In 1901, at the age of 16, Guo Shun boarded a boat in Hong Kong bound
for Australia. Guo Shun was born on 10 December 1885 in Zhuxiuyuan Village
in Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan City) in Guangdong Province.
Wing On Store and Mansions, Shanghai, 2001,
J. Fitzgerald collection
He was the sixth in the family. The oldest brother came to Australia
in 1882 but died not long after his arrival. Guo Le, the second brother,
arrived in Australia when he was eighteen. The second brother went to
work in a vegetable garden and later became a hawker, selling vegetables
door to door. Later, he joined several fellow-villagers from Xiangshan
County in founding the Wing On Fruit Store in Sydney. The store also
handled money deposits and so attracted a great deal of capital. It
was the second brother, Guo Le, who invited his youngest brother Guo
Shun to come to Australia in 1901.
Shortly after he arrived in Sydney, Guo Shun went to work as an apprentice
in a firm run by another Xiangshan County resident, basically to learn
how to do business. Three years later, he left his fellow townsman's
company to join his brother at the Wing On Fruit Store. His elder brother,
Guo Le, soon left Sydney for Hong Kong where he started up another branch
of the business. Guo Shun then took charge of the family's Wing On Fruit
Store in Sydney.
Wing On store and Sincere store, Shanghai,
2001, J. Fitzgerald collection
At that time, the Australian government legislated that only Chinese
immigrants who came to Australia before 1901 had the right to permanent
residence. This restriction caused great difficulties for Chinese businessmen.
As Guo Shun had already become established in Australia, he helped new
comers to get around the problem of residency and to start their own
businesses.
Guo Shun enjoyed a great reputation among Australian Chinese because
he was good at business and basically got on well with people. He was
elected as the chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sydney,
which is reputed to be the first Chinese Chamber of Commerce anywhere
in the world (including China).
In 1917, Guo Shun founded a shipping company in Sydney. He bought
two ships, and leased another, which plied the route between Hong Kong
and Australia. Some other shipping companies disliked the competition
and collaborated with Australian authorities to wipe out the company.
The Guo family shipping firm could not cope with this kind of competition,
and eventually went bankrupt. This spurred Guo Shun to pioneer business
enterprises in China rather than in Australia.
Sincere store, Shanghai, 2001, J. Fitzgerald
collection
In 1920 Guo Shun left Sydney for Shanghai. A few years later he helped
his elder brother, Guo Le, to found the Wing On Textile Mill in Shanghai.
This later developed into one of China's largest corporations. The Wing
On Textile Mill began operating in 1922. In 1925 the Guo brothers bought
another textile mill which they renamed the Second Wing On Textile Mill.
Over the period from 1927 to 1937, the Wing On Corporation developed
rapidly. It expanded to become China's second-largest textile business
enterprise, embracing five textile mills, one dyeing plant, one power
plant, one depot, and a textile machine factory. It also operated department
stores in Hong Kong and in many major cities throughout China.
The company suffered greatly when China was occupied by Japan
(1937-1945). With the outbreak of the War, Guo Shun moved
to the United States of America where he lived until his death
in 1976.
Sun Sun store, Shanghai, 2001, J. Fitzgerald
collection
The Wing On Department Store was just one of four major chains started
up by Australian Chinese in China - most notably along Nanjing
Road in Shanghai. The first of these was the Sincere Company.
The Sincere Company was founded in 1900 in Hong Kong by Ma
Ying-piew and other Australian Chinese originally from Xiangshan
County (now Zhongshan City) in Guangdong. The Ma family drew
on the profits of the Wing Sang fruit and vegetable company
in Sydney. The Sincere Company opened its first department
store in Nanjing Road, Shanghai, in 1917.
Next came the Guo family's Wing On Company. The first of their department
stores was founded in Hong Kong in 1907. Wing On opened its
first Shanghai Department store on Nanjing Road in 1918. The
third Australian Chinese department store to open in Shanghai
was the Sun Sun Company, established in 1912 in Hong Kong
by Liu Xiji and Li Minzhou. This company opened its Shanghai
department store on Nanjing Road in 1926.
Dah Sun store, Shaghai, 2001, J. Fitzgerald
collection
The fourth large Australian Chinese department store to open in Shanghai
was the Dah Sun Company, which was founded by the Choy Hing
and Choy Chong. Dah Sun opened for business in Shanghai in
1936.
Every one of these firms was founded
by a network of Sydney business people, and each became a major trading
company in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The building designs and the commercial
organisation for the stores were based upon Australian department stores
in Sydney, including Anthony Hordern's and David Jones. Ma Ying-piew,
founder of the Sincere Company, later wrote that his inspiration for
founding the Sincere Company had been to change the old ways of doing
business in China. He said that living in Australia had opened his eyes
to large-scale business organisation and strategies. He believed that
China would regain its national strength if Chinese businessmen would
modernise their practices to compete in international markets. They
did.
SOURCE:
Adapted from Zhongshan ren zai aozhou [Zhongshan people in
Australia], Zhongshan wenzhi [Records of Zhongshan] No. 24 (Guangzhou:
Zhengxie guangdongsheng zhongshanshi weiyuanhui wenshi weihuanhui, 1992),
pp. 84-90 and 198-219.
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Last Updated:
27 February, 2009
