Kits' Mingjun Note: I heard that the famous overseas Chinese leader of Malaysia and Dr. Tan Sri Wu Defang passed away on the morning of March 21, 2021. This is definitely a big loss to the Hakka world! Kemingjun has met Dr. Wu twice. One was when Dr. Wu Defang visited the Beijing Overseas Hakka Association on July 30, 2018. At that time, he was thanked by Wang Jiancheng and General Yu Bencheng. The author still retains a recording of Dr. Wu's interview; the other was the 30th World Guest Religion Conference in Malaysia in October 2019, and he was named. Mr. Wu Defang’s parents’ hometown is in Dahe Village, Chengjiang, Meixian, so we directly talked in the Hakka dialect of Meixian with the exact same accent. He was like an old man in Meixian County who talked about his elder brother who returned to his hometown in Jiang, and his ancestral residence in Zhidetang in Dahe Village.
Mr. Wu Defang, his wife Yan Suhua, Wang Jiancheng and wife
, who were photographed at that time, was very impressed by the octogenarian, overseas Chinese leader, entrepreneur, and philanthropist in front of him who was respected and had been met by many heads of state. He had a clear mind and approachable mind. He was the gentle gentlemanly style of the older generation of scholars in Meixian County, and he had no airs at all (he was very supportive of young people). His many merits in cultural inheritance and connection always remind me of Zigong, the ancestor of Confucian merchants, , . He always smiles with a sincere and kind smile, just like his name. He smiled and said, "I was born in 1937. In 2017, someone asked me how old I was. I said I was 37! If you ask me this year, I will be 38 years old!" His life story is of great value to learn. I will write this article here, deeply miss it!
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Born in Melaka
Wu Defang was born in Bazhang, Malacca on August 27, 1937. Wu Defang's distant ancestor moved from Chaozhou Chenghai to Meixian. His father Wu Weineng was born in Dahe Village, Chengjiang, Mei County, and his mother Xiong Yimei was born in Chetouba, Mei County. Wu Defang's ancestral hall was called Zhidetang. This plaque was taken to Malacca by his cousin. Many years later, Wu Defang accidentally found this plaque in the Jiliao. The hall plaque is a symbol of the source of Hakka people, so he feels like he has gained a treasure.
Because of the domestic warlords' melee, Meixian had difficulty making a living, so Wu Defang's parents immigrated to Bazhang Sanjiaoping, Malacca, Malaya in 1927. In 1933, they moved to Bazhang Ertiao and Half-Shi Brazilian Budai, who worked as a farmer to make a living. The couple gave birth to ten children, Wu Defang was the youngest. But when he was 4 years old (1941), his father died in Penang; in 1942, the Japanese army invaded Malacca. Wu’s mother, Xiong Yimei, raised ten children alone under such turbulent situations.
Wu's mother has the hard work and wisdom of a Hakka girl. Wu Defang remembers her saying, "I worked hard to improve the life of the next generation. I hope that each generation will be better than each generation!" She started as a servant, and later became more capable, grinding soy milk to make tofu, raising pigs and chickens with tofu dregs, and carrying water to grow vegetables under the moonlight. She was diligent and knew how to save, and later she could buy land to plant rubber trees. During the Japanese occupation period, Wu's mother boldly opened a coconut oil processing factory, making money and investing in the land. Wu Defang has helped her mother do all kinds of farm work since she was a child.
Wu Defang and his third brother Wu Rongfang took it in their hometown of Malacca
Wu's mother adheres to the Hakka tradition in terms of tutoring. She used the Meixian Hakka nursery rhyme to teach her children to study hard: Toad Luo, giggle, don’t study, don’t have a wife. Children without fathers are often bullied by other children. Wu Defang said that when they meet unreasonable children, "Buddha will get angry." But Wu’s mother taught the child: Don’t fight with others. If someone wants to hit you, just run away and don’t fight back. Wu’s mother’s inscription is actually “swallowing one’s face”; this is not to swallow one’s anger, but a kind and wise choice to survive.
Wu Defang said that from his mother's words and deeds, he understood the Hakka people's spirit of respecting culture and education, hard work and hard work, bravery and perseverance, being cautious in the end, self-reliance and self-improvement, gratitude and cherishing blessings, modesty and prudence, pioneering and enterprising spirit. This spirit has a profound impact on his future career, his treatment of others and social service.
However, when Wu Defang was in high school, Wu's mother suddenly passed away at the age of 58. The spiritual pillar of the ten children of the Wu family fell down with a bang. At this time, Wu Defang once wanted to drop out of school, but the third brother Rongfang and the fourth brother Wenfang encouraged him to continue studying. Because of their good tutoring, their siblings have a harmonious relationship. With a poor family background, Wu Defang finally chose to teach after graduating from high school, and then went to the Department of Chemistry, Taiwan Chenggong University, which costs only 50 yuan a month.
Bookish young man Wu Defang
Wu Defang's mother tongue is Meixian Hakka. In Malacca where he is a multicultural gathering, he also learned to speak Mandarin, Chaozhou dialect, Hainan dialect, Minnan dialect, Malay and English. When he arrived in Taiwan, he learned Cantonese with his Hong Kong classmates in the same dormitory.
At that time, many professors from Taiwan Chenggong University came from the mainland and had a high teaching level. At that time, Taiwan's economic level was low. Locals generally had a desire for knowledge. Students generally hoped to change their destiny through reading, so their academic style was very good. Wu Defang saved as much as possible when she was studying. Drinking "fresh" porridge water, just pickled cucumbers and peanuts, it was also very pleasant to enjoy. He has strong mobility and was soon elected as the president of the Department Student Union. The friendship between teachers, students and classmates during the study process will be remembered for the rest of his life. With this simple and simple heart of cherishing blessings, he gave back to his alma mater after he became famous.
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3 Started from scratch to create Duomei Group
3 In 1964, Wu Defang graduated from university. He originally wanted to find a job first and then go to the United States to study, but the company "Yixing" of the third brother Rongfang who is working hard in the gold diamond industry lacks manpower, so he invited him to cooperate and hope that his brothers will contract the gold project together to improve their family situation. He is responsible for administration and finance, and he has accumulated a lot of connections. Yixing is a word in the name of his mother Xiong Yimei.
Soon, Wu Defang bought his first car in his life and married his girlfriend Yan Suhua, whom he met in college.
He has worked with San Ge for 4 years and feels that San Ge's career has already had a certain foundation. Therefore, with the consent of San Ge, he decided to start a business. In 1968, Wu Defang used his accumulated salary of RM3,000 html to jointly invest with his friends, and four employees were founded. He named the company Tomei, which is the abbreviation of "How Beautiful". The Chinese pinyin cannot be seen in the English trademark, which reduces the racial color.
When the industry started, the funds and channels were not as rich as those of others. In order to seek breakthroughs, Wu Defang chose to avoid the market of large companies, focus on differentiated branding, and gain reputation with the integrity and innovation of "Yixing". How did he differentiate? He makes purer gold jewelry and expands his business to Indian and Malay gold shop markets outside of Chinese. In this way, there are business throughout the year on different ethnic groups and different festivals.
After three years of hard work, he became a famous Jinshang in Sakura District. After that, he began to diversify in gold jewelry. He opened a gold jewelry wholesale company named "Shunxing", which specializes in wholesale jewelry to gold shops of Indian compatriots. Shunxing is two words that his mother hangs outside the door of her home.
Later, Wu Defang further expanded his business to the retail field, and bought two stores in the first shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur , and opened the first multi-US diamond store.
Three years later, he was the first Golden Diamond Store in the Golden River Shopping Center in Kuala Lumpur. In this way, he gradually arranged the combination of people, goods and places, and began to go back to the source of the industrial chain.In 1986, Wu Defang bought the first factory in Chen Qunchuan Industrial Park, which had just encountered the economic storm in 1985. He bought it for 700,000 to 800,000 yuan. He bought it for 380,000 yuan as a beautiful base. He has been there for several years, and the money-making effect brought about aggregation effect. The gold-making workers under the Duome Group made money and set up factories there, which attracted many foreign gold merchants.
Wu Defang owns 15 buildings as the headquarters of the Tomé Group, forming the concentration of the largest gold jewelry manufacturing factory in Kuala Lumpur, where the precious metal appraisal bureau under the Malaysian Golden Merchants Association is located.
With the development of the company, Wu Defang will begin to further expand and diversify. Duome Group has precious metal refineries, precious metal jewelry manufacturing plants, gold jewelry wholesale, gold diamond stores, Thai, Chinese, European and American brand agents, etc., covering one-stop industrial chains from refining, manufacturing, wholesale, OEM, agency, retail, export and other industries. Duomei’s “one-stop gold model” allows the company’s business to develop rapidly and healthily.
He is also actively applying new technologies. Work hard on the design of gold jewelry and introduced Japanese carving machines to create diverse and high-quality products according to the preferences of different ethnic groups. Computer systemized management was the first to apply in channel management.
As a consumer product, Wu Defang also creates new brands from time to time in response to trends and customer changes. In 2001, the My Diamond brand was launched, focusing on fashion, trends and innovation, with popular prices, and attracting young consumers. T.H.Jewelry jewelry was added in 2003, targeting high-end people. In 2004, Tomé obtained the agency rights of the Thai brand Prima Gold pure gold craft in Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, , Brunei , Singapore and other places. In 2007, Tomé acquired the Heart and Arrow diamond brand Le Lumiere. In this way, Duomei's brands continue to increase. After the layout of the entire industrial chain was completed, Wu Defang actively embraced the capital market. In 2006, Duome Group was listed on the second trading board of the Malaysia Stock Exchange in 2006. In 2007, Duome Group's stock was upgraded to main board trading.
In addition, Wu Defang also leads industry standardization in a timely manner. During his tenure as president of the Malaysian Gold Diamond Jewelry Association, Wu Defang joined forces with the "Xian" clubs of the state Gold Chambers and the Golden Shop Tellers Association to jointly invest in the establishment of the Standard Bureau. The General Standards Bureau is established by the government.
1987 Malaysian Gold Diamond Jewelry Association Joint Standard Bureau, less than a year after its establishment, wine has 352 members. Wu Defang also fought for the government through the Federation to exempt gold from sales tax and set up a precious metal verification center. Because of this move, Malaysia built its domestic jewelry according to international standards more than 20 years ago, and Malaysia has become one of the world's second only to Italy's gold manufacturing exporters. GEMAS, a subsidiary of Domestic, can produce more than 250 kilograms of precious metal jewelry every month for supplying the European and American markets.
In 2011, Wu Defang once again set the first place in the industry, which is to set up an online precious metal trading business platform, through which customers can invest and maintain their value (gold bars, gold nuggets, etc.). And Duome makes profits from the price difference between buying and selling gold, and rises to the financial platform.
As the channel expands, Domestic Group has set up retail stores in 12 states across the country and two federal districts in West Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Butera Jaya). He also actively entered the international market, signed contracts and cooperation with companies such as China Baitai Jewelry, and set up retail stores in China, Vietnam and other countries.
He trained his children to help manage the company's business very early, and actively embraced the thinking of young people and embraced new technologies. Going further, in recent years, he has established a Gold Diamond Museum and a Jewelry Education College (Oasis College)! What he does is always based on the pattern of making the cake bigger in the industry.
This is how, let’s take a look at the old man’s business thinking, taking steady steps, cultivating oneself and managing the family (family business), governing the country (national standards), and pacifying the world (international market), representing a ultimate path for the Hakka people who worship Confucianism to engage in manufacturing. When can I keep up with this idea when I think of domestic consumer brands (such as wowhaha) of the same age as Duomei?
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Entrepreneurship process went through several hardships
Wu Defang's entrepreneurial process was not smooth. He was a Confucian businessman, and he was not destined to be with him. He has suffered all the robbers in the gold shop, his own encounter with robbers, and his partner ran away with the money. Every time he was seriously injured, but every time he regained his momentum.
His subsidiary Shunxing Gold Jewelry was robbed, and the insurance company in London was unable to claim compensation after a time difference during the holiday. But a miracle happened. Because he was very credible, the insurance company agent reported it directly to him and received compensation from the London insurance company 14 days later.
In 1983, a partner wholesaler of Wu Defang took away all the shareholders and managers of the two gold shops and opened another company. At this time, the funds were emptied and almost all the employees were gone, leaving only Wu Defang and one employee in the entire store. When he was sad, the person who left him was his old classmate in junior high school and his partner who had been cultivated for twenty years. This kind of incident of being stuck behind the scenes is like betrayal of everyone, and Wu Defang is on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, with the support of his wife and the unyielding suppliers, Wu Defang regained his old mountains and rivers and faced setbacks resolutely.
After two years of hard work, Wu Defang was under too much pressure, and Mrs. Wu Yan Suhua had to quit her job at the Malaysian Academy of Arts to assist her husband in managing finances. Furthermore, the credibility he built over a decade played a role in his trough. Some suppliers strongly support it. It was not until 1986 that the business turned losses into profits. After the partner was betrayed, he was very cautious in the distribution of equity and tried to own sole proprietorship or absolute equity. Therefore, most of Duomei's subsidiaries are sole proprietorships.
On the evening of September 30, 1986, Wu Defang went to pick up the car from a US dollar bill and brought a briefcase of RM5,000 in cash, and encountered a robber in the garage. The robber robbed the bag, but Wu Defang refused to give it to him, and the robber suddenly took out a fruit knife and chopped it. Wu Defang had to use a briefcase as a shield and weapon. In the end, the bandits were defeated and fled. At this time, Wu Defang's head, chest and right hand were covered in scars, covered in blood, painful but clear mind.
He was taken to the hospital after being stopped from bleeding. He had more than 60 needles sewn on his head, and with other parts, at least one hundred needles were sewn.
In order to prevent and control risks and control costs, Wu Defang pays attention to the traditional Hakka style of loyalty, trustworthiness, and thrift. He is engaged in precious metals business, but he advocates frugality, pragmatism and steady progress. Because he believes that if a company wants to expand, it will face the problem of capital, and loyalty and faith are his own golden signboard and the foundation for the long-term development of the company.
He admired Confucianism and liked the saying that Confucius said the most: "Extravagant means not rude, and frugal means firm. Instead of being rude, it is better to be solid." It is better to save money, be stubborn, and not to be extravagant.
Relying on the Confucian business spirit advocated by the Hakka people, Wu Defang has overcome several difficulties, including the economic recession in the mid-1980s and the financial storm in 1997, which gave him a place in the jewelry industry, from RM5,000 to RM700 million in 2013.
In the past 6,000 years, the total amount of gold produced by humans has ranged from 100,000 tonnes. When the West colonized outward, it used three Gs: GOD\GLORY\GOLD. Gold has always been a symbol of wealth. Wu Defang started from scratch and chose this industry to work hard all his life. There are many Hakka people in Meixian who started with gold making handicrafts in Nanyang, but it is rare to be at the level of industry standard setters. He later entered the marine aquaculture industry and other industries.
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Social leader who benefited society and Hakka
The most amazing thing about Wu Defang is far more than just in business. He is a highly respected and influential Chinese community leader. He has worked hard in leading and building a community for many years and made extraordinary achievements. In short, he spent decades of leading the community to promote social progress, improve people's well-being, and actively promote cultural inheritance and exchange.
Global Hakka Hall of Fame
History of Confucian businessman and patriotic overseas Chinese leader Mr. Tan Sri Wu Defang passed away. [Part 10][Part 10][Part 10]@Global Hakka Hall of Fame #Global Hakka Hall of Fame#
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Kimingjun saw many clubs he led and participated in, and many things he did were immeasurable, which was also amazing. How could a person do so many extraordinary and far-reaching things in his life! He is really pushing every thing and may benefit many people. Some things that we ordinary people may be hard to imagine, such as applying for compensation from the Japanese. Not only did he give his all, but he was full of wisdom in his ways. That is to say, Kemingjun thinks he is a community activist who is good at united front, which is often shown by many older generation of Meixian intellectuals: enthusiastic and talented.
He has a famous saying, "Politics stand aside and culture puts it in the middle." In other words, he used the power of culture rather than politics to promote the improvement of people's welfare. Here we will mainly talk about his outstanding contributions to the Hakka cause. Kemingjun thinks he is a role model for Chinese Hakka club managers to learn from. After all, many Hakka clubs have gradually become groups that eat and drink loosely and have no sense of existence, and can actually do better and more valuable in promoting cultural heritage, social progress and empowering members.
Wu Defang participated in many clubs, and they all held important positions. Including: commercial (such as Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry), blood-related nature (Malaysia Wu's Association), geopolitical nature (Jiaying Association, Hakka Federation), academic nature (Alumni Association of Resident Taiwan, China Federation of Resident Taiwan), comprehensive nature (Selang Chinese Hall and Malaysia China Federation of Resident China Federation of Resident China Federation of Resident China), business nature (Malaysia Gold Diamond Jewelry Association United Federation of Resident China), school groups (China School Board, i.e., school directors) and other societies (Selangor Jingwu Sports Association), etc.
Wu Defang is a pragmatic leader of the Chinese group. He did not deliberately pursue fame, but waited until the time was ripe before taking important positions. At that time, he had already done many practical things that everyone expected. On the one hand, he focused on implementing plans related to culture and education, and focused on promoting Chinese culture, Chinese education, Chinese literature, Chinese literature, and Chinese witch culture exchanges, reflecting inheritance and inclusion.
On the other hand, during his term, he always leads the Chinese League that has not been sound enough to implement reforms, institutionalize its organizational structure and administrative work, and modernize the clubs and standardize them, so as to facilitate the implementation of conference affairs and attract more people to join as members. There are many examples of his reform, which ultimately make the society better, more independent and more conducive to social progress.
He implemented reforms, upholding a pragmatic leadership style, using complete and compelling procedures, thinking about planning, careful planning, writing reports, and brainstorming to make a decision. There is little resistance to implementing reforms in this way, winning the hearts of the people, and the chance of successful implementation is high.
The most important position held by Wu Defang was to serve as President of President Hua from 1994 to 1998. The general institution jointly formed by the Great Hall of China (13 associations) of various states in Malaysia is the general representative of the Chinese community. It enjoys a lofty prestige in the Chinese community and its opinions are also valued by the government.
He adheres to the pragmatic style of speaking less and doing more, carefully formulates plans, and handed them over to the executives for execution.He also attaches great importance to the matter of the club owning its own club. The club he purchased during his tenure can always add value and benefits to the club, support the club and make the club's career flourish. For example, during his term of office, he completed the expansion of the Great Hall of China in Selangor, raised the expansion fund for three years, and hosted the 11th National Chinese Cultural Festival in the new club.
Wu Defang is a fundraising expert. Because he has a wide range of social relationships and good popularity (Ke Mingjun felt that his speech was very respectable and he was very pragmatic and knowledgeable when he met), he was able to raise funds and always let the amount of fundraising exceed the indicator. This can be seen from the establishment of multiple funds in his tenure. "As parents, they should set an example and set a good example in the family. They should not only take care of their children materially, but also spiritually, turn the family into a paradise for children and a safe haven for adults, so that the whole family can enjoy the joy of family."
Wu Defang is also a master of uniting and multiculturalism. During his tenure as president of the Chinese Communist Party, in order to unify the Chinese Communist Party, he organized the seven major village league coordination committees in the country to jointly organize large-scale cultural activities...
There are more than 5,000 Chinese associations in Malaysia, which are divided into 13 state Chinese halls. Then there are more than 5,000 indirect members of the Tanglian (later renamed Huazhong General Manager) and are the most representative of the most private institutions of the Chinese community. Therefore, this President of President Hua is a position that many people compete for. Wu Defang is the only president who has no challengers in the presidential election, and everyone is looking forward to it.
During his term of office, Wu Defang led Malaysian culture to the macro and high-level. The Chinese community is the highest private institution. As the president of the Chinese president, he communicates with government and opposition parties and promotes the resolution of issues that need attention. Promote the promotion of the Chinese President to host three international seminars related to Chinese culture. The general program of the national Chinese Communist Youth League cultural work was established, the Malaysian Chinese Ideological Revolution Conference was promoted, and the China General Education Fund was established to assist Chinese children with excellent character and academic performance but poor families to complete their studies. He also planned and published books to preserve history and culture.
He has been working hard for many years and has won a set of "Siku Quanshu Quanyao" from the Taiwan Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, which has become the main collection of the Huazhong Library. His term of office also promoted Japan to seek war compensation for massacres of more than 100,000 Chinese during the invasion of Malaysia. He also paid attention to Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises, launched a national small and medium-sized enterprise seminar, and participated by financial institutions. He organized the establishment of the Chinese Museum, the Chinese Library, the Southeast Asian Chinese Research Center, etc. He called for "developing the roots of Chinese culture" and promoting the holding of Chinese college debates...
In terms of Hakka, he is the president of the Selangor Jiaying Hall and the president of the Hakka Association Federation. When the Meizhou Hakka Association was established in 1989, he led a delegation of 40 people to congratulate him. This was not open to the free exchanges among the people in the political environment at that time, so it was not easy. It was the only Malaysian delegation to congratulate him. He set up the permanent secretariat of the Guest Federation in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and built his own club building in the Golden Triangle area of Kuala Lumpur.
He also urged and prepared the first Hakka Cultural Festival, and there are various exhibitions such as Hakka celebrities, Hakka food, Hakka folk songs, Hakka style, Hakka art works, etc. He has always been very concerned about education. He promoted the Association of the Guest Association to raise scholarships for the poor children of the College of the Guest Association... He promoted Hakka studies to become a prominent school in Malaysia, and also donated many bridges to the Meizhou Hakka Museum.
One of the major events of his term was to prepare for the 15th World Hakka Kiss Conference, and he was the chairman of the preparatory committee. Prime Minister Mahathir, head of state, opened the ceremony and praised the Hakka people's contribution to the country.
In addition, during his tenure, he also led the Association of Guests and Associations to assist Indonesia Hakka to establish the ASEAN Kindership Association.
In 2019, the 30th World Hakka Kiss Conference was held again in Malaysia. Kemingjun was fortunate to participate and witness the grand occasion.You can feel the influence brought by the leaders of the Guest Federation because of their noble virtues on the spot, which is also a grand event promoted by Wu Defang behind the scenes.
In a place of multiculturalism, a gentleman is harmonious but different. One word of harmony is worth a thousand gold. In a personal life, a gentleman's virtues are filled with joy. Dr. Wu Defang's outstanding contribution to the country, society and culture has earned him countless honors. He was awarded the title of Tan Sri by the head of state.
On March 21, 2021, Dr. Wu Defang passed away. May this Hakka elder with good virtues and good conduct keep his virtues and be reborn in the Pure Land, and his smile will always be in the hearts of the people he has benefited.
