Our story goes back to the 19th century.
The history of the legendary brothers Haw (胡文虎) and Par (胡文豹) and the origins of their genius started in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar), where it all began.
Their father, Aw Chu Kin (胡子钦), an herbalist in Xiamen, Fujian Province, left for Rangoon in the 1800s to seek his fortune. He established his own clinic and pharmacy in Rangoon and founded Eng Aun Tong(永安堂), or the Hall of Everlasting Peace. He also raised a family there.
Boon Haw, the “gentle tiger,” born in 1882, was educated in China, and Boon Par, the “gentle” leopard,” born in 1888, studied in an English language school in British Colonial Burma.
When their father died in 1908, he left the family business to Boon Par. The gentle leopard, finding the responsibility too much to bear, later asked for his older brother’s return from China to continue the family business in Rangoon.
“I will learn all I can about Western medicine; you can prescribe Chinese medicine. Together, we won’t lose a single patient. He can choose between east and west, and the fee will stay with us,” Boon Par said to Boon Haw
On this astute promise, Haw and Par built an empire and a fortune from a formula for a cure-all ointment sold in a small jar.
The formula had its roots in ancient China, where emperors used it to ease their aches and pains from the stress of ruling. The balm would have died with the dynasties had it not been for Aw Chu Kin, who breathed new life into the ancient recipe.
The sons took over their mother’s kitchen to perfect their late father’s recipe. Boon Par, the quiet leopard, toiled while Boon Haw, the gregarious tiger, supervised. Together, they produced “Ban Kim Ewe” (万金油), Ten Thousand Golden Oils, a panacea for all ills. No customer left the Aw pharmacy without a little bottle of this golden ointment. True to the Tiger’s predatory instincts, Boon Haw convinced every Chinese shop in town to sell his product.
Boon Haw’s next logical step was to register a trademark in his own name, and Tiger Balm was born in 1909. By 1920, Aw Boon Haw, not yet 40, had become the wealthiest Chinese in Rangoon. Ever the risk taker, Boon Haw ventured south to Malaya and Singapore. The sights and sounds of bustling commerce in the Malayan towns and Singapore’s port captivated him. As he studied the Singapore currency, he saw the image of a snarling tiger in the watermark. That sealed it.
The Tiger tycoon moved to Singapore in 1926, and Eng Aun Tong found a brand-new home in the busiest port in the region. A new and larger factory was built along Neil Road, where production was ten times higher than that of Rangoon. Aw Boon Haw traveled to small towns in Malaya in his custom-made car, which had a head shaped like a tiger and a honk that roared. When the villagers crowded around, he would distribute samples of Tiger Balm and its sister products and attract still more customers.
With factories and distributorships firmly established in Malaya, Hong Kong, Batavia (Jakarta), cities in China and Thailand, and with wealth and status long achieved, Boon Haw diversified his business.
Boon Par died in Burma in 1944, while Boon Haw died in 1954 at the age of 72 from a heart attack on his way to Hong Kong after a major operation in Boston. Boon Par’s son, Aw Cheng Chye, took over the family business. In 1969, most of the family businesses merged into a company listed on Singapore’s stock exchanges and Malaya as Haw Par Brothers International Limited*.
* Haw Par Brothers International Limited was later renamed Haw Par Corporation Limited in 1997.
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