1.
1825, in a family with surnamed Chen in Meixi Village, Xiangshan County, Guangzhou Prefecture, a little boy was born. This child is a legend in Old China, the richest man in overseas Chinese Chen Fang .
At that time, Chen Fang 's father Chen Renchang was doing business in Macau. Good news came. He put down his business and rushed home and hurried home to pick up his son and happily.
This Chen family has been doing business for generations and is one of the most wealthy families in the local area. Chen Renchang believes in his fate. . invites a face-to-face gentleman to see his son.
face-to-face gentleman sees the child's skull. The man and woman face are extremely rich, so he takes the second word "fang" that has been passed down for generations and named the child Chen Fang.
Since Chen Renchang and his brother are in Macau all year round and their business is busy, after Chen Fang was born, he invited his wet nurse to help his wife take care of his son carefully.
Chen Fang has been smart since childhood, and all the young and old in the family like him very much. In this way, Chen Fangzi grew up slowly in a superior environment.
In a blink of an eye, Chen Fang is already 6 years old. Chen Renchang looked at his lively and cute son and wanted to train him to become a talent. so he sent his son to a private school, hoping that he could take the path of officialdom.
Chen Fang is talented and smart, and with her careful study, she has laid a solid cultural foundation in a few years. But just when he was developing according to the path his father hoped, he didn't expect that there would be unexpected situations in the world. His father Chen Renchang suddenly died of an acute illness.
After his father passed away, 14-year-old Chen Fang suddenly felt that the sky was falling. He was in a bad mood and had no intention of continuing his studies, so he asked to go to Macau with his uncle to study business.
Chen Renchang and his brother were engaged in business in Macau for many years and earned a family business. His uncle also hoped that his nephew would take over his younger brother's family business, so he happily agreed.
Two years after Chen Fang went to Macau to manage his business, he began to review and take the -year-old exam and passed the scholar, but ranked Sun Shan in the provincial examination. Since then, Chen Fang in was disheartened and no longer valued his career, but focused on doing business.
Chen Fang has the genetic gene of business in family blood. She has learned about the business methods of her father and uncle since she was a child, so she started doing business very quickly.
2,
Chen Fang has been practicing in Hong Kong and Macau for a period of time. 1849, 24-year-old Chen Fang followed his uncle to Honolulu to transport goods to sell . The goods were mainly Chinese local specialties and some classic Chinese furniture.
Chen Fang's father and uncle had done business in the transportation industry in their early years. Influenced by them, Chen Fang also came to Hawaii to have the idea of doing the transportation industry. But at the beginning, due to insufficient financial resources, he had to buy a cargo ship.
This cargo ship travels between Hong Kong and Honolulu, not only transporting goods back and forth, but also transports some Chinese workers to the United States to work. Therefore, Chen Fang and are also well-known in Honolulu.
At this time, in addition to helping his uncle manage his daily business, Chen Fang also tried to open a convenience store himself, mainly operating small folk crafts products in China.
These small products with traditional oriental ethnic style immediately attracted local people as soon as they were placed on the shelves. They came to buy one after another, and the sales volume was surprisingly good.
At this time, his uncle returned to China due to mainland business, and Chen Fang himself chose to stay in Hawaii.
He goes out early and returns late every day, and is very busy, and he doesn't have enough time to use . Chen Fang soon discovered that people need to queue up for a long time to buy what they need.
So Chen Fang, who is flexible in thinking, closed-shelf sales hinders customers' purchases. is worse than using to open-shelf sales , and classify products on the shelf to display them so that customers can freely choose their favorite products.
Chen Fang did not expect this change and the business was booming. was crowded with people, and even the Chinese clothes he wore were bought by customers.
However, there was an unexpected situation. One night, a convenience store suddenly caught a fire, burning all the goods and the goods stored in the convenience store. The foreigner he hired took the opportunity to sweep him away $30,000.
Back in the past overnight, Chen Fang walked away in pain as she looked at the small shop that had turned into ashes.
Chen Fang returned to her residence and did not sleep all night, and he thought repeatedly. It is far away from the ocean and , and it is no longer realistic to go back to your hometown to purchase goods and open a store again. Now you can only change your career and find another way.
So, Chen Fang took the market and soon discovered a business opportunity.
It was during the Civil War in the United States that the southern United States cut off the supply of sugar sugar to the north, and sugarcane from southern plantations could not flow into the north, resulting in an urgent shortage of sugar in the north, which is a must-have item on the American dining table.
and Honolulu has superior soil quality and is more suitable for sugarcane planting than Southern United States . After Chen Fangmin discovered this huge business opportunity, he immediately found his Chinese fellow villager Cheng Zhi and jointly registered a "Fangzhiji" enterprise with him, specializing in sugarcane planting and sugar production.
However, investing in this industry requires strong funds. Cheng Zhi does not have enough funds. Chen Fang resolutely decided to borrow usury to do the sugar business.
In this way, Chen Fang bought a plantation and the most advanced sugar-pressing machinery and equipment through borrowing and investing in , and began to operate to dump large amounts of sugar into the northern part of the United States. He made huge profits in less than a year. His joint venture "Fangzhi Ji" also became one of the eight major companies in Hawaii. He became the first millionaire among local Chinese and won the titles of "sugar giant" and "business prince".
3.
After Chen Fang obtained his first pot of gold, he did not stop because of this, but turned his attention to politics, because it is the same all over the world. It is difficult to make it bigger without official support in business.
So, while doing business, Chen Fang paid attention to maintaining contact with some senior government officials, which soon made his reputation rise.
In early summer of 1856, King Nunalino of Hawaii held a grand wedding ceremony, and Chen Fang was one of the invited people. The shrewd Chen Fang is not only a business genius, but also has a political mind.
He keenly felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and an excellent time to expand his influence, so he carefully planned and spent a huge sum of money to hold a grand luxury dance for the king's wedding.
At the dance party, 31-year-old Chen Fang fell in love with the 16-year-old royal princess Julia at first sight. Although Julia has a good impression of Chen Fang, the age difference between the two is very different after all.
Julia was originally an orphan. She was adopted by the royal nobleman Dr. Zade when she was young. At the same time, she was adopted by another orphan boy Karakava, so that their orphan brother and sister entered the upper class.
Chen Fang met Karakava earlier. He believed that Karakava was smart and capable, and was expected to become a real power among the upper-class people in Hawaii in the future. Therefore, Chen Fang intends to maintain the friendship with Karakava.
So Chen Fang falls in love with Julia at first sight. Love is one aspect, but it also contains another deep meaning.
In order to get Julia , Chen Fang tried his best to show kindness to Dr. Zade and tactfully expressed his thoughts to marry Julia to the royal noble. Dr. Zade stared at Chen Fang and smiled and said, "Can the female dove like a male dove who can't build a nest?"
Chen Fang immediately understood it. He immediately invested a lot of money in the north of Honolulu City, and built a Nuanu villa that integrates Chinese and Western cultures in the most beautiful place, and gave it to the princess.
Chen Fang's generous and spends a lot of money to the young Julia very touched. Under Chen Fang's persistent pursuit, the young and beautiful Julia finally gave her heart, so the two got married.
After Chen Fang married the princess, she became a nobleman in one fell swoop and entered the upper class of Hawaii.
At this moment, King Nunalino, who had been in power for only one year, suddenly died. Julia's brother Kavakanu had outstanding political achievements and was expected to take office as the king, but she suffered from lack of political funds. At this moment, Chen Fang supported Kavakanu without hesitation.
He supported Kavakanu with his strong financial resources, which made him successfully ascend the throne of the king. Kavakanu also reciprocates, which made the royal relative elected as a member of the Privy Council.
After Chen Fang became a member of parliament, he had greater political space. He knew that the Qing Dynasty's closeness had led to a growing decline in national strength. In order to allow ministers in the court to look at the world, Chen Fang invested to accompany Kavakanu on a visit to China, visited Li Hongzhang , and proposed bilateral trade exchanges.
However, after the Qing Dynasty , the Qing Dynasty had internal and external troubles, and the court and Li Hongzhang were exhausted and had no intention of engaging in trade. Although Chen Fang's good intentions did not gain anything, he gained a great reputation with his outstanding talents, which made the court admire him with admiration.
1879, the Qing government established Shangdong in Hawaii and elected Chen Fang as the first Shangdong. The following year, Emperor Guangxu appointed Chen Fang as the first Chinese consul in Hawaii.
After Chen Fang embarked on the career of the government, more and more Chinese people gathered here, and he began to consider doing something practical for the Chinese people in the United States. At that time, the overseas Chinese in the United States had a very low status and they did dirty and tiring work. Moreover, Americans often bullyed Chinese people, and not only deducted their rewards, they often humiliated Chinese people.
In order to allow Chinese people to gain their due respect and status, Chen Fang ran around, prompting local to pass a number of bills to protect the rights and interests of Chinese people, making him a famous overseas Chinese leader at that time.
One day Chen Fang saw a sign hanging in front of a hotel with the words "Chinese and dogs are not allowed to enter."
Chen Fang was extremely angry after reading it and immediately decided to acquire the hotel at a high price. After the transaction was successful, Chen Fang of renamed the hotel to "Sihai Fangyuan" and was open to Chinese people. "Fragrant Garden of Four Seas" immediately became the favorite place for overseas Chinese to visit.
1886, a major flood occurred in Xiangshan, and many villagers were displaced and homeless. Chen Fang, who was far away in a foreign country, learned that he immediately donated 3,000 taels of silver and sent it back to the country to help the victims.
But just when his career was booming, the pro-American powerful people in Hawaii were afraid that Chen Fang's political influence would harm their interests and were worried that the money would be taken away by this person. So he began to crack down on and reject Chen Fang.
1887, the new constitution of Kingdom of Hawaii deprived of most of the power of monarch Karakava, and Chen Fang's trade activities were also greatly restricted.
Although Chen Fang has lived abroad for a long time, he has never forgotten that he is a native Chinese. Therefore, he decided to return to China in the face of internal and external difficulties, but his foreign wife Julia was unwilling to return to the poor Qing Dynasty with him and resolutely stayed in Hawaii with his children.
So Chen Fang sold two-thirds of the company's equity , brought $600,000 back to China, leaving the remaining equity and industry to Julia and her children.
Chen Fang and Julia have lived together for 27 years. Julia gave birth to 16 children for Chen Fang, including 4 boys and 12 girls. For the 16 children born by Julia, only the second son Chen Xiru returned to China with his father. The other children stayed in Hawaii. later all attended prestigious American universities and could not speak Chinese, becoming authentic Americans.
So Chen Fang sold two-thirds of the company's equity and returned home with $600,000, leaving the remaining equity and industry to Julia and her children.
4.
In the autumn of 1890, 65-year-old Chen Fang returned to his hometown of Meixi, where he had been away for many years. He was greeted by his original wife Li Xing and her son.
When Li Xing was 18 years old, she married Chen Fang. The couple had a good relationship. However, Chen Fang was a man who did big things. He was running around in the business world and had no intention of taking care of his wife. Later, he went to a foreign country to seek development.
In this way, Li Xing stayed alone when she was young. Although Chen Fang often sent money and mailed gifts to her, Li Xing still lived a simple life.
Li Xing understood her husband and did not betray him because he took a concubine and married a foreign wife and gave birth to so many foreign children. Instead, he was as loving as before, which moved Chen Fang very much.
Chen Fang had very few opportunities to return to China. He only went home to visit his wife once when he was 35 years old, and then returned to Hawaii. After Li Xing became pregnant, he gave birth to this son, and this son lived with Li Xing.
In order to let the elders of my hometown understand the outside world, the first thing Chen Fang did after returning to my hometown was to build a road. he invested in and his son and his villagers to build a 10-kilometer stone road that leads straight to Gongbeiguan Gate. Then, dug a 7.2-kilometer canal.
Then Chen Fang went to the poor mountainous areas and did public welfare undertakings to help the poor.
Guangxu Emperor In order to commend Chen Fang's efforts, he specially gave him four stone archways, including "good and kindness" and "urgent and righteousness". Later, I spent the rest of my life at Yu Meixi's former residence and Macau Mansion.
In September 1906, 81-year-old Chen Fang died in the Macau Mansion. According to his will, his family buried him in his hometown Meixi Village.
. Since Chen Fang returned to China, his foreign wife Julia has not stepped into China until her death. She was buried in Hawaii after her death.
5.
Chen Fang's second son Chen Xiru . He has a very similar personality to Chen Fang. He was sent back to his hometown to study Chinese by his father when he was 3 years old. When he grew up, he returned to Hawaii and studied at Yale University in the United States.
1890, Chen Xiru followed his father back to China and acted as his father's business in Hong Kong and Macau.
Chen Xiru is very patriotic like his father Chen Fang. He was the chairman of the board of directors of Hong Kong China-Japan Bank, the general manager of Douglas Laplix, and the shareholders of Guangdong-Han Railway and Qiguan Highway were very concerned about the domestic situation.
In the autumn of 1892, Sun Yat-sen graduated from university and went to Macau to practice medicine. Chen Xiru and well-known Macau figures such as Lu Jiu and He Suitian published an advertisement in the "Jinghai Congbao", introducing and praising Sun Yat-sen's medical skills and supporting Sun Yat-sen's practice of medicine in Macau.
1900, Chen Xiru and his younger brother Chen Gengyu invested 1 million Hong Kong dollars to Sun Yat-sen to establish the Revolutionary Party official newspaper China Daily.
1921, after Sun Yat-sen rebuilt the Guangdong Revolutionary Government, his finances were empty and he was very embarrassed. Chen Xiru generously donated 270,000 yuan without hesitation.
After Chen Jiongming rebelled in June 1922, he was appointed as the governor of in Guangdong Province. Later, he engaged in antique business in Macau. He resigned from work in 1923 and did business in Hong Kong and Macao. In 1937, Chen Xiru died of illness in Macau at the age of 78. After his death, he was buried in Fenghuang Ridge, a mountain behind Meixi Village.
Chen Fang's grandson Chen Yongshan graduated from Columbia University . After returning to China, he served as the director of the Jinpu Railway Bureau. Later, he participated in the movement to protect the country and overthrow Yuan. He served as the commander of Jiangfang in Guangdong Province and the director of Shijing Arsenal. He was awarded the title of Major General of the Army.
