Lim Chin Tsong

Lim Chin Tsong (; ; October 28, 1867 – November 2, 1923) was a Burmese Chinese tycoon and merchant, with business interests ranging from rice to oil. Throughout his career, he served as the sole partner of Lim Soo Hean & Company, originally established by his father, a Chinese emigre to Burma.

During his own lifetime he was known as the most successful Chinese merchant in Rangoon. He entertained the social elite of the city in lavish parties hosted at his residence, Chin Tsong Palace, and gave generously to charities, including a hospital, a temple, and several schools. In modern Yangon, he is mostly remembered for the sudden and mysterious circumstances of his bankruptcy and death.

Life

Background Lim was born on October 28, 1867, to Lim Soo Hean (林仕興), a Chinese man of Hokkien origin who migrated from Xiamen to Burma in 1861, shortly after the family arrived in Burma from China. After arriving from China, his father apprenticed for a Chinese milling firm before beginning his own business, originally importing goods from China and the Straits Settlements. He later established a rice trading firm, "Lim Soo Hean" (林仕興商行). In 1886, Lim's father also began marketing oil, with Lim working as his assistant.

Lim's father, believing that his own poor English ability was hampering his ability to do business, sent Lim to the best English-language schools in Yangon. Lim attended Rangoon College and St. Paul's School (now BEHS No. 6 Botataung). Lim played a prominent role in negotiating the oil company's rights to extract oil from properties in Upper Burma, and was rewarded with a small commission from every barrel produced from those wells.

Lim diversified his business interests into rubber plantations, cotton gins, peanut mills, and into earth metal extraction, including tin, copper, lead, wolfram and gold. Besides exporting oil, his steamships carried passengers, especially labourers from Fujian. Lim owned a match factory whose matches were favored by the viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford.

During the early 1900s, in which Lin was one of the most prominent merchants in Rangoon, he donated generously to schools and hospitals. In 1905, Lim and his partners established Anglo-Chinese Boys' and Girls' Schools in Rangoon (中華義學). In 1907, Lim founded the Lim Chin Tsong School (林振宗中西學校). One of the goals of Lim's schools, by teaching Chinese students in English, was to increase the competitiveness of Chinese businessmen and professionals abroad.

Lim Chin Tsong maintained good relations with the social and economic elite of colonial Burma. He was made an honorary magistrate, sat on the Rangoon Municipal Committee, Lim owned the Rangoon Turf Club, a racing stable.

Lim attempted to corner the local rice market in 1921. His resulting monopoly led to a sharp increase in the price of rice, which led the British government to ban the exportation of rice outside of India (which Burma was then a part of). Because of this ban, the rice market in Burma collapsed.

Lim died in his sleep, possibly of a heart attack. At the time of his death he had been suffering from influenza and fever. Before his death he had been notified that the telephone company had threatened to cut his phone service due to non-payment of fees, and his resulting distress may have contributed to his death. Because of the timing of his death, some people speculated that he had committed suicide. His estate was declared insolvent on June 10, 1924, shortly following his death. but after it construction the property became popularly known as "Chin Tsong Palace". After the renovations, the Ministry of Culture plans to open the space as a cultural center.

In 2020, Curator Marie-Pierre Mol of Intersections Gallery in Singapore had arranged the theme: ‘Art Walk: Time is Yours’, with collaborations between Myanmar- and Singapore-based (and related) artists, including Marc Nair, Pang, Maung Day, Bart Was Not Here and Nann Nann and Nicola Anthony.

Family Lim was married to Tan Guat Tean (Po U in Burmese). She was illiterate, required an assistant to write and read for her, and signed her name with an "X".

He sent his sons to be educated in England. After Lim's death, many of his children left Burma, and his descendants now live in various Commonwealth countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Lim and his family were generally popular during his later life. When his eldest son was married (in the newly completed Chin Tsong Palace), all of the notable European and Eurasian residents of Rangoon attended. The day after the wedding, another wedding party was held in which all of the notable Burmese residents of Rangoon attended. Two days after the initial wedding, another party was held in which the notable Muslim members of the city attended. Finally, three days after the wedding, another party was held in which all of the notable Chinese people in Rangoon attended.

After Lim Chin Tsong's death, Lim Kar Chang, Lim's eldest son, took over the management of his company. Lim Kar Chang attempted to ameliorate his father's debts partially through repossession of property and businesses and partially through applying to have them written off.

After Lim's death, many stories circulated orally among the residents of Yangon concerning the sudden circumstances of his financial ruin and death. According to popular lore, Lim ran a counterfeiting operation from a secret chamber under his estate, and the construction of his residence included a network of secret tunnels leading to Inya Lake, which were used to dispose of bodies. In popular legends, his sudden financial ruin is explained as being the result of a betrayal by a foreign wife employed by a police special branch, who uncovered his counterfeiting operation and reported him to the British authorities. At the time of Lim's death, there was a foreign woman living on his estate who may have been close to him ("Miss Hannah Boudeville"). She went to court to challenge Lim's creditors' legal right to repossess her home, claiming that Lim had given the house to her as a gift.