Merchant prince of the Sandalwood Mountains

the long version

In addition to portraits and photographs, Chun Afong, Hawaii's first Chinese millionaire, was the subject of a popular short story by Jack London, and his colorful family - in particular his thirteen beautiful daughters by a Hawaiian woman of noble descent - inspired a Broadway musical. But here at last is the real story of the "Merchant Prince of Honolulu," whose business empire stretched from the Pearl River Delta across the Pacific to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. The result of extensive documentary research and interviews with Afong's numerous descendants in Hawaii, North America, and Asia, this lively biography traces Afong's life from his early years in China, to his highly lucrative business ventures in Honolulu as a planter and merchant in the mid-1800s, to his sudden return to China in 1890 and yet another round of successful business and financial dealings that would continue until his death in 1906. Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains will give readers an in-depth account of one of Hawaii most intriguing personalities and the role of the Chinese in nineteenth-century Hawaii.