Tiger Balm King: Hakka Aw Boon Haw

[Dixie Dixie <dixie1999_2000@yahoo.com>]

Obtained from
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/96/1011/cs6.html

Rise of a Tiger

Aw Boon Haw stamped his mark 
on the family empire -- literally

Many have tried since. But few entrepreneurs have
hitched their persona to their product as successfully
as Singapore's Tiger Balm king. For Aw Boon Haw, who
died in 1954, promoting himself and his medicinal balm
worked hand in hand. From the day he took charge of
the family concern in 1908, Aw literally stamped his
mark on it. His name, Boon Haw, means "gentle tiger"
in his native Hakka dialect. And his trademark -- a
springing image of his carnivorous namesake -- soon
adorned every small tin or hexagonal glass jar of the
pain-killing salve at the center of the business. "As
his prosperity and personality took on legendary
proportions, the fame and fortunes of Tiger Balm
became inextricably tied to that of the 'Tiger'
himself," write Singapore academics Brenda Yeoh and
Peggy Teo in their treatise, From Tiger Balm Gardens
to Dragon World.

Behind the hype was a simple yet exotic product; the
soothing camphor and eucalyptus oil-based ointment
promises users relief from an array of discomforts,
including muscle pain, insect bites and headaches. The
recipe is 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. Lynn Pan, director of the Chinese Heritage
Center in Singapore, suggests the product has more
mythic than medicinal value. "There's nothing much to
Tiger Balm," she says. "Yet Aw conveyed a feel-good
factor. He understood the power of branding."


 
Always a savvy promoter, the entrepreneur leveraged
the balm business into an empire with interests in
pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance, rubber and
newspapers. But in 1969, Aw's nephew Cheng Chye listed
the holding company, Haw Par Brothers, which later
sold off some operations. Today, Tiger Balm, owned by
Singapore's United Overseas Bank, sells in some 70
countries in Asia, Europe and North America.

Despite his moniker, the young Aw was far from gentle.
Born to a Chinese herbalist in 1882 in Rangoon, he was
a perpetual truant from school. In his mid teens, he
was expelled for beating up his teacher and sent to
the family's ancestral village in China's Fujian
province. Aw's younger brother Boon Par ("gentle
leopard") was left to run his father's medicine shop.
When the senior Aw died, Boon Par asked his
tough-minded brother to return and take control of the
business. Boon Par, meanwhile, apprenticed himself to
a local pharmacist, U Thaw. Before the master passed
away, he bequeathed his secret recipe for a
pain-relieving ointment to his apprentice with the
proviso that if he became rich from it, he should give
some of his earnings to charity.

The Aw brothers worked to improve the formula. At
first, Boon Haw used his ethnic Hakka ties to sell the
product to local Chinese medicine shops in Burma on
consignment under the brand name Ban Kim Ewe (Ten
Thousand Golden Oil). "Aw Boon Haw was a genius in
promotion, advertising and marketing," says his
biographer, Sam King. As the business expanded into
Southeast Asia in the late 1920s, Aw Boon Haw looked
for more extravagant ways of promotion. In one
instance, he built a tiger-shaped car from which Aw
distributed enameled posters of his pharmaceutical
products.

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 opening for business in
the Lion City. The title was followed by Chinese- and
English-language papers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and
Thailand. The group later established the "small man's
bank," Chung Khiaw Bank, and a life insurance company.

The brothers kept their promise to U Thaw. Aw Boon Haw
received the Order of the British Empire for his
donations to hospitals, schools and nursing homes. The
tycoon saw in every philanthropic act a promotional
opportunity. "Boon Haw always ensured that a plaque
bearing his and his brother's name or the tiger
trademark was displayed in the most conspicuous part
of the institution to which he had generously donated
funds," Yeoh and Teo write.

The Aw name and entrepreneurial spirit live on in
other ways as well. One scion, daughter Sally Aw Sian,
65, tends a multi-billion-dollar offshoot of the
family empire; she has successfully turned the ailing
Sing Tao newspaper group into one of Hong Kong's most
profitable media companies. Evidently, the tigers
haven't lost their spring. 

-- By Matthew Fletcher and Santha Oorjitham/Singapore


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