A taipan (Chinese: 大班; pinyin: dà bān; Sidney Lau: daai6baan1,[1] literally "top class"[2]), sometimes spelled tai-pan, is a foreign-born senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in mainland China or Hong Kong.

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 28 October 1834.[3] Historical variant spellings include taepan (first appearance) and typan.[3]

The term also refers to the Chinese-Filipino business oligarchs who own or have involvement in various businesses in the Philippines 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 of SM Investments; National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.; Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation; and Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines.[4]

The term gained wide currency outside China after the publication of Somerset Maugham's 1922 short story "The Taipan" and James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan.

The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in Empire of the Sun.

Notable taipans

See also

References

  1. ↑ Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", American Speech, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414–415.
  2. ↑ 汉英词典 — A Chinese-English Dictionary 1988 新华书店北京发行所发行 (Beijing Xinhua Bookshop).
  3. 1 2 Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn, 1989).
  4. ↑ "The taipans — Chinese Filipino oligarchs". The Manila Times. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
  5. ↑ Nicholas D. Kristof (21 June 1987). "Jardine Matheson's Heir-Elect: Brian M. Powers; An Asian Trading Empire Picks an American 'Tai-pan'". The New York Times. ... William Jardine, the first tai-pan, a shrewd Scotsman ...
  6. ↑ "Lawrence Kadoorie, 94, Is Dead; A Leader in Hong Kong'g (sic) Growth". The New York Times. 26 August 1993.
  7. ↑ "The Taipan and the dragon". The Economist. 8 April 1995. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014.
  8. ↑ Rone Tempest and Christine Courtney (12 April 1994). "Hong Kong's New Business Dynasties : The great British trading houses rush to hire more Chinese executives, shed their colonial veneer before Beijing takes over in '97". Los Angeles Times. Simon Murray was one of the last British 'taipans.'
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