SUNWAY Group founder and chairman Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah visited Dongguan City as the head of a senior delegation, blending strategic business engagements and bilateral dialogues with a memorable return to the ancestral hometown his forefathers left generations ago.
The visit unfolded against the backdrop of China's Greater Bay Area, the sprawling economic mega-region Beijing hopes will rival the world's leading centres of innovation and finance.
Through meetings with local officials, dynamic entrepreneurs and university professors in Dongguan, the Sunway delegation was given a close look at the scale of China's ambitions in technology, urban planning and advanced manufacturing.
The trip carried a distinctly personal dimension for Cheah, as a third-generation Malaysian Chinese of Hakka heritage, whose ancestral roots trace back to Fenggang town in Dongguan, which is part of the Greater Bay Area.
At City University of Hong Kong Dongguan, Cheah delivered a keynote address titled From Dongguan Roots to a RMB130 Billion Empire: The Journey of a Malaysian Chinese Entrepreneur to more than 800 students, academics and government representatives, tracing Sunway's journey from its humble origins in tin-mining to one of Southeast Asia's leading conglomerates.
He spoke of the importance of inculcating good core values to succeed in business, the need for long-term investment in education to shape a more sustainable future and expressed hope that Malaysia will draw lessons from China's remarkable success and decades-long development strategy.
The delegation also visited Youganpu Primary School, sister school to SJKC Gunong Hijau in Perak, which is one of Jeffrey Cheah Foundation's adopted schools.
Students greeted Cheah with songs, flowers and performances celebrating Hakka culture. An exhibition marking the school's 90-year history highlighted decades of educational exchange and cultural ties between communities in China and Malaysia.
The emotional centre of the visit came in Tangli Village, where village elders and distant relatives welcomed Cheah and his sons, Evan and Adrian, back to the family's ancestral home.
Their return offered a poignant moment of reflection on the hopes, sacrifices and aspirations that carried generations of overseas Chinese families who journeyed abroad in search of a different future.
