Lowe Kong Meng (born 1830 or 1831; died 22 October 1888) was a Chinese-Australian businessman. Born into a trading family in Penang, Kong Meng learned English and French at an early age and worked as an importing merchant around the Indian Ocean. In 1853 he moved to Melbourne where he started a business importing goods for Chinese miners during the Victorian gold rush. After 1860, as the Chinese population in Melbourne peaked, he diversified into other lines of business, including investing in the Commercial Bank of Australia. Kong Meng was a prominent and well-regarded member of Melbourne's elite, and for a time was one of the city's wealthiest men. He was a leading defender of Chinese Australians at a time where their status was politically controversial and they were subjected to targeted taxation, discrimination and violence.
Early life
Kong Meng was born in Penang in either 1830 or 1831. His father Lowe A Quee was a merchant who owned significant amounts of property in Penang. His family had originated in Siyi in Guangdong, and had been trading in Penang for "a century". He went to high school in Penang and at the age of 16 travelled to Mauritius where he learned English and French under private tuition. Between 1847 and 1853 he began operating as an importing merchant, particularly between Singapore, Mauritius and Kolkata. He travelled between these destinations as a supercargo.
Kong Meng was a British subject by virtue of being born in Penang. He and his family supported the British in the First Opium War, in which his brother was killed "in the service of the East India Company".
Merchant in Victoria
In 1853, Kong Meng travelled to Melbourne after hearing of the Victorian gold rush in Mauritius. He was the first Chinese merchant to arrive in Victoria. After unsuccessfully attempting mining for 3 months, Kong Meng left Australia for Kolkata disillusioned. He returned with cargo from India and established an importing firm Kong Meng and Co. in 1854.
Initially, Kong Meng's importing business catered primarily to the needs of Chinese miners on the Victorian goldfields. This included opium, preserved foods, tea and clothing. Most of the rice being shipped to Melbourne came from Kolkata, and it is possible that Kong Meng was part of this trade given his connections there. British traders were supplying most of the tea drunk by British in Victoria, and it is likely he was not a large importer of tea. By the mid-1860s, he was the biggest single supplier of goods for Chinese miners in Victoria. To pay for his imports, Kong Meng's business was also a major exporter of gold from Australia, primarily to Galle in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.
Kong Meng's importing business was also involved in Chinese migration to Victoria. Between 1857 and 1867, 1,985 Chinese passengers arrived in Melbourne on ships for which he was the importing agent. From 1855, a landing tax of £10 (equivalent to A$818 in 2018) was levied on Chinese migrants who disembarked at Victorian ports. To avoid this, it was common for Chinese migrants to disembark at Robe in the neighbouring colony of South Australia and walk the 350 kilometres (220 mi) to the goldfields in Victoria. At least one of Kong Meng's ships offloaded Chinese passengers at Robe. It is possible that he was the labour importer for others. He is credited with operating one of the largest credit-ticket operations in the antipodes.
The number of Chinese miners in Victoria began to decline after 1859, and Kong Meng diversified his business accordingly. He began to import Chinese tea for European consumers, and invested in mining and banking. With Louis Ah Mouy, he was a founding shareholder in the Commercial Bank of Australia, which would eventually become Westpac. Their involvement in the Bank was apparently part of an effort to attract Chinese depositors. A gold mining firm based south of Maryborough, Kong Meng Gold Mining Company, was quite successful. By 1863, The Argus wrote that "there are reputedly few wealthier men in Victoria".
Lowe Kong Meng's family name in Chinese is Lowe (Chinese: 劉; pinyin: Liú), but in Australia he took Kong Meng as his surname. He married Mary Ann (or Annie) Prussia in Melbourne on 4 February 1860. They had 12 children and lived in the wealthy suburb of Malvern.
Kong Meng was a comfortable member of Melbourne's elite. Contemporary accounts described him with words like "cultured", "influential" and "highly esteemed" and reference extensive donations to charities and churches. Even The Bulletin, which supported exclusion of Chinese migrants from Australia, noted that he was "idolised by his Victorian fellow-countrymen". He retained his Chinese cultural heritage. His mixed-race marriage appears not to have impeded his participation in the Melbourne elite. In 1867, the couple attended a fancy-dress ball in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh, Kong Meng wearing a mandarin's robes, while she dressed as a Grecian lady.
In 1863, Kong Meng was awarded the title Mandarin of the Blue Button by the Tongzhi Emperor in recognition of his leadership of the Chinese community in Melbourne. Redmond Barry invited him to curate Chinese art for an exhibition in 1869 but Kong Meng declined owing to the poor quality of art available in Victoria. He was a member of the Royal Society of Victoria and was appointed a commissioner for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880.
