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Hong Kong. First, they had enough money to pay their own passage and start new businesses. Second, they had the inclination to engage in trade at a time when business was shifting from Canton to other places. The life stories of Cantonese merchants tell the origin of their emigration, how they struggled against the difficult environment and hardship in acquiring wealth. They gave details of their business careers in the wills to encourage their descendants to follow their examples in creating a successful life.
Canton-Hong Kong-Macau Network
O Kee Cheung, a Cantonese merchant who first came from Canton to Macau, accumulated business know-how and went to Madagascar for trade. Later he returned to Macau but took residence at Canton. He mentioned he was poor and suffered a lot of sorrow in the past and reminded his sons there was hardship and extreme difficulties in making a fortune. His business was the Yee Fung Hong in Annam and there was a family trust fund named the O Chin Sin Tong:
I came to Macao at the age of 18 to learn business, and at the age of 20, I began visiting foreign countries for the purpose of trade. During the first few years, I neither gained nor lost much. Afterwards through the help of Mr. Lee Mang, I went to trade in Madacassar and other islands and was a little more successful. Then I returned to Macao, and afterwards lived at Canton, at which time I was successful in all trade transactions, and my family was considered wealthy. But learning in mind the dangers of the winds and seas and the troubles encountered during the adventures of my youth, my former poverty and sorrow still appear to be within my sight. Therefore with tasteless rice and coarse dress, and always striving to renounce worldly vices, I have passed several decades, as if they were but one day. I have thus set you an example, so that you may know the hardships attending upon the making of a fortune, and being afraid that I would not be able to hold fast to the same, I have always striven to be diligent and economical, and even then, I was afraid of losing it.
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Leung Kau was a Zhongshan native. It had been said he went to California when mining for gold was the chief attraction for most people.