Tai-Pan
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
- This page is about the Chinese term. For other meanings of Tai-Pan, see Tai-Pan (disambiguation).
A tai-pan (大班) was a foreign businessman doing business in China or Hong Kong in the 19th century. The Chinese term is now used in a more general sense for business executives of any origin. The Chinese term literally means big class which is equivalent to the English term big shot. As James Clavell puts it in one of his novels, initially 'Tai-pan' meant 'toilet keeper', and it was used by the Chinese as a mocking term towards the British business executives
