Chung Thye Phin

Kapitan Chung Thye Phin MSC, JP (Chinese: 鄭大平甲; pinyin: Zhèng Dàpíng Jia; 1879 - 1935) was a wealthy Malayan tin miner and rubber planter of Hakka ancestry who was raised on the island of Penang in the state of the same name in Malaysia, known at that time as British Malaya. He pioneered the cultivation of Roselle for the production of Roselle fibre rope and twine, his initial effort including the Sweet Kamiri Estate in Sungei Siput. He was a member of the Perak Advisory Board and the last Kapitan China of Perak and Malaya. At the time of his death he was said to have been the wealthiest man in Penang. There was a big turnout at his funeral in Penang (7 April 1935) including many prominent personalities from the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements and the funeral procession was a quarter of a mile long.

Kapitan Chung Keng Quee, Mandarin 2nd Class of the Imperial Chinese Court and leader of the Hai San secret society in British Malaya had nine male issue, the 4th and best known of whom was Chung, Thye-phin. Chung Thye Phin's Ch'i Yeh or godfather was Chin Seng Yam (Chin Ah Yam), the leader of the Ghee Hin, once the enemy of his father who was leader of the opposing Hai San, both factions (Ghee Hin and Hai San) fighting for domination of the tin fields of Larut.

Kapitan Chung Thye Phin was born 28 Sep 1879 in Kota, Taiping, Perak, Malaya. He received his education at the St. Xavier's, Penang. Upon leaving school, he was initiated into his father's business. Born in the Federated Malay States, in 1902 he was granted a certificate of naturalisation by the Straits Government, making him a British citizen.

An enterprising youth with a flair for progress, he later started a number of tin mines of his own, including a deep-shaft mine at Tronoh or Teronoh, adjoining the famous mine of the same name, and the hydraulic mine at Batu Tugoh. Tronoh was the centre of the mining field containing the mine of Chung Thye Phin's Tronoh Mines Company Ltd.

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