[5] His father, the magnate Tan Kang Soeij (1827 – 1867), served as Luitenant der Chinezen of Weltevreden and sat on the Chinese Council (Kong Koan) of Batavia from 1860 to 1866.
[5][2][4] He is recorded as already holding that post in 1865, and continued to do so after his father’s death in 1867 under the tenure of his widowed mother Tjie Tjan Nio, who inherited the domain from her husband.
[1][3] In 1870, he was named by the Java-Bode newspaper as a significant contributor to the Red Cross, while in 1874 he founded a school in Batoe-Tjepper to provide a free education for the poorer children of the inhabitants of his domain.
[10][5] Together with the whole officer corps of Tangerang in active service, Tan extended his patronage in 1878 to Boen Tek Bio, the oldest Chinese temple in the region, and helped purchase the shrine’s burial grounds.
[12][5] In 1899, he incorporated a landholding company, N. V. Landbouw Tan Tiang Po, which held the family’s subsidiary domains of Rawa Boeaja, Tanah Kodja, Pondok Kosambi, Minggoe Djawa and later a significant erfpacht (leasehold) in Kapoek.