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
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 wor ...
. The term Taipan also refers to the
mixed political and business oligarch families in
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
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
''The Canton Register'' was an English language newspaper founded by Scottish merchants James Matheson and his nephew Sir Alexander Matheson, 1st Baronet, Alexander together with Philadelphian William Wightman Wood, the first editor. First publishe ...
'' of 28October 1834.['']Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' (2nd edn, 1989). Historical variant spellings include ''taepan'' (first appearance) and ''typan''.[
]
Politico-business oligarchs in Philippines
The term also refers to the Chinese-Filipino
Chinese Filipinos (sometimes referred as Filipino Chinese or Chinoy/Tsinoy in the Philippines) are Filipinos of Chinese descent with ancestry mainly from Fujian, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are one ...
business oligarch
A business oligarch is generally a business magnate who controls sufficient resources to influence national politics. A business leader can be considered an oligarch if some of the following conditions are satisfied:
# uses monopolistic tactics to ...
s and business families
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."
A business entity is not necessari ...
who own or have involvement in various businesses in the Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
and are the powerful billionaire-founders of Chinese-Filipino business empires. Examples of taipans are: The López family of Iloilo of Lopez Holdings Corporation; the late Henry Sy
Henry Tan Chi Sieng Sy Sr. (; zh, c=, p=Shī Zhìchéng, zhu=ㄕ ㄓˋ ㄔㄥˊ, poj=Si Chì-sêng, s=, t=, first=poj; October 15, 1924 – January 19, 2019) was a Filipino businessman.
Born in Fujian, he moved with his family to the Philip ...
of SM Investments
SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), also known as SM Group, is a Filipino conglomerate with interests in various sectors, mostly in shopping mall development and management, retail, real estate development, banking, and tourism. Founded by H ...
; National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.; Ramon Ang of 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 fo ...
; and Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank, PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the oldest operating commercial airline in Asia.
Philippine ...
.
In popular culture
The term gained wide currency outside China after the publication of Somerset Maugham's 1922 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 old ...
" The Taipan" and 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'' nov ...
's 1966 novel '' Tai-Pan'', and was film adapted in 1986, directed by Daryl Duke.
The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in'' Empire of the Sun''.
Notable taipans
* Anthony John Liddell Nightingale, 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 ...
(2006–2012), Hong Kong
* William Jardine,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 ...
(1843–1845), Hong Kong
*James Matheson
Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 179631 December 1878), was a Scottish opium trader and taipan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh ...
, Jardine Matheson (1796–1878), Hong Kong
* Lawrence Kadoorie, China Light and Power (1899–1993), Hong Kong
* Alasdair Morrison, 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 ...
(1994–2000), Hong Kong
* Simon Murray,Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a dive ...
(1984–1994), Hong Kong
* Percy Weatherall (born 1957), Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong
* William Keswick (1834–1912), Scotland
* Merlin Bingham Swire (born 1973), England
* Douglas Lapraik (1818–1869), England
* John Johnstone Paterson (1886–1971), Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong
* John Charles Bois (1848–1918), Butterfield & Swire, Shanghai
See also
* Canton System, the single-port trading monopoly operative in China prior to the First Opium War
The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...
.
*Thirteen Factories
The Thirteen Factories, also known as the , was a neighbourhood along the Pearl River in southwestern Guangzhou (Canton) in the Qing Empire from to 1856 around modern day Xiguan, in Guangzhou's Liwan District. These warehouses and stores were t ...
References
{{Economy of Hong Kong navbox
Cantonese words and phrases
Economy of Hong Kong