He was unexpectedly called back to China to attend to his mother's burial, and found himself ground to a halt in Jimei for two years, not a particularly easy base for launching foreign ventures. Then surprisingly his father's enterprise went bankrupt, squandered into a penniless state by his father's second wife. Tan had no choice but to start from scratch, running a rice store and a pineapple factory.
不料回國葬母、在集美停留的兩年間，好不容易打下的海外事業基礎，竟然被父親的姨太太揮霍殆盡，宣告破產；陳嘉庚只有從頭做起，經營米店和鳳梨工廠。