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Tai-pan
A taipan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414–415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary'' 1988 新华书店北京发行所发行 (Beijing Xinhua Bookshop).), sometimes spelled tai-pan, is a foreign-born senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in mainland China or Hong Kong. The term Taipan also refers to the mixed political and business oligarch families in Philippines who control the politics and own the various businesses. History In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taipans were foreign-born businessmen who headed large hong trading houses such as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Swire and Dent & Co., amongst others. The first recorded use of the term in English is in the ''Canton Register'' of 28October 1834.''Oxford English Dictionary'' (2nd edn, 1989). Historical variant spellings include ''taep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tai-Pan (novel)
''Tai-Pan'' is a 1966 novel written by James Clavell about European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1842 following the end of the First Opium War. It is the second book in Clavell's ''Asian Saga'', and the first to include the fictional Struan family. Plot summary The novel begins following the British victory of the first Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large natural harbour that both the British government and various trading companies believe will be useful for the import of merchandise to be traded in mainland China, a highly lucrative market. Although the novel features many characters, it is Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock, former shipmates and the owners of two massive (fictional) trading companies who are the main focal points of the story. Their rocky and often abusive relationship as seamen initiated an intense amount of competitive tension. Throughout the novel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tai-Pan (film)
''Tai-Pan'' is a 1986 adventure drama film directed by Daryl Duke, loosely based on James Clavell's 1966 novel of the same name. While many of the same characters and plot twists are maintained, a few smaller occurrences are left out. Filmed under communist Chinese censorship, some portions of Clavell's story were considered too offensive to be filmed as written and considerable changes were made. The De Laurentiis Entertainment Group handled the production and were actively seen battling the Chinese Government and Labor boards over the film during shooting. The film was a critical and box office bomb. Duke believed that a mini-series à la 1980's ''Shōgun'' or 1988's ''Noble House'' would have been a far superior means of covering the complexity of Clavell's novel. Plot In 1842, the British have won the First Opium War and seized Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large port that both the British government and vario ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Clavell
James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was a British and American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his ''Asian Saga'' novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for '' The Fly'' (1958), based on the short story by George Langelaan, and '' The Great Escape'' (1963), based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill. He directed the popular 1967 film '' To Sir, with Love'', for which he also wrote the script. Biography Early life Born in Sydney, Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell (d. 23 June 1945), a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. (Richard Clavell's father was Major R.K. Clavell.) Richard Clavell was posted back to England when James was nine months old. Clavell was educated at The Portsmouth Gram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the world. Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong Island in 1841–1842 as a consequence of losing the First Opium War. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and was further extended when the United Kingdom obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. The territory was handed over from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of one country, two systems. Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages,. the territory is now one of the world's most signific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Miguel Corporation
San Miguel Corporation (), abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate with headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines. Originally founded in 1890 as a brewery, San Miguel has ventured beyond its core business, with investments in various sectors such as food and drink, finance, infrastructure, oil and energy, transportation, and real estate. Its flagship product, San Miguel Beer, is one of the best selling beers in the world. San Miguel's manufacturing operations have extended beyond its home market to areas such as Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia. In total, its products are exported to 60 markets around the world. History In 1889, a Manila businessman, Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban, applied for a royal grant from Spain to establish a brewery in the Philippines. He was awarded the grant for a period of twenty yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jardine Matheson
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong–based, Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and Bermuda Stock Exchange. The majority of its business interests are in Asia, and its subsidiaries include Jardine Pacific, Jardine Motors, Hongkong Land, Jardine Strategic Holdings, DFI Retail Group, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Jardine Cycle & Carriage and Astra International. It set up the Jardine Scholarship in 1982 and Mindset, a mental health-focused charity, in 2002. Jardines was one of the original Hong Kong trading houses or Hongs that date back to Imperial China. 58 percent of the company's profits were earned in China in 2019. The company is controlled by the Keswick family, who are descendants of co-founder William Jardine's older sister, Jean Johnstone. Jardine Matheson is a ''Fortune'' Global 500 company. In 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Nightingale
Anthony John Liddell Nightingale CMG, SBS (traditional ) (born 1947) is a Hong Kong businessman. He spent his career with Jardine Matheson Holdings, a diversified business group focused on Asia, and served as managing director from 2006 to 2012. He retired as Managing Director of Jardine Matheson in March 2012, but he still serves as a non-executive director of the company and other listed group companies. During Nightingale's career, he held numerous positions related to the economic development of Hong Kong and Greater China. In various public and private sector roles, Nightingale contributed to the discussion of economic and trade issues impacting the Asia-Pacific region across sectors such as finance, transportation, real estate and retail sales. Nightingale's positions include Hong Kong representative to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council, Non-Official Member of the Commission on Strategic Development, Member of the Committee on Strateg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of The Sun (novel)
''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1984 novel by English writer J. G. Ballard; it was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology ''Myths of the Near Future''), it is essentially fiction but draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II. The name of the novel is derived from the etymology of Names of Japan, the name for Japan. Ballard later wrote of his experiences in China as a boy and the making of the film of the same name in his autobiography ''Miracles of Life''. Plot The novel recounts the story of a young English boy, Jamie ("Jim") Graham (named after Ballard's two first names, "James Graham"), who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese Empire, Japan occupies the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents. He spends some time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daryl Duke
Daryl Duke (8 March 1929 – 21 October 2006) was a Canadian film and television director. Biography Duke was born at Vancouver, British Columbia, where he became one of CBC Television's earliest regional producers. His career continued with CBC in Toronto producing such series as '' This Hour Has Seven Days'', then in the United States for major television networks and studios there. In 1977, he won the Canadian Film Award for best Director for his surprise hit '' The Silent Partner''. His significant achievement in television was directing the Emmy Award winning miniseries '' The Thorn Birds''. Duke was also among those responsible for the creation of CKVU-TV in Vancouver which is today part of the Citytv franchise. Noteworthy is that he produced and directed early Bob Dylan "song films," black and white vignettes that were the forerunners of today's music videos. He was inducted to the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and Star Walk in 1997. Duke died in West Vancouver, Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliography Of Works By W
Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography'' as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is "the study of books as physical objects" and "the systematic description of books as objects" (or descriptive bibliography). Etymology The word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for "the intellectual activity of composing books." The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, Myth, mythic tales, Folklore genre, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables, and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella, novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story remains problematic. A classic definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His first novel, ''Liza of Lambeth'' (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End theatre, West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. Maugham's novels after ''Liza of Lambeth'' include ''Of Human Bondage'' (1915), ''The Moon and Sixpence'' (1919), ''The Painted Veil (novel), The Painted Veil'' (1925), ''Cakes and Ale'' (1930) and ''The Razor's Edge'' (1944). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
