Hu Wen-hu (16 January 1893-4 September I954j, known as Aw Boon Haw, overseas Chinese entrepreneur, newspaper publisher, and philanthropist who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals.

Although Aw Boon Haw was born in Rangoon, his native place was Yungting hsien, a Hakka-speaking district in western Fukien. In 1862 his father, Aw Chi Ching (Hu Tzu-ch'in), had migrated to Burma. He piacticed traditional Chinese medicine and operated a store in Rangoon which stocked Chinese medicinal herbs and other pharmaceuticals. The store was called Eng Aun Tong. Aw Chi Ching married a Chinese girl named Li in Burma. They had three sons. Aw Boon Haw, the second son, was sent to Fukien at the age of 10 for a traditional Chinese education. His younger brother, Aw Boon Par, who later served as his junior partner, received an English education in Burma.

Aw Boon Haw studied in his native district for four years. He then was recalled to Rangoon. He immediately began to study his father's profession and learned to manage the family business. After his father died in 1908, he took over the store. Assisted by his younger brother, he greatly increased the family fortune. He traveled extensively in China, Japan, and Siam, investigating the pharmaceutical market and developing trade connections.

By 1923 Aw's business had grown to such an extent that he decided to transfer his headquarters to Singapore, leaving his younger brother to take charge of their interests at Rangoon. From Singapore, his operations branched out to Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, and Siam. As the business developed, Aw made it his policy to take an active part in philanthropic work in each area.

Aw Boon Haw had not been identified with the many overseas Chinese figures who had energetically and generously supported the anti^lanchu revolutionary movement in the pre-republican era. Both his age and his circumstances at the time had prevented him from playing any significant role then. His first known support of Sun Yat-sen was reported in 1924, when he was stated to have contributed a substantial sum to Sun during the final eastern expedition against Ch'en Chiung-ming (q.v.), who had moved to oppose Sun in 1922. That support was the more remarkable because Ch'en, himself a Hakka-speaking person, then had a considerable following in Southeast Asia. In 1927 Aw Boon Haw was reported to have made large contributions to the Northern Expedition and to the relief of refugees from natural disasters in Kwangtung province. By then he had qualified as a member of the Singapore Chinese "millionaires club" and had become one of the targets of the numerous fund-raising missions which Chinese educational institutions sent to Southeast Asia. In 1929 he gave SS Si 0,000 to Ta-hsia University in Shanghai and SSS50,000 to National Chung-shan University in Canton. In 1932 he visited Hong Kong and Canton. At that time, he made a donation to Lingnan University in Canton. Aw Boon Haw's pharmaceutical business continued to grow. Tiger Balm and other products were firmly established in various areas of Southeast Asia, and Hu had also achieved the remarkable feat of marketing his proprietary medicines in China. He now planned further expansion and decided to transfer his headquarters to Hong Kong. He made this move gradually and maintained his connections in Singapore because of its importance as a distribution center for Southeast Asia. Aw Boon Haw led the Malayan Chinese contingent to the Chinese National Olympic Meet held at Shanghai in 1935. He then went to his native province, where he donated SS Si 0,000 to Fukien College in Foochow and an identical sum to Amoy University. In addition to these larger gifts. Aw made generous contributions to schools in various Chinese cities and in Singapore, Malaya, and the Netherlands East Indies. About this time, he also drew up a grandiose and extensively publicized plan for eliminating illiteracy in China which called for the establishment of 1,000 primary schools in various parts of the country. He promised personal donations if the provincial authorities would accept the plan. He received widespread publicity, but his offer was not accepted.

Earlier, in 1928, Aw Boon Haw had launched the second important business venture of his career when he established in Singapore the Sing-cheit' jit-po, which was to become the first of a chain of newspapers. The second paper of the chain was the Swatow Sing-hua jit-po, established in 1931; the third was the Amoy Singkwong jit-po, first published in 1935. Later that year, a Singapore afternoon paper, the Sing-chüng jit-po, also began publication. Aw also planned to establish a large and modern daily paper in Canton which would be called Sing-juet jit-po. He acquired offices for the paper and began installation of a printing plant, but the deteriorating situation in south China delayed the project. In 1938 Canton was occupied by the Japanese before the paper could begin publication. It was in 1938, however, that Aw Boon Haw established what was probably his most important, and certainly his most successful, newspaper, the Hong Kong Sing-tao jih-pao. In 1941, before the outbreak of the War in the Pacific, Aw added another paper in Southeast Asia to his chain, the Penang Sing-ping jit-po.

When the National Government moved to Chungking after the Sino-Japanese war began in 1937, Aw Eoon Haw was appointed to the People's Political Council as an overseas Chinese representative. In the latter part of 1941 he traveled from Singapore to Chungking by way of Burma to attend a meeting of the council. At the wartime capital, he was received by Chiang Kai-shek. He then left Chungking for Hong Kong, where he had just finished building a mansion, and arrived there just as the War in the Pacific broke out. When the Japanese forces occupied Hong Kong late in December 1941, Aw Boon Haw was detained in custody for three days at the Gloucester Hotel. After his release, he remained in Hong Kong.

In 1943 Aw made several trips from Hong Kong to Shanghai and met Wang Ching-wei (q.v.), who was serving as head of the Japanesesponsored government at Nanking. He made at least one trip to Tokyo, where he met Premier Tojo, reportedly to speak on behalf of Hong Kong merchants regarding the conduct of the Japanese occupation troops. In 1944 Aw was elected chairman of the Hong Kong Chinese Association. He was quoted as saying that he would do all in his power as an Asian to cooperate in the Japanese plans for a "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." From 1940 to 1945 Aw was listed as chairman of the board of directors of the Singapore Tsun Tsin Association, a Hakka organization with branches in most major overseas Chinese centers. He was active in both the Singapore and the Hong Kong branches of the organization.

At the end of the Second World War, Aw Boon Haw resumed his business operations. He visited Singapore in 1946 to supervise the restoration of his interests in that area and in other parts of Southeast Asia. At that time, he also drew up a scheme for a large enterprise to promote the economic development of Fukien province by raising funds among prominent Malayan Chinese. That scheme, however, never advanced beyond the proposal stage. Aw soon turned his attention to the further expansion of the newspaper empire he was building. Most of his pre-war newspapers resumed publication. In 1946 he began publishing an English-language paper, the Hong Kong Tiger Standard, in direct competition with the established British papers in the colony. He also announced plans (never realized) for a Foochow daily to be called Sing-ming jit-po and a Shanghai daily to be called Sing-woo jit-po. Papers were also contemplated for Peiping, Hankow, Mukden, and Taiwan. He met with no success in his attempt to recover the printing plant which he had installed in Canton, the machinery having been moved to Taiwan by the Japanese during the war. Hu was more successful in Southeast Asia, where he soon established the Bangkok 5'2>2^-jZ(2nj27-/?o. In 1950 Aw began publishing a second English-language daily, the Singapore Tiger Standard. That paper suspended publication in 1959.

In 1949 Aw criticized the Singapore government's policy toward the Chinese population in the 16 February issue of his paper Sing-chew jit-po. When he visited Singapore later that year, he was detained at the airport, a ban on his entry having been ordered. He was released on the payment of bail. A similar ban was applied by the Federation of Malaya. After occupying Canton in 1949, the Chinese Communists seized Aw's considerable assets in that city in 1951 and claimed large arrears of tax payments. Aw wrote a personal letter to Yeh Chien-ying (q.v.), then head of the Chinese Communist administration in Canton, asking for the release of his property, but his letter was ignored. During the early days of the Communist rise to power in China, some of Aw's papers, particularly the Hong Kong Sing-tao jit-po, expressed a tolerant attitude toward the new regime, but after Aw's Canton property was confiscated, his papers became strongly anti-Communist. In 1953 Aw Boon Haw affirmed his support of the Chinese Nationalists by making a visit to Taiwan.

During the postwar years, Aw undertook new philanthropic activities in Hong Kong. Those benefiting from his donations included hospitals, orphanages, and old people's homes. He also made generous contributions to the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, a voluntary British organization, and for several years he celebrated his birthday by distributing food parcels and cash gifts to the aged poor. Aw left Hong Kong for the United States in 1954 to undergo an operation in a Boston hospital. On the return journey, he died of a heart attack in Honolulu in September 1954.

Aw Boon Haw was the first Chinese businessman to use Western publicity methods in Eastern trading. His shrewd perception of the power of the press in business promotion was demonstrated by his own chain of newspapers. As his fortune grew, his philanthropy increased accordingly, and he was sometimes called the "Rockefeller of China." He had large estates in Singapore and Hong Kong, and their elaborate gardens became tourist attractions. Aw Boon Haw had four wives. He married the first one, nee Cheng, in 1917 in Rangoon, and she lived in Singapore. His second wife, Ch'en Chin-chih, played an important social role in Hong Kong. Her daughter, Aw Sian, better known as Sally Aw, came to control Aw Boon Haw's newspaper in Hong Kong. A second daughter, Aw Sin, studied in the United States. Aw Boon Haw had five sons. The eldest, Aw Kow, took charge of the family interests in Malaya. The second. Aw San, also known as Aw Swan, assumed direction of the Rangoon interests after the death of Aw Boon Haw's younger brother Aw Boon Par in 1944. The third son, Aw Haw, also known as Aw Hoe, a sportsman and playboy, was killed in an air crash in Malaya in 1951. The fourth son. Aw It Haw, also known as Aw One, studied in the United States. The fifth son, Aw Sai Haw, was a small child at the time of his father's death.