This is a biography by ZHAO Dexin translated into English from the orignal chinese version published by Hunan Peoples's Publication in November 1998.

OeiTjoe (1868-1945) was born in a small village in southern China. His family farmed a small plot of ancestral land and had been very poor for several generations. Like other members fo his family Oei Tjoe had little formal education. He was doomed to a life of menial labour. to escape poverty he sailed to Singapore and later to Java at the age of 16 and worked as a labourer. Later he went into the business of exporting sugar and other commodities and amassed a huge fortune. He then returned to China and used his enormous wealth to modernize the city of Xiamen, Fujian. He established the Xiamen Electric Light and Power Company, the Xiamen Tap Water Company, and the Xiamen Telephone Company. He also founded the China & South Sea Bank, headquartered in Shanghai, and was the only private bank allowed to print its own money for general circulation. He also co-founded China Banking Corporation in Manila and Overseas Chinese Bank in 1919 in Singapore.

When China & South Sea Bank was founded. Oei Tjoe hire Hu Bijiand as general manager, a well-known industrialist in China. In 1934 while still the general manager of the bank, Hu was invited and appointed chairman of the board of the Bank of Communications. From the day in 1920 when China & South Sea bank was founded till the day Hu died in 1938 in a plane crush, Oei Tjoe had always trusted and supported Hu in all his dealings.

Aside from its own regular business, China & South Sea Bank also joined with other banks in temporary or long-term undertakings. Among the long-term arrangements were the Joint Management Office and Chengfu Trust Company as well as the Pacific Insurance Company, which was established in June 1931 by six banks, with Oei Tjoe as the chairman of the board. Within a few short years Pacific Insurance Company became the biggest Chinese insurance company and its name was known worldwide.

In view of his many contributions, he was decorated many times with the highest honours by the Chinese Government. He even won a prominent recognition in 1914 European issue of WHO's WHO in the Business World. A CHINESE name amoung the world's business tycoons which caused some excitement in the Chinese society.

Above all he was a philanthropist, especially if the field of education, his lifelong passion. He donated generously to numerous schools and universities. This book chronnicled his life and his struggle against the ill of the time in which he lived: first colonialism; then the corrupt and chaotic governments during both the last years of Qing Dynasty and the early years of post revolution China.

As the saying goes: Man proposes, but Heaven disposes.