Ku Chen-fu, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, died from kidney cancer Monday.

A prominent figure of cross-Straits negotiations between the mainland and Taiwan, Ku is remembered by people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

Ku wore many hats: Taiwan's de facto "envoy" to the mainland, high-profile business tycoon, Taiwan's government advisor and a renowned patron of Chinese opera and the traditional arts.

His achievements also span a wide spectrum, from his success in establishing cross-Straits negotiations to appearing on Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people, and the reconstruction of the Novel Hall for Performing Arts in Taipei.

Ku made international headlines for his role in talks between the mainland and Taiwan. He is credited with the thawing of cross-Straits tension on more than one occasion.

His meeting with his mainland counterpart Wang Daohan, chairman of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, which was later dubbed the "Wang-Ku talks" of April 1993, took place in Singapore and became a historic moment in cross-Straits relations.

He is remembered for the "1992 Consensus," on the "one-China" principle and its respective verbal wording of both sides, which was reached in a meeting in November 1992 held in Hong Kong between him and Wang. The consensus is that "both sides of the (Taiwan) Straits adhere to the 'one-China' principle" and verbally explain the principle respectively.

Ku was born into one of the most influential families in Taiwan on Jan. 6, 1917 and was raised in Changhua County. His ancestors moved from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to Taiwan about 300 years ago. The most prominent figure in the Ku family was his grandfather Ku Hung-ming, an influential scholar of the Qing Dynasty.

The fifth son of a well-to-do merchant, Ku attended National Taiwan University (known as the Taipei Imperial University during the Japanese colonial period) to study politics.

He completed his degree in 1940 before pursuing graduate studies in Japan and later in the United States. While Ku was known to be fluent in Japanese and English, he was also known for his stubborn insistence on speaking traditional Chinese.

When the Kuomintang (KMT) party came to settle in Taiwan after being defeated by the army led by the Communist Party of China, the Ku family had already established itself as one of the largest and most prominent families in Taiwan. They were known as the "Kus of Lukang." Lukang is the place where Ku's family had been living.

One of 12 children, Ku was said to be his father's favorite son. When he was 4, his father employed a private teacher to teach him Chinese. In the same year, he started learning English. With the education he received, he was said to be well versed in many things such as ancient Chinese classics, calligraphy, chess, painting and music. He published a collection of his poems and a novel.

His academic training and artistic attainments had earned him the nickname "scholar businessman."

His business career was given a jump-start when his father died in 1937 while he was in his sophomore year in college, leaving the 20-year-old in charge of seven companies. As a businessman, Ku proved to be insightful and successful, building a business empire of over 90 firms.

During the KMT government's land reform project, the Ku family bolstered their assets, accepting stocks in exchange for land, a trade-off that eventually proved to be very valuable.

Ku founded the Ku's Group in 1971 and gradually built it into one of Taiwan's top 10 businesses. When the group split into two independent business groups in 2003, it controlled key units, such as Taiwan Cement, Taiwan Polypropylene, China Synthetic Rubber and KG Telecommunications Co., Chinatrust Financial Holding Co., KGI Securities, China Life Insurance and Chailease Finance Corp.

Ku's business achievement made him appear on Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people.

However, Ku did not seem content with his success in the business world, and took steps to influence politics as well. One of his earliest stints in politics landed him in jail for 19 months when he was accused by the KMT of helping the Japanese ward off Chinese rule in Taiwan after Japan gave up control of Taiwan at the conclusion of World War II.

But Ku managed to improve his relations with the KMT. He later went on to become a member of the standing committee of the KMT central committee. While he never officially held public office, he will be remembered as one of Taiwan's most influential civic figures.

While Ku held many prominent positions both in the business and political sectors in Taiwan, it was in his last position, that of the chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, that he was most often associated with.

According to his wife Yen Cho-yun, Ku's last words before he passed away just days before his 88th birthday Jan. 6 were about the cross-Straits affairs. He was known to have talked about opening the third session of the "Wang-Ku talks" on many occasions in recent years.

Ku was known to have had good relations with many renowned politicians in Taiwan and overseas such as the Kiang Kai-shek family, several former Japanese prime ministers and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. He also had close relations with former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui.

But he became somewhat distant from Lee after 1997 when Lee openly preached for Taiwan's separation from China. He once said of Lee Teng-hui: "Mr. Lee does not want to listen to me anymore."

Ku met his wife Yan when she paid a visit to her relatives in Taiwan from Shanghai. Her uncle told her about Ku but she at first paid little attention.

In her mind she despised Taiwan men at that time. She thought they had received Japanese-style education and were rude and prone to physically abusing their wives. But after meeting Ku, she quickly changed her mind. She found Ku to be a talented and romantic scholar as well as a successful businessman. They married in 1949.

Ku was also known for his fascination with Beijing opera. He had been exposed to the Beijing opera since he was about 6 years old, under the influence of his father.

To learn the opera, he went to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to train with different teachers. He said his most memorable experience with the opera was his practice stint in Beijing when he was 20.

In October 1998, when the second session of the "Wang-Ku talks" was held on the mainland, he was treated to a Beijing opera show in Beijing. After the show came to an end, he went onto the stage and sang three songs. A famous Beijing opera singer said Ku was a really good singer.

He learned some philosophy from practicing opera. "It's not easy to go onto the stage. It's not easy either to leave the stage," he once said.

Ku's motto was: "Being modest and moderate you can have peace. Being open and honest, you can get trust."

(Shenzhen Daily January 7, 2005)