwan to grow " package tea ", and jointly with the bank opened by Banqiao Linjia to provide funds to tea merchants. In a short time, "purchase tea" was popular in the market. Guo Chunyang took advantage of the trend and promoted the "purchase tea" cultivation to Java, Indonesia, and was loved by the locals.
Later, Guo Chunyang founded a tea factory in Dadaocheng, founded the Taipei Tea Merchants Association, and became the founding chairman. In 1900, at the Paris World Expo, Guo Chunyang's oolong tea won the gold medal in the tea category, causing a sensation in the Chinese world. At that time, Guo Chunyang opened a "Qi Tea Shop" at the exhibition, which was also an innovation in marketing.
By the way, during the late sunny period, Taiwanese tea ranked among the top three in China's exports, which is inseparable from the efforts of Guo Chunyang and others. At the same time, tea has also become a wealth-making machine. In addition to Guo Chunyang, the Wu Huoshi family of Xinguang Consortium and the Gu Zhenfu family of Taiwan Clay Group all made their fortunes from Dadaocheng, and most of the people who started their business were because of tea.
searched for historical materials that Guo Chunyang was included in the "Sugar King". In 2014, the Taishi Institute of China National Research Institute published the "Selected Documents on the Relationship of the Dilin Arts and Health in Dilin". In the book, Naoto Longgu mentioned Guo Chunyang's Guo Hedong Company, and referred to Guo Chunyang, Jianyuan Company's Huang Zhonghan's , Shenglong Company's Huang Yizhu's , and later founded Zhongnan Bank, and were called the four major sugar kings of Java.
Hiroshi Shuwei, an important successful figure in Japan in Nanyang, from Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. He served as Guo Chunyang's secretary in the early days and later went to Java with Guo Chunyang. According to historical records, "By fate, the dike forest martial arts became an important bridge between Guo Chunyang and the Japanese government."
In short, Guo Chunyang's connections around him make people "seeing flowers in the fog", and his career footprints are constantly migrating. Some of his business territory is his own, and many of them are joint ventures and partnerships, especially in a special era background, coupled with his complex identity, because in many media reports, he mostly appears as a "mysterious businessman", and it is not very common to use "sugar king".
According to the "Genealogy of the Guo clan of Liaodong Society, Longhai, Fujian" and other materials, Guo Chunyang's father, Guo Hebei, had four brothers, named after "East, West, South and North", and was the 14th generation of the Guo clan of Liaodong Society, Jinhu. From the genealogy, Guo Hebei's 16th descendants of the "East, East, South and North" brothers are distributed in various places at home and abroad, some live in Hong Kong and Taiwan, some are also distributed in Xiamen, Shanghai, and Liaodong Main Club, and some are distributed in Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and other places.
genealogy and related information also record that Guo Chunyang has five wives and concubines, Java's big house, and has two adopted sons,
His eldest son Guo Shuangjiao, his mother is Pan Yan, and he has two daughters and one son (Guo Shuangjiao is the youngest); Java's second house has three sons (note: the second son is Guo Shuangao and the third son Guo Shuanglong); Pan Tao has one daughter in one house; Ruan's first house, and has two adopted sons. Among them, the eldest son Guo Shuangjiao and the second son Guo Shuangao went to Hong Kong to study after spending their childhood in Java. Both of them graduated from the University of Hong Kong.
The third son Guo Shuanglong also graduated from the University of Hong Kong, but he went to Japan to study earlier and was a classmate of the Japanese Prime Minister Shin-sukino Kishi and later. In 1918, Guo Chunyang's mother died of illness in Xiamen. At that time, Guo Chunyang entrusted the third son, Guo Shuanglong and four nephews to the Fujita military doctor director in Tokyo, and went to Xiamen to pay special homage.
Guo Chunyang (middle) and his third son Guo Shuanglong (2nd from right) are in Tokyo. (Note, picture source of National Taiwan Library)
Guo Chunyang attaches importance to children's education. In the future, these children and nephews became his right-hand man in developing his career. It is worth mentioning that Guo Chunyang attaches great importance to the marriage of his children, and must be a high-ranking official and wealthy family.
The eldest son Guo Shuangjiao (also known as Guo Liangyi), his wife was Chen Qiongyun, the beloved daughter of the Guangdong Censor Chen Wangzeng; and Chen Wangzeng's other daughter Chen Qiongzhi married Lin Baishou, the "Banqiao Lin Family" of Taiwan's four major families; and there was also a daughter Chen Qiongzhen, whose husband was Lin Chuigong from the "Wufeng Lin Family". The wife of Guo Shuangao, the second son of Prime Minister Xu Shiying, was the daughter of Prime Minister Xu Shiying during the Republic of China, and his concubine was the daughter of Huang Yizhu, the "Four Great Sugar Kings". Xu Shiying's daughter graduated from Nankai School in Tianjin and is a language of Russia, France and Germany. Her marriage has been widely reported. In addition, the wealthy families that Guo Chunyang married include Hong Kong's "King of Sha" Du Siduan and others.
Through the marriage of second-generation children, it helps to cultivate personal connections and greatly expands business resources. The objects of family marriage are mostly prominent business families. Through marriages between wealthy families, mutual equity participation and mutual support, it is a "unity and unity" technique for family businesses to inherit, and it is also an important reason for many wealthy families to maintain their prosperity for many years.
Funeral of Guo Shuangjiao held in Semarang
When Guo Chunyang expanded his business territory, he did not forget to give back to his hometown. He built more than 10 primary schools in his hometown of Fujian, such as Xiamen Jinhu Primary School, etc. In addition, he also jointly invested with Chen Jiageng and Hu Wenhu to create the Fujian Sports Association to cultivate talents for his hometown.
1909, Guo Chunyang and his brothers founded the "Guang Planting Company" in their hometown. In 1910, they invested another 400,000 silver dollars to establish Huaxiang Sugar Industry Company, which was the first sugar-making enterprise in Fujian and one of the leading enterprises in the domestic sugar industry in the old society. At that time, the world's most advanced sugar-making equipment was introduced.
In the 1920s, Hong Kong workers could not stand the oppression of British investors, and launched a group of strikes, which also shattered Guo Chunyang's dream of reclaiming seashores and building factories. For him, in addition to the huge amount of money wasted, he also suffered physical and mental damage. 60-year-old Guo Chunyang returned to Gulangyu, Xiamen. Since then, he has gradually taken over his career to his eldest son Guo Shuangjiao.
What hit Guo Chunyang harder was that in 1928, the young second-generation successor, the eldest son, Guo Shuangjiao, suddenly died in Sebalong, Java due to acute enteritis. During that time, Guo Chunyang suffered from eye disease. Since 1929, sugar prices plummeted and the world economic crisis spread. In Guo Chunyang's huge business territory, except for the tea industry, almost all of them were in losses. Under the multi-layered blow, Guo Shuangjiao's life was as defeated as a Waterloo, unable to turn things around, and the Indonesian company went bankrupt.
1935, Guo Chunyang, a generation of "sugar king", fell down. His life was full of drama, and his name and incalculable wealth were also scattered in the torrent of history.
There is a Chunyang Street in the north corner of Hong Kong
0 Chunyang Street in the north corner of Hong Kong
0 Chunyang Street in the north corner of Hong Kong was built. For Guo Chunyang, that was "the flowers were planted with intention but did not bloom, and the willows were planted with intention but would become shade." At that time, his main purpose of investing in Hong Kong was to start the sugar industry.
1921, Guo Chunyang successfully bid for a world next to the power plant in the North Point of Hong Kong, hoping to build a sugar factory through land reclamation.
What Guo Chunyang did not expect was that a "provincial and Hong Kong strike" broke out in 1925, and the situation was unstable. In addition, international sugar prices fluctuated violently and continued to fall. In desperation, Guo Chunyang was forced to change his mind, change the newly developed world into a real estate development project, and build a building to collect rent. In the future, the British Hong Kong authorities named one of the newly developed streets of the world "Chunyang Street".
At that time, it was during World War II, and a large number of Chinese from the mainland moved to Hong Kong, most of whom were Shanghai and Fujian. Because Guo Chunyang's southern Fujianese have the advantage of rural areas, many Fujianese, especially Xiamen, Quanzhou , and Zhangzhou, gathered in the area of Chunyang Street, North Point, so it is also known as "Little Fujian".
Chunyang Street Street Scenery
Since 1920, in order to expand its career territory in Hong Kong, Guo Chunyang has successively founded Zhenxiang Company and Zhenxiang Real Estate Company. In fact, what made Guo Chunyang change his investment strategy in Hong Kong back then was related to the traditional investment philosophy of "there are land and wealth".
Back then, Hong Kong has always been an important re-export base for Java sugar. British merchants Jardinet and Swire both set up refined sugar factories in Hong Kong. Guo Chunyang also wanted to reclaim the newly developed land at that time. Because there was a dock for ships, the capital could compete with the big capital in Europe and the United States.
In 1935, Guo Chunyang died of illness in Taipei. His Indonesian company went bankrupt last year and fell down with a sudden blow. His dream of building a dock and running a sugar factory in the North Point could not be realized one by one. However, many of Guo Chunyang's second-generation family members stayed in Hong Kong, such as his second son Guo Shuangao, who was once a director of the Hong Kong Donghua Third Court.
According to Guo Chunyang's eldest granddaughter Guo Zhaozhi, the Hong Kong colonial government asked Guo Chunyang to build a harbor and let the colonial government use it for 12 years before returning it, but Guo Chunyang refused. After Japan surrendered, Guo Chunyang's property in the North Point was accepted by the British colonial government of Hong Kong. Later, his in-law Xu Shiying tried his best to win it from the British side and was returned.
In the 1950s, the three brothers Guo Shuangao, Guo Shuanglong and Guo Shuangqi once operated Yueyuan, the largest amusement park in Asia at that time, in Hong Kong. Due to poor management, their operations were frozen in 1955.
Guo Chunyang is no longer here, but the ancient market in Chunyang Street, North Point is still there. Many of his Fujian fellow villagers no longer leave after they arrive at Chunyang Street. Because here, there is a strong rural feeling among the people, and there are generations of hard-working people from North Point.
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