Taipan (corporate title) explained

A taipan (^[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 28October 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]

In popular culture

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, 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 (2006-2012), Hong Kong
• William Jardine,^[5] Jardine Matheson (1843–1845), Hong Kong
• James Matheson, Jardine Matheson (1796–1878), Hong Kong
• Lawrence Kadoorie,^[6] China Light and Power (1899–1993), Hong Kong
• Alasdair Morrison,^[7] Jardine Matheson (1994–2000), Hong Kong
• Simon Murray,^[8] Hutchison Whampoa (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.

Notes and 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. Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn, 1989).
4. Web site: September 16, 2020. The taipans — Chinese Filipino oligarchs . . July 11, 2021.
5. News: Jardine Matheson's Heir-Elect: Brian M. Powers; An Asian Trading Empire Picks an American 'Tai-pan' . Nicholas D. Kristof . . June 21, 1987 . ... William Jardine, the first tai-pan, a shrewd Scotsman ....
6. News: Lawrence Kadoorie, 94, Is Dead; A Leader in Hong Kong'g [''sic''] Growth ]. . August 26, 1993 .
7. April 8, 1995 . The Taipan and the dragon. . . https://web.archive.org/web/20140611141001/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16806376.html. dead. June 11, 2014.
8. News: 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. . Rone Tempest and Christine Courtney . . April 12, 1994 . Simon Murray was one of the last British 'taipans.'.