ISBN: 9814189227 9789814189224

Category: History / Social History

Page count: 217

<p>The name of Eu Tong Sen is well known in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Yet to date, there has been little of substance written about the man; much of what there is, has drawn from a deep well of unsubstantiated folklore.</p><p>Ilsa Sharp's account of Eu Tong Sen's life, based on voluminous research by academic Maria Yang Tse-oy, has theatre aplenty, from mystic feng shui mountains and murder by poison, through dare-devil jungle trekking to fending off revolutionaries, taking on the opium establishment, playing political games with colonial masters, consorting with opera stars, racehorses, flashy cars and women (11 wives), build­ing stately palaces and castles, and above all, the amassing of enormous personal wealth, a respectable part of which went to family, friends and needy causes, from schools to hospitals.</p><p>Yet, this is no ordinary tale of a towkay who just struck it rich. Eu Tong Sen stands tall as a man of his age, and also ours, signalling a future 'Renais­sance Chinese' character that would combine the best of many worlds and so produce something quite new In this, Eu Tong Sen was a man well before his time. His life was not a footnote to the period of history he lived in; it was an integral part of the main narrative of the lives of the people who called them­selves hua qiao, the Overseas Chinese.</p><p>This first authoritative biography of Eu Tong Sen is therefore of interest to both academics and those interested in the dramatic life of an extraordinary man of his time.</p>