Makers › Merchant / Entrepreneur
Fan Xudong
Fan Xudong (1883–1945), an industrialist, founded the Jiuda Refined Salt Company in 1914 and later the Yongli soda company and the Yellow Sea Chemical Research Society.
On a river quay, loaded camels rest before a warehouse of stacked bales, with a balance scale and abacus on a table and green ceramic jars in front; porters carry bundles toward a large sailing ship on the right, and blank banners hang at the warehouse.
Also known as Fan Rui (given name) · Fan Yuanrang (original name) · Mingjun (courtesy name)
Fan Xudong, born Fan Yuanrang and later named Fan Rui, with the courtesy name Xudong, came from Xiangyin in Hunan. He graduated in chemistry from Kyoto Imperial University in 1910, founded the Jiuda Refined Salt Company in 1914 and the Yongli soda company in 1918, building its soda works at Tanggu in Tianjin, and founded the Yellow Sea Chemical Research Society in 1922. In 1926 soda ash from Yongli under the Red Triangle brand won a gold medal at the Philadelphia exposition. He died in Chongqing in 1945.
Life and times
Dates 1883–1945