Oei Tjie Sien

Oei Tjie Sien (Chinese: 黃志信; pinyin: Huáng Zhìxìn 1835–1900) was a Chinese-born colonial Indonesian tycoon and the founder of Kian Gwan, Southeast Asia's largest conglomerate at the start of the twentieth century.

[2] This could have given Oei Tjie Sien a respectable career as a teacher or minor bureaucrat; but he participated instead in the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) against the then reigning Qing dynasty.

[7] Avoiding the Qing government's suppression of the rebels, Oei left his first wife in China and fled in 1858 to Semarang, Central Java in the Dutch East Indies or today's Indonesia.

[8] The new company dealt in both Chinese products, such as tea, herbs and silk, as well as in Indonesian commodities, including rice, sugar, tobacco and gambier.

[8][3] Oei's newfound wealth secured him an official pardon from the Qing government in 1874, and the prestige of landownership in 1878 through his acquisition of the particuliere landerij or private domain of Simongan, an estate of 1,300 hectares outside Semarang.

[8] As landheer or landlord of Simongan, Oei - unlike his Jewish predecessor - allowed access free of charge to the venerable Chinese shrine of Sam Poo Kong, located on the estate.

[7] Oei also obtained the Dutch colonial government's permission in 1880 to move from Semarang's Chinese quarter to Simongan, where - away from business - he lived the more prestigious lifestyle of a landlord and scholar, laying out a garden and his family graveyard, and eventually in retirement, tending to his lotuses.

[3][8] The parvenu Oeis, father and son, were ready to capitalize on the economic crisis and took over many revenue farms from ruined Cabang Atas families.