Ho Hong Bank
Hong Kong & Shanghai, from 1923
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By Han Liang's own account, he made “rapid strides” in his career.
In 1923, he left the China Banking Corporation in Manila and joined Singapore's biggest bank, known as “Ho Hong Bank” (和豐銀行He Feng Yin Hang). It was one of a rash of Chinese banks set up in Malaya during the first two decades of the century to give overseas entrepreneurs an alternative to the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and other Western banks that monopolized the remittance and foreign exchange business. These were boom years for Malaya’s tin mines and its rubber plantations, which supplied the motor car industry. Singapore's Cantonese and Chiuchow communities were first to set up their own banks. Then in 1912, Hokkien businessman Lim Peng Siang did likewise, setting up the Chinese Commercial Bank (CCB). Ho Hong was in fact his second banking venture, as his ambitions grew. The name “Ho Hong” came from Lim's diversified group of companies that were involved in everything from rice, cooking oil and soap, to cement and steamships. Lim served as the bank’s chairman of the board, his brother Lim Peng Mau as managing director. The highly respected (and unrelated) Dr. Lim Boon Keng lent the prestige of his name to the venture, as he had with CCB. The bank quickly opened nine more branches in Malaya and two in the Dutch East Indies. |
Ho Hong Bank headquarters, a hybrid of Chinese shophouse and Western neoclassical styles (1 19980001448 - 0069 courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)
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Seow Poh Leng, Singapore General Manager of Ho Hong Bank, 1933 (courtesy of R Seow)
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Ho Hong not only became Singapore’s largest bank in terms of its capitalization coupled with an extensive branch and agent network, it also aspired to match the Western banks in technical sophistication and service. By the early ’20s, Ho Hong's goal was to move into China.
General Manager Seow Poh Leng tapped a former manager of the Malacca branch and Ho Hong companies employee – Ko Leong Hoe (高粱和 Gao Lianghe) – to handle the Hong Kong set-up. Ko found premises in what is still a prime location at 13 Queen’s Road Central, then known as the Astor House Hotel. It was one block away from the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank headquarters. Ko’s greater challenge was to find someone with the practical know-how to realize the bank’s ambitions. Somehow he latched on to Han Liang – the perfect man for the job, with his foreign exchange experience, Hokkien roots and US polish. Together Ko and Han Liang are still credited with having introduced a whole generation of Singapore bankers to modern exchange practices, as related by one of their trainees in Hong Kong, Tan Ee-leong, who would later write a history of Singapore’s banks. Tan also noted that Ko and Han Liang (but not Seow) were at some point made directors of the bank, which was unusual given their executive roles. |
The official Hong Kong opening was held on October 1, 1923, with bank co-founder Dr. Lim Boon Keng presiding. In 1925, the bank opened a branch in Han Liang’s native Amoy, although there is no indication that he was involved. In 1926, Han Liang was officially transferred to Shanghai, and in 1927, he would open the bank’s Shanghai branch. That year, the bank also bought the Astor House Hotel building that housed its Hong Kong premises. Although nominally Ko would always hold the title of "managing director" and Han Liang that of "manager", later in life Han Liang would specifically refer to himself as the bank's "chief executive" in Hong Kong and Shanghai. We guess that Han Liang was the banking and exchange specialist, while Ko's role was primarily to manage relations with the Ho Hong "mother ship" in Singapore.
From a 1925 juror’s list, we know that for at least part of his time in Hong Kong Han Liang lived on Kennedy Road in what was known as “the Lee Building”, giving a small glimpse into his daily life. On cooler days, he could have had a commute by foot and Peak Tram that could be easily replicated in the present day. It’s assumed that during these years he continued to forge and cement contacts with bankers and other businessmen who he would know for the rest of his life. For example, it's likely that this is when he formed a friendship with Pei Tsu-yee (貝祖詒 Bei Zuyi), who was Hong Kong manager of the Bank of China from 1918 to 1927. Pei was another foreign exchange specialist – but better known today as the father of architect IM Pei, who would design the Bank of China's Hong Kong building in the 1980s.
Han Liang was most definitely on an upward trajectory.
Han Liang was most definitely on an upward trajectory.
Peak Tramway crossing Kennedy Road, where Han Liang is known to have lived around 1924/1925 (c. 1900-1910, https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/bl-s035)
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THE HOKKIENESE BEHIND HO HONG
Once again, Han Liang's links with the overseas Fukienese community proved critical. Ho Hong Bank had been started in 1917 by three Chinese who were based in Singapore but traced their family origins to Fukien. (Singapore was one of four British port colonies on the Malay peninsula known as the "Straits Settlements"). The three co-founders were:
All three had been involved in the 1912 founding of the Chinese Commercial Bank (華商銀行 Hua Shang Yin Hang).
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Another view of Seow Poh Leng, provided by a grandson who has followed in his grandfather's footsteps as a banker and sportsman (courtesy of R Seow)
SOURCES
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