Aw Boon Par

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Aw.

Aw Boon-Par (Chinese: 胡文豹; pinyin: Hú Wénbào; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hô͘ Bûn-pà; 1888 in Rangoon, Indian Empire – 1944 in Rangoon, Burma) was a Burmese Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for introducing Tiger Balm.

He was the son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu-Kin.[1][2] His father left the business to Boon-Par and after Aw Chu-Kin's death in 1908, he called his elder brother Aw Boon-Haw to run his father's apothecary Eng Aun Tong ("The Hall of Eternal Peace") together. Although Aw wished to stay in Rangoon, his brother who had settled in Singapore[3] in 1926 convinced him to immigrate, move the family business and found the precursor of today's Haw Par Corporation. During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Boon-Haw moved to Hong Kong to manage the business from there, while Boon-Par stayed in Singapore to run the factory. Eventually, Aw closed the factory down, returned to Rangoon, and died there.

Notes

  1. ↑ Beverland, Michael (2009) Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of Iconic Brands Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, page 91, ISBN 978-0-230-58031-2
  2. ↑ Temporal, Paul (2006) Asia's star brands Wiley, Singapore, page 116, ISBN 0-470-82156-6
  3. ↑ Go, Simon (2003) Hong Kong apothecary: a visual history of Chinese medicine packaging Princeton Architectural Press, New York, page 198, ISBN 1-56898-390-5

References