Sally Aw Sian — shy, shrewd newspaper magnate

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33609, 10 August 1974, Page 6

Sally Aw Sian — shy, shrewd newspaper magnate

(By

ROSSLYN RIX)

Although Sally Aw Sian is shy, dislikes cocktail parties and business entertaining, is only five feet tall and always dresses immaculately in a Chinese cheongsam, she is the sort of person you might expect to be the chairman of a newspaper. Even in Asia, where the majority of women are still discriminated against in many ways, it is not unusual to find a woman heading a large business concern. Family background helps, but the few who get to the top are shrewd business women. This phenomenon was brought closer to home when Miss Aw Sian was made

chairman of a newspaper to; be published in Fiji. This brings the total of! newspapers controlled by; Miss Aw Sian to 15. Until i recently she published onei of Hong Kong’s leading Eng--lish-language news-papers and still owns 14 others in j the Colony, including the) most widely-read Chinese i newspaper, “Sing Tao.”: There are more than 50 small ( Chinese-language and four English-language newspapersin Hong Kong. The company which has been formed to publish the new “Fiji Sun” also includes the actor, Raymond Burr, and Mr P. Harkness, formerly managing director of the Independent Newspapers group in New Zealand. Miss Aw Sian, who is 43, takes 21 years experience of the publishing business to her position as chairman. She began her career when her father asked her to join him in the news-

;paper business, her brothers being involved in other I careers. I She is an executive board : member of the International 'Press Institute of which she ,lwas chairman one year, and I is also chairman of the (Hong Kong Committee of T.P.1., the Chinese Language i Press Institute and elected i director of the New Asia j College. i She was once associated J with some of the Singapore (newspapers closed down by the Prime Minister (Lee ’ Kuan Yew), and was finan- ■ cially involved with “The Asian.” a weekly magazine ’ published by a Filipino com- ( pany but printed in Hong Kong. This closed down ’ when President Marcos stopped Filipino money leav- • ing the Philippines for the i magazine. 1 Miss Aw' Sian has always been actively involved in the • community and is a council member of the St John ■ Ambulance Brigade and a

Justice of the Peace. She says her newspapers are slanted towards youth and she is not known to make any comments on Hong Kong politics, although “Sing Tao’’ follows a Rightwing policy. Miss Aw Sian's family background is as interesting as her career. Her father, Aw Boon Haw, made a “small fortune” from Tiger Balm, the medicinal oil considered a panacea by the Chinese (outside China). The Tiger Balm Gardens, mini Disneyland of garish oversized dragons, demons and facsimiles of scenes of old Chinese tortures was built by the “Tiger Balm King” and still stands as a memorial to him today, attracting tourists and local Chinese by the hundreds. The house behind the gardens is still occupied by Miss Aw Sian when she is not travelling or engaged in 1 business elsewhere in the ! world.