In this paper, I will argue for the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu‘s notion of capital, habitus and field to an empirical research on the rise of the Oei Tiong Ham Concern, the first modern business conglomerate in Southeast Asia. In particular, this paper will discuss my research areas on its founder, the mainland Chinese immigrant Oei Tjie Sien (1835–1900), and his son and business successor, Oei Tiong Ham (1866-1924). They successfully brought OTHC to become the largest business conglomerate of Southeast Asia in its era.

Oei Tjie Sien arrived in Semarang, Java, as a poor man in 1858. He moved fairly quickly from rags to riches and in 1863 together with a Chinese friend he founded Kian Gwan, a company in form of a kongsi registered with the local government. He wed his Chinese peranakan wife in Semarang who later give birth to Oei Tiong Ham in 1866.

In the 1880s Oei Tiong Ham started trading in sugar, which later became his major business activity. In 1890 with his success in sugar trading, he had enough money to buy opium farms in Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Surabaya which he kept until 1904 when they were taken over by he opium regie administered by the Netherlands Indie government.

Unlike his very cautious and conservative father Oei Tjie Sien, Oei Tiong Ham was much more dynamic, innovative and daring. Their habitus especially related to the Chinese culture were really unsimilar. But on the business acument needed in trading, both of them had the suitable habitus. Oei Tjie Sien and Oei Tiong Ham had done many important steps in establishing and developing their business in international trading, cane sugar milling, banking, shipping and other trade related activites to become the first and the biggest conglomerate in the Southeast Asia at that time.

From the view of Pierre Bourdieu‘s notion of habitus and field, we could see their innovativeness and boldness in the managing both the constraining and enabling structures and utilizing their capital effectively such that their business was able to passed through the structural constraints from the government and the competition from other domestic, regional and international trading companies successfully.