Choa Chong Long


Kapitan China Choa Chong Long, served as the first Kapitan China of Singapore under the British colonial government, and was a prominent magnate, revenue farmer and pioneering colonist.
He was the son of Choa Su Cheong, who was the Kapitein der Chinezen of Malacca in the Dutch colonial period. The younger Choa ventured out to Singapore when the British took over the island, but unlike most Chinese and Malay immigrants, Choa Chong Long was already a rich man. He was appointed Kapitan China of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles, who took control of the island for the British. He held the revenue farm for the import and sale of opium. He was also thought to be one of the first Chinese to manage a plantation in Singapore.
Choa celebrated his forty-fourth birthday by giving a grand dinner to which all influential residents of the island, including many Europeans, were invited. Choa's daughter married Kiong Kong Tuan, who was also a revenue farmer and businessman
Choa died in Macau in 1838, leaving a will containing "a devise for ever of certain properties for sinchew purposes which was eventually declared void.