Introduction

This chapter examines the business network of the Chinese tea merchants in Singapore and the impact of events in China on it. Large numbers of overseas Chinese who had migrated from Fujian to Singapore were familiar with Fujian tea and continued to consume it. This consumption pattern led to the merchants in Fujian opening new firms in Singapore to trade in Fujian tea, especially semi-fermented wulong varieties such as Anxi tieguanyin (安溪铁观音) and Wuyi shuixian (武夷水仙). These merchants arrived in Singapore either to start branches of their families’ tea businesses from Fujian or to establish new companies to import, reprocess, and re-export teas.

Before 1949, the National Government of the Kuomintang (KMT) played a negligible role in promoting Fujian tea overseas. It was left to the Chinese merchants in Fujian to seek new markets in Southeast Asia as Chinese tea exports to Western Europe, North America and Japan declined (Buck 1997: 9). Southeast Asia was the last place they looked, but their work was made easier by the Chinese community, which was eager to consume home-grown tea. However, cracks in the networks began to appear from the 1930s onwards. Political events in China after 1949 eventually brought these networks to an abrupt end in 1960. Although the Communist government had tried to promote Fujian tea, it was determined that trade should be conducted on the political leadership's own terms.

Expanding the business network

Since 1819, Chinese merchants in Singapore had imported tea from China as part of a British colony involved with the entrepot trade. However, they were usually classified as ‘general merchants’ because tea was only one among many commodities imported. This situation changed in the early 20th century with the arrival of new merchants from Anxi County (安溪县), a tea-growing region in Fujian province, who specialised in the sale of tea in Singapore. The first Anxi merchant to arrive was Koh Beng Jin (高铭壬), who started Koh Beng Huat Tea Merchant (高铭发茶庄) in 1905 (the Singapore Ann Kway Association 1974: 357).