Aw Boon Haw (1882 – 1954)Aw Boon Haw was born to a Chinese herbalist, Aw Chu Kin in 1882 in Rangoon, while his younger brother Boon Par was born in 1888. Although Boon Haw literally means “gentle tiger”, the young Boon Haw was quite a menace who played perpetual truant from school, and was eventually expelled for beating up his teacher. He was banished to the family's ancestral village in China's Fujian province, leaving Boon Par ("gentle leopard") to run his father's medicine shop. Birth of Tiger Balm Oil After Chu Kin passed away, Boon Haw returned and managed the business, while Boon Par apprenticed himself to a local pharmacist, U Thaw. Prior to his death, U Thaw bequeathed a secret recipe for a pain-relieving ointment to Boon Par, on the condition that some of the profits be given to charity. The recipe was said to be derived from an ancient folk remedy invented for a lusty Chinese emperor who, as a result of his promiscuity, suffered from persistent back pain. The two Aw brothers perfected this recipe, and christened the new concoction Ban Kim Ewe (Ten Thousand Golden Oil), a panacea for all maladies. After World War I, Boon Par added a new compound to Tiger Balm which gave it its dark brown texture. This became the extra-potent Red Tiger Balm. According to the scholar Lynn Pan, the product has more mythic than medicinal value. "There's nothing much to Tiger Balm," she said. "Yet Aw conveyed a feel-good factor. He understood the power of branding." A “genius in promotion, advertising and marketing", Boon Haw used his ethnic Hakka ties to sell Ban Kim Ewe to local Chinese medicine shops in Burma on consignment, and business expanded rapidly to Southeast Asia by the late 1920s. Boon Haw continuously deviced ingenious methods of promoting his product, and even built a tiger-shaped car from which he distributed enameled posters of the pharmaceutical products. In 1926, Boon Haw moved to Singapore while Boon Par remained in Rangoon. Within seven days he started up shop in a two-storey shophouse in Amoy Street. Soon Singapore became the base for its business in Malaya and the East Indies. In 1929, Boon Haw founded Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore, the first of a group of newspapers in the region, only three years after setting up business there. This was followed by Chinese- and English-language papers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand. Haw Par Villa, and beyond …In 1937, Boon Haw built a mansion on a hill in Pasir Panjang, famous for its many statues depicting characters from Chinese mythology for Boon Par. He named the villa Haw Par Villa, which later also became known as Tiger Balm Gardens. The gardens were open to the public for free. During the Japanese Occupation, Boon Haw managed the business from Hong Kong. Boon Par closed the factory in Singapore and returned to Rangoon. He passed away in 1944. After World War II ended, Boon Haw returned to Singapore and re-established his businesses, and set up Chung Khiaw Bank in 1950. Often described as "the Small Man's Bank", the bank was managed by Boon Haw’s son-in-law, Lee Chee Shan. Boon Haw died in 1954, at age 72, from a heart attack on his way to Hong Kong via Hawaii following a major operation in Boston. A Great Philanthropist The Aw brothers did not fail to keep their promise to U Thaw, their benefactor who bequeathed to them the secret formula for Tiger Balm Oil. Aw Boon Haw was a great philanthropist, and donated generously to hospitals, schools and nursing homes. In 1938, Great Britain's King George VI conferred on Boon Haw the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his "endeavours in commerce and philanthropy". From 1929 until 1949, the Aw brothers donated over U.S.$70 million to build schools and hospitals in China. Employees’ welfare was also well looked after, and employment with the brothers was a guarantee for life. The Aw name and philanthropic spirit survived the Aw brothers. One scion, daughter Sally Aw Sian, set up the Aw Boon Haw Foundation in 1972 to continue philanthropic work in her father's name. The Foundation's projects include college scholarships, building of primary schools, restoration of monasteries and temples, donations of medical equipment to hospitals, gifts to colleges and universities, and gifts to the elderly. Today, Tiger Balm ointment, owned by Singapore's United Overseas Bank, is present in more than 70 countries worldwide. Sources: Legend From A Jar - The Story of Haw Par ISBN 981-00-5927-2 http://www.tigerbalmgardens.com/legacy.html Further reading: King, Sam . Tiger Balm king: the life and times of Aw Boon Haw. Singapore: Times Books International, 1992. 368p |