Path of the Righteous Crane: The Life of Eu Tong Sen

The name of Eu Tong Sen is well known in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Yet to date, there has been little of substance written about the man; much of what there is, has drawn from a deep well of unsubstantiated folklore. Ilsa Sharp's account of Eu Tong Sen's life, based on voluminous research by academic Maria Yang Tse-oy, has theatre aplenty, from mystic feng shui mountains and murder by poison, through dare-devil jungle trekking to fending off revolutionaries, taking on the opium establishment, playing political games with colonial masters, consorting with opera stars, racehorses, flashy cars and women (11 wives), building stately palaces and castles, and above all, the amassing of enormous personal wealth, a respectable part of which went to family, friends and needy causes, from schools to hospitals. Yet, this is no ordinary tale of a towkay who just struck it rich. Eu Tong Sen stands tall as a man of his age, and also ours, signalling a future 'Renaissance Chinese' character that would combine the best of many worlds and so produce something quite new. In this, Eu Tong Sen was a man well before his time. His life was not a footnote to the period of history he lived in; it was an integral part of the main narrative of the lives of the people who called themselves hua qiao, the Overseas Chinese.