Networking
1918-1920
We can only speculate on the impact that the all-consuming demonstrations and national soul-searching had on Han Liang's work opportunities or decision-making. Somehow he secured a first job with the Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商業儲蓄銀行 Shanghai Shangye Chuxu Yinhang).
According to a banking memoir from the 1950s written by Tan Ee-leong, who would work under Han Liang later in the 1920s, Han Liang got his start as an assistant manager of the young bank. It had been started just a few years earlier by the well respected KP Chen (陳光甫 Chen Guangfu, 1880-1976). Since other biographies of Han Liang, including his own biographical sketch from the 1960s, omit mention of the bank, we guess that his stay was brief.
It isn’t known how Han Liang was introduced to the bank or to Chen. But on Han Liang’s Columbia alumnus card, the bank’s name is penciled in as a contact point, replacing “2032 Kalorama Road”, the address of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
According to a banking memoir from the 1950s written by Tan Ee-leong, who would work under Han Liang later in the 1920s, Han Liang got his start as an assistant manager of the young bank. It had been started just a few years earlier by the well respected KP Chen (陳光甫 Chen Guangfu, 1880-1976). Since other biographies of Han Liang, including his own biographical sketch from the 1960s, omit mention of the bank, we guess that his stay was brief.
It isn’t known how Han Liang was introduced to the bank or to Chen. But on Han Liang’s Columbia alumnus card, the bank’s name is penciled in as a contact point, replacing “2032 Kalorama Road”, the address of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
KP Chen (陳光甫 Chen Guangfu)
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Chen was widely considered an unassuming but brilliant innovator. Born in Kiangsu Province (江蘇省Jiangsu Sheng) to a family with little education, he was sponsored to study abroad and graduated from the Wharton School in 1909. In 1915, he founded his own bank – still in existence today – after being forced to resign as general manager of the Kiangsu Provincial Bank because he would not disclose account holder names to a local warlord. Highly principled and an early proponent of customer service, he also started a travel agency within his bank that would evolve into the still extant China Travel Service.
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Given the bank's reputation, Han Liang's relatively brief stint suggests he must truly have seen greater opportunity elsewhere – or perhaps he felt at a disadvantage within the Shanghainese bank without a good command of the local dialect. There must have been no hard feelings when he moved on for it's known that Han Liang would have lifelong connections to the bank and an abiding friendship with Chen. At a future moment of crisis, Chen would stand by Han Liang professionally. Chen would also in a few years' time be Han Liang's next-door neighbor – in fact, it seems quite likely that the somewhat older banker was the one who would point the way, introducing Han Liang to not only a promising piece of real estate but also an appropriate future wife.
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Banner caption: Cover of KP Chen's diary, published in 2002
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