Kian Gwan

Kian Gwan (Chinese: 建源; pinyin: Jiànyuán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kiàn-goân) was the largest multinational trading company in Southeast Asia in the early decades of the twentieth century, and was founded in 1863 in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

Founded in 1863 by the self-made businessman Oei Tjie Sien, Kian Gwan began life as a small trading concern in Semarang, capital of Central Java, then in the Dutch East Indies.

[4] This feat was all the more remarkable given the virtual control of the opium monopoly by more established, older concerns with close ties to the 'Cabang Atas', or the old Chinese upper class of colonial Indonesia.

[4] This auction has gone down as one of the most competitive in history, described by the poet Boen Sing Hoo in his Boekoe Sair Binatang ("On Animals", published in 1895) as a real "peperangan diantara raja-raja" ("battle of kings").

Tjong Tjay, who was 27 at the time, found it difficult to adapt to the business climate in Indonesia, since he was raised abroad and lacked fluency in Indonesian language.

This incident led to the end of OTHC in Indonesia, although Kian Gwan branches abroad survive under the sons of Oei Tiong Ham.