A Chinese Labour Broker in Malaya: Lee Kwai Lim and his Kam Lun Tai Company

Studies of Chinese labour migration generally focus on why immigrants leave home, what happens to them upon arrival, and government policies towards Chinese immigration. This article examines the role of brokers in the process of recruitment and transportation, using the business career of Lee Kwai Lim (1877-1936) and the activities of his company, Chop "Kam Lun Tai", as a case study. Founded in Xinyi, China, as a silk trading company, Kam Lun Tai branched out to Hong Kong, and later to Malaya and Singapore, as a labour agency, operating lodging-house for recruited labour and a remittance service. Lee Kwai Lim also owned tin mines, sawmill and limestone quarries in Malaya and mines in Guangxi, China.

Kam Lun Tai was a major labour brokerage in Zhanjiang, China, and ready access to labour was central to Lee Kwai Lim's success in other businesses. However, the effects of the Great Depression and changing political circumstances in China and Malaya made this business model less effective, and by the 1950s his company was in decline.