Same book with two different covers.
Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller. Most everyone has heard of America’s greatest industrialists, but who was China’s first Captain of Industry?
Chee Hsin (Qixin) was the first cement company in China, founded in 1889 and later revived by Zhou Xuexi, my great granduncle. Following the Boxer Uprising and the Kaiping Mines debacle with Herbert C. Hoover, Zhou became China’s most successful entrepreneur, and the father of Northern Chinese industry. Chee Hsin went on to monopolize the domestic market without the aid of any foreign capital.
My book is a commemoration of China’s first cement company and its founder, Zhou Xuexi, and I start it off with an impromptu visit to my aunt’s home in Beijing. The book is infused with personal observations about my family’s history, using the grand old siheyuan homes of Beijing as their backdrop.
Chee Hsin 130 Years contains translations from three different books (one in Chinese and two in English) that consist of scholarly studies and narratives written by direct descendants of Zhou. More than seventy images (many heretofore unpublished) illustrate the impact that the cement company made on daily life in China.
Chee Hsin tiles (No. 109) at my childhood home in Beijing • 我童年家中的启新砖
范德比尔特,卡内基,洛克菲勒. 大多数人都听说过美国首屈一指的工业家. 但谁是中国的第一任工业先锋？
启新是中国第一家水泥公司, 成立于1889年, 并由我的曾舅祖周学熙在1906年重张旗鼓. 在经历过开平煤矿与胡佛(Herbert C. Hoover) 和义和团起义后的灭顶之灾之后,启新在没有任何外资援助的情况下垄断了国内市场. 最终令到周成为中国北方工业之父.
这本双语书是对中国第一家水泥公司及其创始人周学熙的纪念.起源于一个北京亲戚的即兴探访.
翻译的部分来自三本不同的书(一本是中文,两本是英文). 这些书包括学术研究和周的孙女的叙述. 作者以北京的四合院旧式豪宅为背景,对家庭历史进行了个人观察. 超过70张图片(许多是迄今为止尚未发布)来说明启新水泥公司对中国日常生活的影响.
QX No 108, 158; 111/2, 161/2 Chee Hsin tiles are seen in this 2020 TV series • 2020年电视剧《安家》里的启新水泥砖
My visit to Qixin Museum in Tangshan in 2019 • 启新博物馆2019花絮
