C.K.Tang 詩家董

When I read about the recent news article “Kidney-for-sale: CK Tang chairman charged with 3 counts” on 10 Jul 2008, Straits Times, I couldn’t believe my eyes. CK Tang’s chairman Tang Wee Sung, 55, was charged in court with trying to buy a kidney from a living donor, for which he was willing to pay $300,000 to a middleman to procure it.

Mr Tang Wee Sung is the second son of the late Mr Tang Choon Keng, founder of Tangs department store. He joined the Company in 1975, at the age of 22. The late Mr. C.K. Tang died at the ripe age of 99 on 3 Sep 2000.

I remember when I was still staying with my Godparents place at Beatty Road, in the 60s and 70s, C.K. Tang was commonly known as 詩家董百貨公司. You may read more about how C.K.Tang started in Singapore here.

Below are the summary of it;

– 1923, Mr. C.K.Tang came to Singapore. He started off as a door-to-door salesman and would hired a rickshaw to put his pair of tin trunk which probably still around now (but no photo of it shown so far). He was later known as the “Tin Trunk Man” or “Curio King”. His products then were just hand-made Swatow lace, emboidery and linen.

– 1932, 9 years after he came to Singapore, he saved enough to set up his first store on the first floor of a building in River Valley Road. His initial capital was only $3000!

– 1940, he built an edifice probably named after his father Mr. Tang Gan Urn “Gainurn Building”. This was located at the corner of Jalan Mohamad Sultan and River Valley Road. I know that a buidling by the same name “Gainurn Building” is still around there and it’s near to the UE Square but whether it’s the same building, I don’t know. I’ve not taken a look at the building now, but here is how it looked like in the 40s;

Credit : Delcampe.net

Credit : Photo taken by Victor Koo. Gainurn Bldg in 2008. As mentioned by Victor, note the pillars of both bldg.

Credit : Google

– 1958, he bought a 1,351sq.m. piece of land at the corner of Orchard Road and Scotts Road at a price of $10,000. Though this site faced the then Tai Shang Ting cementary, he believed it had commercial value.

Below shows the aerial view and photo of the original CK Tang store at Orchard Road in the 50s;

Credit : Editions Didier Millet, Over Singapore 50 Years Ago, by Brenda Yeoh and Theresa Wong.

Below shows the late Mr. CK Tang at his new building in Orchard (1958);

Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

It was not so smooth sailing for CK Tang after opening at this Orchard Road site. In 1960 it was closed due to problems with trade unions but reopened the following year. Below shows the labour strike at CK Tang in 1960;

Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

A few months before the above strike in 1960, Mr. Tang was kidnapped by four armed thugs, but was freed unharmed within 84 hours after the family reportedly paid S$150,000 in ransom. I really respect his “never give up” attitude.

And this is how it looked like in 1962;

The green tiled roof and facade was said to be modelled after the China’s Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City. I find resemblance to the old OCBC bank building near the Singapore River then;

Credit : Delcampe.net

– 1982, the old green tiled roof building was demolished to make way for expansion – a 33 storey Dynasty Hotel (now renamed as Singapore Marriott Hotel) and the Tangs shopping complex (now Tang Plaza).

Credit : Delcampe.net

You can see that the new complex still retained the same green-tiled roof pattern, but of course I don’t think it is the “recycled” green roof from the old building. So did the late Mr. CK Tang retain anything from the old building? Maybe yes, I thought, probably that pair of stone lion outside the building;

But how many stone lions are there? Is the above pair the same old pair, I don’t know….see for yourself the below photo in 1983 when the lions were placed at the footpath during the construction of the new complex;

Credit : National Archives Of Singapore, PICAS

Hope that all these stone lions can bring good luck to their owners.

How many still remember the fire at Tangs in 2006 December?

Credit : pigaholicling

Oh, there is one thing that was memorable about CK Tang – it was probably the only major shopping centre that did not operate on Sunday until 1996! That was to allow his family and his Christian staff to attend church on Sundays.