Cheong Eak Chong (; 1888 – 13 February 1984) was a Chinese businessman of She ethnicity. He was born in

Anxi County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It lies adjacent to and directly north of Xiamen. Anxi is well known for a number of varieties of Oolong tea, the best-known of ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

in 1888, but left China in 1921 for Singapore. He began his business career there as a goldsmith, later diversifying into finance and opening a bank with offices in Hong Kong and focused his investments in the real estate and tourism industries in Singapore and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, establishing a property empire whose eventual flagship was the Hong Fok Corporation. Throughout his career, Cheong contributed to poverty relief and development in his home county of Anxi, and he is commemorated in the names of a number of public institutions in Fujian.

Life and business career

Born in 1888 in Anxi County, Fujian, Cheong Eak Chong emigrated to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

in 1921. He founded a jewellery firm there in 1925, and subsequently organized a bank with his cousin, sending his eldest son to open an office in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. The political turbulence in China from the 1940s on led Cheong to focus on his interests in Singapore and

, where he diversified into real estate, property development, and tourism. He founded a real estate firm in Singapore, Yat Yeun Hong Holdings, in the 1950s, which he reorganized into the Hong Fok Corporation in 1977. Among other properties in Singapore, he developed International Plaza,

The Concourse The Concourse () is a post-modern high-rise commercial and residential building on Beach Road Kallang, Singapore opposite Nicoll Highway MRT station. The Concourse is located in Singapore's "Golden Mile", which refers to the strip of land bet ...

and the

Grand Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

Charity in Fujian

Cheong sent back a significant amount of his earnings to China, financing the development of Anxi County and South Fujian: in 1946, he co-funded the establishment of a public hospital there, now named Mingxuan Hospital, and after the founding of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1949 he invested in transport infrastructure in the county. Cheong also organized famine relief in the county, securing supplies of flour, rice, and cooking oil. in Quanzhou, which has supplied cadets for the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

, including a fighter pilot on the Liaoning carrier, is named after him.

Family and successors

Cheong had three wives and a total of 28 children, 16 sons and 12 daughters, who were split between Singapore and Hong Kong. His children were responsible for the development of numerous properties in Hong Kong and Singapore; in Hong Kong, his eldest two sons Kung-hai () and Ming-fai () became known as the "Kings of Industrial Buildings". Cheong died on 13 February 1984. He chaired the Hong Fok Corporation until his death, and was succeeded in the post by another son, Kim Pong ().

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钟铭选-创办泉州地区最早的侨办医院之一"官桥依新医院"
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畲族门户网
(in Chinese) She Nationality Network {{authority control 1888 births 1984 deaths Businesspeople from Fujian 20th-century Chinese businesspeople 20th-century Singaporean businesspeople Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Date of birth missing Real estate company founders Chinese real estate businesspeople Singaporean real estate businesspeople