A taipan ( Chinese: 大 班; pinyin: dà bān; Sidney Lau: daai6baan1, [1] literally "top class" [2]), sometimes spelled tai-pan, is a foreign-born senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in mainland China or Hong Kong.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taipans were foreign-born businessmen who headed large hong trading houses such as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Swire and Dent & Co., amongst others.[ citation needed]
The first recorded use of the term in English is in the Canton Register of 28 October 1834. [3] Historical variant spellings include taepan (first appearance) and typan. [3]
The term also refers to the Chinese-Filipino business oligarchs who own or have involvement in various businesses in the Philippines and are the powerful billionaire-founders of Chinese-Filipino business empires. Examples of taipans are: The López family of Iloilo of Lopez Holdings Corporation; the late Henry Sy of SM Investments; National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.; Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation; and Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines. [4]
The term gained wide currency outside China after the publication of Somerset Maugham's 1922 short story " The Taipan" and James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan, and was film adapted in 1986, directed by Daryl Duke.
The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in Empire of the Sun.
... William Jardine, the first tai-pan, a shrewd Scotsman ...
Simon Murray was one of the last British 'taipans.'
A taipan ( Chinese: 大 班; pinyin: dà bān; Sidney Lau: daai6baan1, [1] literally "top class" [2]), sometimes spelled tai-pan, is a foreign-born senior business executive or entrepreneur operating in mainland China or Hong Kong.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taipans were foreign-born businessmen who headed large hong trading houses such as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Swire and Dent & Co., amongst others.[ citation needed]
The first recorded use of the term in English is in the Canton Register of 28 October 1834. [3] Historical variant spellings include taepan (first appearance) and typan. [3]
The term also refers to the Chinese-Filipino business oligarchs who own or have involvement in various businesses in the Philippines and are the powerful billionaire-founders of Chinese-Filipino business empires. Examples of taipans are: The López family of Iloilo of Lopez Holdings Corporation; the late Henry Sy of SM Investments; National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) vice-chairmen Henry T. Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.; Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation; and Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines. [4]
The term gained wide currency outside China after the publication of Somerset Maugham's 1922 short story " The Taipan" and James Clavell's 1966 novel Tai-Pan, and was film adapted in 1986, directed by Daryl Duke.
The term was used to describe the protagonist's family in Empire of the Sun.
... William Jardine, the first tai-pan, a shrewd Scotsman ...
Simon Murray was one of the last British 'taipans.'