People · compradore, businessman, Municipal Councillor
Yu Qiaqing
虞洽卿Yú Qiàqīng · 1867–1945
Ningbo-born compradore and shipowner, chair of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and a Chinese member of the Municipal Council 1929-1940.
Yu Qiaqing (虞洽卿, Yú Qiàqīng, also written Yu Ya-ching) was a Ningbo-born businessman who became one of the best-known Chinese figures in the International Settlement.
He began in 1892 as a runner for a German trading house in Shanghai and became its compradore. In 1902 and 1903 he took the same post at the Russo-Chinese Bank and the Dutch bank. In 1908 he founded the Ningshao Steamship Company and ran it as general manager. In 1923 he became president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce.
He campaigned for a Chinese voice in the Municipal Council (工部局). In 1906 he and fellow merchant directors asked for a share in its government and were refused; in 1928, as head of the Chinese ratepayers’ association, he wrote asking for more Chinese board seats, Chinese senior officials in Council departments and more money for Chinese education. From 1929 to 1940 he was elected a Chinese Director every year. In 1936 the Council named Yu Qiaqing Road in his honour. After the 1937 fighting he led a refugee relief association with the Council’s support, and left for Chongqing in the autumn of 1940. He died in 1945.