Frank Tsao
Frank Tsao Wen-king, 78, group chairman and founder of IMC (International Maritime Carriers), started his shipping empire with the purchase of one small coal-burning ship to ensure he got his merchandise through to northern China after the Communist takeover in 1949. It has evolved into one of the biggest shipping companies in Asia with a fleet of 50 vessels. Today the group's related industries include industrial investments, real estate development and financial investments spread over 14 countries and five continents. The family's main charity is the Tsao Foundation, which receives an annual endowment of US$1 million. The non-profit organisation is devoted to alleviating the hardships of ageing in Singapore and the region. Tsao recollects how turmoil in China forced him to assume responsibility for a large extended family, when his father could not cope with the family's depleted circumstances following their flight from Shanghai.
I came down to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1947, before the Communist takeover. My family had an office here. My father was with ICI (Imperial Chemicals Industries) and ran an import-export company. My grandfather ran a transport company and my mother had a controlling interest in the China National Development Bank and ran a big jewellery shop. I was the eldest of two boys and three girls and learnt to do business by working at three of the companies.
Hong Kong was very primitive when I came here at the age of 22. Our office was on the seventh floor of Pedder Building, the only old building remaining in Pedder Street, and I lived in Wyndham Street. There was a severe shortage of housing. We lived in a three-storey house which accommodated our staff from Shanghai. Later, the whole building was filled with my relatives ... my father and mother, my sisters, my brother and my wife's family. They had eight children. Then there were my uncles and their families. About 30 of us squeezed into the house. Every day we had two dishes and one soup - in very big quantities.
When my father, George Tsao Ying-yung, came down in 1949, I continued with our export business because he was totally disenchanted. From the top levels in Shanghai, he came here and found himself surrounded by a bunch of refugees and relatives. He stayed home and did nothing until the mid-50s when he, my mother and two of my sisters went to Brazil. They stayed several years.
We had a branch office in Hong Kong, but it was suspended with the takeover in Shanghai. Communications were cut with all the branches and the whole system dissipated. And with the coming of the Communist system, people were warned not to work with the capitalists. People were also afraid. They sold whatever they could. By the time communications re-established, there was very little left. After a few years and a big discount and 'voluntary contributions', we did get a little less than a million yuan. A million was a big amount then, but we must have been worth more than 10 times that.
I speak English, Japanese, Putonghua, Shanghai dialect, but my worst dialect is Cantonese, even after all these years. After the Communist takeover we traded with the north. Then the Korean war broke out and our goods could not get through because of blockades. We had to charter ships, which were not always available. So we got our own ships to ensure delivery. We started with shipping, then became involved in container terminals, shipyards, warehousing and the land transportation business in China, Thailand and Malaysia.
Although I married my schoolmate Masie Chow Mei-chee in 1945 in Shanghai, we didn't have a child until after I was 30. Conditions here were very nervous, we didn't know what was going to happen. We saw so many sad stories around us. Even professors were crushing pebbles for $1 a day. Our two sons and two daughters were all born here.
I hold a Malaysian passport. I became a Tan Sri [civilian honour] in 1973, but I only became a Malaysian citizen about 10 years ago, when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed offered it to me. I had to sit a test in Malaysian, and I learnt enough to pass. Before that I had a BNO passport, which nobody trusted.
