Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: v. 2: Twentieth Century

Lily Xiao Hong Lee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315499239
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The first biographical dictionary in any Western language devoted solely to Chinese women, Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women is the product of years of research, translation, and writing by scores of China scholars from around the world. Volume II: Twentieth Century includes a far greater range of women than would have been previously possible because of the enormous amount of historical material and scholarly research that has become available recently. They include scientists, businesswomen, sportswomen, military officers, writers, scholars, revolutionary heroines, politicians, musicians, opera stars, film stars, artists, educators, nuns, and more.

Biographies

A

A Jin: see Jin Weiying

A Xiang: see Xie Fei

Ah Ch’ing (Hsiang): see Jin Weiying

Aw, Sally

Sally Aw [Hu Xian], b. 1932, in Penang, belongs to a Hakka family originally from Yongding County, Fujian Province. As head for many years of Sing Tao Holdings and publisher of Sing Tao, one of Hong Kong’s largest dailies and “the first truly international Chinese-language newspaper,” she was long regarded as Hong Kong’s richest and most powerful woman.

Her father, Hu Wenhu (Aw Boon Haw, also spelled Har; d. 1954), was famous as a manufacturer of Chinese medicines and the inventor of Wanjinyou medicinal ointment. This aromatic salve, known in English as Tiger Balm, was one of the most widely used patent medicines in East Asia in the early part of the twentieth century. Popular belief had it that Wanjinyou was made from rendered Burmese tigers, but its chief ingredients, carefully guarded secrets, were more likely camphor and eucalyptus oil. Hu Wenhu’s father had left China as a young man to settle in Burma, and Hu Wenhu and his brother developed substantial business interests in Singapore and Hong Kong, eventually moving the headquarters of their company from Rangoon to Singapore.

As was the custom among overseas Chinese in Burma at the time, Hu Wenhu had four wives and a large family—nine children, including two daughters. The children were all given rather unusual Chinese names: the two girls were called Xian (Sian, fairy) and Xing (Sing, star). The quixotic choices for the girls’ names matched those of Hu Wenhu and his brothers, who had been named Dragon, Tiger, and Panther. Perhaps in reaction, when Xian went to school she chose for herself the plain English name of Sally. Hong Kong people joke that her Chinese personal name sounds like “One Cent” and indicates her miserliness.

Hu Wenhu diversified his business interest in medicines to found several newspapers. Originally, this maneuver may have been partly to help promote Tiger Balm ointment, but the papers were also intended to help modernize the life-style of the overseas Chinese. The Rangoon Daily (Yangguang ribao) established in 1909 was one of the first Chinese-language newspapers in the world outside China and soon joined a stable of Chinese-language papers the family launched in Southeast Asia, including the Chen bao in Rangoon; Xingzhou ribao, Xing zhong ribao, and Singapore Standard in Singapore; Xing hua ribao in Shantou; Xing bin ribao in Penang; the Sing Tao Daily or Star Island Daily (Xingdao ribao) and later the evening paper Xingdao wanbao and the English-language Hong Kong Standard in Hong Kong. These formed the basis of the Sing Tao international newspaper publishing conglomerate.

In the first half of the twentieth century, most of Southeast Asia was divided between European and American powers, which operated benevolent colonial administrations. The Chinese business community was at best tolerated, at worst regarded as subversive and unreliable. China itself was racked by civil war and hardly offered a safe refuge. Chinese intellectuals lived in hope that a strong and uncorrupt government would emerge in China, capable of defending the rights of Chinese people at home and abroad. The Chinese-language newspapers of Hu Wenhu and others helped to spread information and stimulate patriotism.

The Chinese-language press in China and throughout Southeast Asia also played a radical role in promoting social and political reform; it wielded a major influence for change in China through transmitting information on current affairs and molding the opinion of the educated classes. Hu Wenhu had close connections with both the KMT and the CCP and, according to some accounts, gave substantial financial support to their anti-Japanese war efforts. He sent two of his sons to Chongqing during the war years. Sing Tao Daily was founded in Hong Kong in 1938, the year after war was declared against Japan. In retrospect this seemed a courageous business decision, perhaps based on a belief that Japan would not dare occupy the British colony. Unfortunately, occupation happened all too quickly. Sing Tao Daily was taken over by the Japanese occupying forces and renamed Xiang Dao Daily. The Hu family, by then resident in Hong Kong, took refuge in Burma for the duration of the war.

Hu Wenhu was (and still is) admired within the Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia for his public-spirited and patriotic philanthropy. He donated large sums to China for schools and universities and for setting up hospitals and pharmaceutical factories before the war. In Southeast Asia, he actively promoted Chinese community associations. His daughter Sally Aw was much influenced by his values and social concerns, and they have clearly shaped her own worldview.

The Hu family returned to Hong Kong soon after the war, settling back into their villa on the slopes of the island. The traditionally styled house, with its glazed roof tiles and extensive gardens, has been a local landmark for decades. A section of the Tiger Balm Gardens, featuring statuary and highly colored plaster figures depicting scenes from Buddhist myths and legends, has always been open to the public. The gardens are still maintained by the Aw Boon Har Foundation as a public service. Here, Sally Aw grew up with her brothers, her imagination fed by the monsters and angels surrounding them. The ravening forces of the business world that she met later in life must have seemed tame compared to the garden’s vivid illustrations of hell’s torments.

Hu Wenhu had earlier created a similar garden in Singapore. There, he also funded a Tiger and Panther Swimming Pool, with a notice restricting its use “For Chinese People Only.” At the time, wide revulsion engulfed the Chinese community about a rumor that a park in Shanghai had a notice expressly forbidding Chinese and dogs to enter; so the erection of the notice in Singapore became a very popular move. In both gardens were shrines to the memory of Hu Wenhu’s parents to which he paid his respects whenever in residence.

Sally Aw attended St. Stephen’s Girls’ College, one of the oldest English-language girls’ schools in Hong Kong, graduating in 1951. A history of the school was published to commemorate its centenary. It describes how when the school resumed teaching after the war years an intense nationalism pervaded its halls, inspiring a generation of teachers and students, as China and the Western powers defeated Japan and China rebuilt itself after a long period of occupation. The Hong Kong economy had been severely damaged; poverty was widespread. The girls at St. Stephen’s were generally from privileged homes and participated in many charitable works, for instance, coaching students from working-class schools. The school was founded on Christian precepts, but many students retained their Buddhist or other religious convictions. The school’s spirit of service and dedication transcended religious divides, however, and clearly left a lasting influence on members of the student body. At school Sally excelled at art and craft and was regarded as a serious and quiet student.

Hu Wenhu died suddenly in 1954 while traveling in Hawaii. Undoubtedly, his wish was that the family should continue his newspaper business. By that time, it had become much more important than the manufacture and distribution of patent medicines. Sally had already been assigned responsibility for the management of the press, despite her youth and inexperience. Other parts of the publishing enterprise were taken over by relatives. From that time on, the Hong Kong Sing Tao operations developed to become more independent from the rest of the original regional publishing empire. She had worked as a trainee at Sing Tao in Hong Kong under her father in 1953. His death and the splitting up of the family conglomerate launched her into prominence in the business field at the relatively young age of twenty-two. Sally Aw’s destiny, however, was clear: to succeed to her father’s position as head of the company in Hong Kong. In 1960 she was promoted from being company manager to general manager and, when the company was publicly listed as Sing Tao Holdings in 1972, became chair. Still completely under the control of the family at that time, the company saw Sally Aw holding 96.7 percent of its registered capital.

Although one of Hong Kong’s more powerful business leaders, she did not use her position to influence political or business decisions in her favor, and this was duly noted in the local press. An interviewer reported that Sally Aw’s aim was “to publish a profitable newspaper and to avoid discussion of politics; her ideal was to be a wugui dianche [trolley bus].” The goal may have proved elusive, but the newspaper did maintain a relatively independent and unaligned position. The company’s annual reports reveal that commercial results always took precedence over political ambitions. For this reason, Sing Tao survived while many others folded over time.

In that year the company’s staff in Hong Kong numbered 550, including many well-known and experienced editors with a long association with the publishing house. Together with its sister publication Sing Tao Evening News, Sing Tao Daily became one of Hong Kong’s largest daily newspapers. In 1988 its circulation was estimated to be two-hundred-fifty-thousand copies reaching one million readers, roughly one-quarter of Hong Kong’s population. The company pioneered the use of technology and used computer-printing systems to produce Chinese-language color dailies in many countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Later, the company expanded its publishing business in Canada, especially in Toronto and Vancouver. In 1995 the company introduced Sing Tao Electronic Daily, the first electronic daily paper in Hong Kong. However, sales of Sing Tao Daily declined after 1996, initially because of a price war launched by other publishers and increased newsprint costs. The business environment in Hong Kong also suffered as a consequence of the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98; the cost of doing business in Hong Kong increased compared with other regional cities whose currency was devalued while the Hong Kong dollar remained pegged to the American dollar. In these external factors lay the seed of the ultimate downfall of Sing Tao Holdings.

Under Sally Aw’s stewardship, Sing Tao Holdings diversified its business interests into retailing, tourism, and real estate. To some extent, this diversification was sparked by concerns about Hong Kong’s future before the British Government announced an agreement with China on terms for returning the territory. She made extensive investments in 1983 in real estate in Sydney, Australia, and the following year started a local Sydney edition of Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao was the first Hong Kong company to invest in Australia, bringing about a rethinking by other Hong Kong companies of the potential of the Australian market. These investments attracted considerable attention in the Hong Kong and Australian press at the time, including speculation that the family was planning to emigrate to Australia. Sally Aw made it clear, however, that the hub of her business operations was to remain in Hong Kong despite concerns about its political future. In the 1980s and 1990s, these non-core elements of Sing Tao Holdings became major profit centers but lost much of their value following the Asian financial crisis. Hong Kong property values declined by roughly 30 percent in 1998 from 1997 figures, and Sing Tao shares likewise shed much of their value.

Sally Aw has been president of the World Chinese Press Institute and the first female chair of the International Press Institute. In 1988 she was given the Carr Van Anda Award from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in commendation for building Sing Tao into the first truly international Chinese-language newspaper. According to Sing Tao Holdings’s 1996 Annual Report, Sally Aw’s personal business philosophy is that the prime directive is to pick the right business, one of genuine interest, “so that the success can be enjoyed along with the work it takes to achieve it.”

In autumn 1992, she and her mother were invited to lead a delegation to Beijing at the time of the Fourteenth Party Congress. Apart from a brief visit to Guangzhou as a small child, this was the first time that Sally Aw had traveled to China. She was received by Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng. While in Beijing, Sally Aw signed an agreement with the People’s Daily to publish a color magazine to be entitled Xingguang (Starlight). She and her mother also traveled to their family’s ancestral home in Fujian Province, where they were given a high-level reception.

In 1997 Sally Aw was appointed to the CPPCC, a non-party advisory body, as a delegate from the new Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Consequently, she spent more time in China and was forced to delegate more of the day-to-day responsibilities of Sing Tao Holdings to others. On reaching her sixties, Sally Aw declared that her priority was to train a team to take over management of the publishing business. In 1999 she sold all her interests in the newspapers and stepped down into retirement. The sale truly marked the end of an era in Chinese newspaper publishing. Unfortunately, her departure was marred by accusations that Sally Aw had used political influence to prevent legal investigation of alleged rigging of circulation figures.

Under her leadership, Sing Tao involved itself in many charitable activities, including community education, homes for the elderly, and disaster relief through the Sing Tao Foundation. Support for education was always a priority and included school and college scholarships and loans to needy pupils in China. Hong Kong journalism schools, for instance, at Hong Kong City University, benefited from generous donations. Sing Tao won many international awards for excellence, including from Amnesty International.

Interviewers always noted how the publisher followed a strict daily regimen of work at the office, clearing her desk of papers, ensuring that letters were answered, and following up action taken on office minutes within the week. This was said to have been the reason she preferred to work from a table rather than a desk with drawers. Others noted her simple style of dress and lack of ostentation.

Sally Aw was brought up as a devout Buddhist and is a sincere disciple, devoted to charitable works and the redemption of suffering humanity. She continues to support philanthropy in Hong Kong and overseas and plans to settle eventually in a Buddhist temple in Hong Kong, where she can spend her declining years studying scriptures. Buddhists believe in reincarnation in which the cycle of rebirth is eventually broken through attaining Nirvana.

Sally Aw’s personal interests include the companionship of a large bevy of dogs and she enjoys travel for relaxation. When her mother was still alive, the two were often traveling companions. Sally Aw told the author that on one occasion she and some friends drove right across the United States by car, enjoying the freedom of being able to travel where they liked and when they liked.

Jocelyn CHEY

Barker, Kathleen E. Change and Continuity: A History of Saint Stephen’s Girls’ College. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press in conjunction with St. Stephen’s Girls’ College, 1996.

Chao Jin. Xianggang Xingdao baoye youxian gongsi dongshizhang Hu Xian. Beijing: Haiwai zhuming huaren liezhuan, Gongren, 1988.

Sing Tao Holdings. 1996 Annual Report. Hong Kong. 1997.

Zhang Yonghe. Hu Wenhu. Xiamen: Lujiang chubanshe, 1989.

———. Hu Wenhu zhuan. Singapore: Congwen, 1993.

Aw Sian: see Aw, Sally

B

Ba Jinlan

Ba Jinlan, b. 1922, in Jinzhai village, Xingyang, Henan Province, is a Chinese Muslim ahong (religious head of a mosque) of Hui nationality. Ba Jinlan’s Islamic name is Fatimah, and she comes from an ahong family whose members have held that position for thirteen generations.

Ba Jinlan began her Islamic education at the age of eight, learning scriptures from her father and grandfather. At the age of twelve, she went to the women’s mosque to learn Persian scriptures from female ahong, continuing her study in the Beixia Street women’s mosque in Zhengzhou. After returning home at the age of fifteen, Ba Jinlan helped her mother with housework, studied the Qu’ran in Arabic with her father, and also learned more Persian scriptures from her grandfather. Her...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Editors’ Note
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Translators
• Finding List by Background or Fields of Endeavor
• Brief Chronology of Twentieth-Century Events
• Abbreviations and Guide to Chinese Words Used
• Biographies
• Glossary of Chinese Names