The Ceremony
The Story
Sonnie Lien as General Manager of the Mandarin Singapore. He worked in Britain, the US, and Europe before assuming his role as GM of the Mandarin in 1974.
Sonnie Tiong Wah Lien was born in 1934, one of nine siblings in pre-independence Malaysian Singapore.
Due to the Second World War, Sonnie attended boarding schools in the People’s Republic of China, Penang, and later, Singapore.
From Medicine to Hospitality to Cornell
Sonnie’s career in hospitality started in London when he determined that he could not take the sight of blood which scuppered his ambition to become a medical doctor. At that time, he was working in a Chinese Restaurant with one of his brothers, Eddie. Once he decided on a career in Hospitality, Sonnie enrolled in and graduated from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne in 1965 as one of the first Asian students to attend the program. His determination to succeed in the hospitality field drove him to attend Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. He graduated from Cornell in 1968, deepening his academic record in hospitality.
Early Career
Sonnie’s early career was spent as F&B Manager at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal and as Resident Manager of the Kahala Hilton Oahu (also known as “Kahally-Wood”). At the request of his father, Lien Ying Chow who founded Overseas Union Bank, one of Singapore’s original big four banks, Sonnie assisted with the planning of and recruitment for the Mandarin Singapore. He subsequently returned to Singapore as General Manager of the hotel in 1974 and served in this role for 15 years.
Creating a Luxury Leader
Sonnie’s uncompromising standards for luxury service and product, his penchant for public-relations driven events, pride of his heritage, and desire to lead through untraditional methods much ahead of their time quickly established the Mandarin Singapore as a uniquely Singaporean luxury leader. Under Sonnie’s leadership, and for several decades after, the Mandarin Singapore was the luxury benchmark in Singapore, throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. Some of the initiatives he implemented included:
- Promoting and developing local executive talent over expatriate talent. Under his leadership, the Mandarin was the first property in Singapore with an all-Singaporean executive committee. Over the years, Sonnie sent dozens of junior executives to Cornell’s summer program.
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Chatterbox Boneless Chicken Rice
Creating luxury versions of local Hawker food in the hotel’s Chatterbox coffee shop at astonishing prices of 10-15 times more than the street versions, including Hainan Gai Fan (Chicken Rice), Satay, Bak Kut The, Laksa, Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee, Coconut ice cream, and more. This propelled a strong local community engagement and pride that still benefits the hotel to this day, as locals and foreigners alike still seek out these foods in the hotel.
- Creating the first Christmas light up of the hotel exterior with string lights imported from Italy. It became so popular that it gathered large crowds every Christmas and soon other hotels followed. Eventually, Singapore Tourism Board adopted the event and deployed light installations along the whole of Orchard Road – an occurrence still going on today on a much-magnified scale.
The “Mandarin Girls” in the calendar were the precursors to the Singapore Airlines Girl—a Great Way to Fly, which the airline used as the basis for its ad campaigns for decades.
- On the lighter side, Sonnie also created the Mandarin Calendar with photos of the hotel’s staff in hotel uniforms. This became so popular in then buttoned-up Singapore that printing multiplied to several tens of thousands in copies every year and was highly sought after in the trade and by the public.
- Sensing a void in the entertainment space in Singapore and taking a cue from “Kahally-Wood,” Sonnie opened three nightspots in the hotel and brought worldclass talent to Singapore to perform at the hotel. Such celebrities included Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Dionne Warwick, Cliff Richard, Sheena Easton, Jack Lord, Bjorn Borg and the Osmonds.
With American singer and actor,
Dionne Warwick.
With Bjorn Borg, Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player, at the Mandarin charity tennis event.
Welcoming Jack Lord, American television actor, to the Mandarin Singapore Hotel
With Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore, at the Mandarin.
Sonnie with Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, comedian and dancer, who performed at the Neptune (one of the hotel’s outlets) after eight years of negotiations.
Hotelier and Entrepreneur
During his time at Mandarin Singapore, Sonnie’s entrepreneurial drive led him to expand the hotel from 700 to 1,200 rooms. He created Singapore’s first homespun management company, Mandarin Singapore International, and opened hotels, usually in Joint Venture format, in Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang, Shanghai, Haikou, Shantou, and further into Singapore with the opening of the Marina Mandarin and the Negara Hotel. He also introduced projects in Turkey and Italy.
Preserving Singapore’s Heritage through Industry Leadership
Outside of daily duties, Sonnie also served as a member of Singapore Tourism Board, president of Hotel Association, and a key founding member of SHATEC, Singapore’s first hotel school. In these positions, he emphasized localization and preservation of Singapore’s heritage which led to the expansion of conservation areas in Chinatown, little India and Arab Street, preserving the tourism inventory of the country. Today these areas, which during his time were shunned for newly developed condominiums and shopping centres, are vibrant communities of preserved structures replete with Michelin starred venues and boutique hotels.
After leaving the family company in 1991, Sonnie formed a venture with Malaysian investors for a 400-room lakeside property in Hanoi, now managed by Inter-Continental Hotels. This venture was in the early stages of Vietnam’s economic transition. He smelled potential in a young, educated, and ambitious population and created a property with lasting impact on the city.
A Lasting Legacy
Hotelier. Entrepreneur. Educator. Cultural Preservationist. Visionary. Throughout his career, Sonnie Lien had an unusual foresight in areas much wider than his roles, leaving a lasting legacy on Singapore’s Tourism landscape.
Sonnie passed away on 11 November 2013 in a traffic accident. He is survived by three children and eight grandchildren, all of whom are grateful for the recognition and honor bestowed on their father and grandfather with the 2024 Cornell Hotel Society Hall of Fame award.
Sonnie with his grandchildren: Aisha, Amalia, Maddox, Maximilian, and Isabella.
On family holiday in Bali.
Sonnie with granddaughter, Aisha.
