Runme Shaw

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Panglima Mangku Negara (1965)
Meritorious Service Medal (from the Singapore Government)
Doctor of Letters
(from the National University of Singapore)

Runme Shaw,

movie industry
in Asia, especially the Southeast Asian region.

Runme Shaw was also a philanthropist who started the

Shaw Foundation
, a charitable organisation. In addition, Runme was the chairman and president of several government boards, and a patron of many organisations. As a result, Runme won many local and foreign awards for his philanthropic work and contribution to the movie industry in Southeast Asia.

Early life and education

Runme Shaw was the third of six sons of Shanghainese textile merchant, Shaw Yuh Hsuen (1866–1921). A native of Zhenhai in China, Shaw Yuh Hsuen married Wang Shun Xiang (1871–1939), and had a total of 10 children, three of whom died at an early age. He had his own import-export company, and was also the owner of an opera hall in which Runme Shaw's brother, Runje Shaw, was its principal playwright and director. However, the opera business failed.

Runme was educated in traditional Shanghainese schools, learning

classical Chinese literature
.

Business in Shanghai

With the

silent movies
. Run Run and Runme (who was then working as a sales manager in his father's trading company) soon joined Runje in the venture.

Not satisfied with their domestic market, the Shaw brothers wanted to seek business opportunities elsewhere. Runme, who was the distribution manager, was given this task. Originally, Runme's destination was

Indochina
where he hoped to meet with the film distributors, but he was denied permission to land there. When the Shaw brothers saw great distribution potential in the Southeast Asian market where many Chinese immigrants lived, Runme chose Singapore as his base.

Establishment of Shaw Organisation

The Empire

Runme Shaw arrived in Singapore in 1925 to test the market for the Shaw brothers' films. He was later joined by Run Run and they together founded the Hai Seng Co (later Shaw Brothers Pte Ltd, the precursor of Shaw Organisation) in Singapore in 1927.

However, for new arrivals like Runme, finding distributors and exhibitors for their brand of silent movies proved a hurdle. As Shanghainese, Runme and Run Run found themselves locked out of the highly protected market by the dominant

Hokkien and Teochew – who controlled the local film business. The film distributors believed that these businessmen imported films from China directly and showed them in their cinemas, and so very few wanted to release the Shaw's silent films. There was also an alliance between a major exhibition circuit run by Malayan cinema king Wang Yu Ting and Shanghai's Liuhe Film Company, a cartel
that boycotted Shaw films.

Undaunted by the opposition and

S$
2,000, a large amount by today's value.

The first film shown at The Empire was a Chinese theatre play, called "Romance of the Opera", produced by Runme's own company. White cloth hung from the ceiling served as the projection screen for the cinema, where the audience sat on hard wooden benches and chairs. During screening, musicians, usually pianists, were hired to accompany the action, and this was meant more to mask the noise from projectors and the audience than to provide the sound effect. Only two evening shows were screened per day. Despite this, the theatre attracted crowds with its offering of Chinese movies.

Expansion into Malaya

As profits grew, Runme ventured into Malaya in the 1920s and 1930s, with Run Run taking charge of business in Singapore. He travelled to small towns and major cities, including Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Ipoh, to distribute and show his films. Ipoh was chosen as his base in Malaya, from where smaller towns could be explored for business potential.

Many of the small towns in Malaya did not have cinemas. One of the ways the Shaw brothers would test the market was to set their own temporary cinemas in open fields. Another means was to

retrofit local Malay opera houses into cinemas, by entering into joint ventures with the local owners. Wherever their films proved very popular, the Shaw brothers would build a permanent theatre. In more rural areas, mobile cinemas
were operated.

In setting up cinemas throughout Malaya, the Shaw brothers usually bought more land than was needed around the theatres. These were Runme's first real estate ventures, as he reasoned correctly that a successful cinema would benefit surrounding businesses thereby raising land value. With the growing chain of cinemas in Malaya, the Shaw brothers split their duties, with Runme eventually taking charge of northern Malaya while Run Run the southern half, which included Singapore.

Expansion in the pre-war years

Although the

The Adventures of Robin Hood
.

The Shaw brothers not only made their own movies, but also imported foreign ones which Runme brought in the early 1930s. Runme attributed the success of the Shaw brothers' film business to hard work and consumer foresight, knowing intuitively the public's taste in films and what appealed to them.

Besides the film industry, the Shaw brothers also expanded into the business of amusement parks, first in Singapore, then in Malaya. These were modelled after the ones in Shanghai where they were popular with the locals. They acquired and operated two of the three amusement parks in Singapore – New World Amusement Park at Jalan Besar and Great World Amusement Park at River Valley – from the mid-1930s to the 1980s. The Shaw brothers also started amusement parks in major cities in Malaya like Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh.

Japanese Occupation

In 1942, the beginning of the

Japanese Occupation of Singapore put an immediate stop to all the Shaw brothers' cinema and amusement park shows. Runme and Run Run had planned to leave for Australia with their families, but their plans were dashed when a quota based on age was enforced on young men leaving the country which Run Run did not qualify. Leaving their respective homes, the families of Runme and Run Run moved into the newly built Shaw villa at Queen Astrid Park
in December 1941.

With the surrender of the

$350 each month to run the films during World War II
, and he continued to supervise the operation of theatres in Singapore and Malaysia. The Shaw brothers were also allowed to reopen their amusement parks to the public.

After the Japanese occupation, the Shaw brothers returned to their movie business. With the impending invasion of Singapore, the Shaw brothers converted their assets into gold, jewellery and cash, and buried them in their back garden. After the war, Runme dug these up, and rebuilt his theatres and restarted his movie business.

Post-war years

The movie industry thrived after the end of World War II, and Runme saw his company's profits multiply. By 1965, the Shaw brothers owned 19 cinema halls in Singapore. There were also 30 independent halls in Singapore contracted to play only Shaw's distributed films. The Shaw brothers had the widest cinema network in Singapore. They also expanded rapidly into the region, and had a chain of more than 150 cinemas and 6 amusement parks in both Malaya and Singapore.

From the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, Runme became famous for bringing

kung-fu films to cinemas in Singapore. By 1988, the company was reorganised under the umbrella
of The Shaw Organisation Pte Ltd. Besides movies, the Shaw brothers had also diversified into various commercial and residential property developments, and have more than 15 subsidiaries operating office blocks, apartment buildings, shopping arcades, hotels, amusement centres and multiplexes.

Other appointments

Runme Shaw also served on the boards of several government bodies and corporations, besides his own Shaw Organisation group of companies.

Runme was the chairman of the

Singapore Tourist Promotion Board
from 1969 to 1976. During his tenure, Runme revamped the running of the board, added more staff and capital input, and opened tourist offices abroad in countries such as Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and United States.

His success in turning the Board around prompted an offer for Runme to run as chairman for the

Alliance Francaise, and served at the Bank of Singapore, Bukit Timah Saddle Club, National St. John Council and the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore
.

Runme was a patron of the National Kidney Foundation, Metropolitan YMCA, Singapore Association for Mental Health, Singapore National Heart Association, St. John's Council, Society for Aid to the Paralysed, Diabetic Society of Singapore and the Singapore Academy of Medicine.

Philanthropy

Runme Shaw set up the philanthropic Shaw Foundation in 1958. The foundation's main purpose was to "return" his company's profits to society.

The Shaw Foundation donated millions of dollars to many charitable organisations and causes. Many of the beneficiaries were schools, such as Maris Stella High School, Anglo-Chinese School and St. Patrick's School, where a part of its buildings are now named after the Shaw Foundation. As the chairman of the Singapore Turf Club for 19 years, Runme instituted the club's charitable use of funds for medical research and charitable purposes.

He was also involved in the

St. John Ambulance.[citation needed
]

Personal life

Runme Shaw was married to Peggy Soo Wei Ping, and had two sons and four daughters.[1]

Honours

For his contributions to the society, Runme Shaw received numerous awards including the

Singapore Government and a Doctor of Letters awarded by the National University of Singapore
.

Death

On 1 September 1982, in Singapore, Runme Shaw fell accidentally. Although he was able to walk home, he soon thereafter collapsed and went into a coma for two and a half years. On 2 March 1985, Runme Shaw died at the age of 84.

In popular culture

Portrayed by Reuben Kang in P. Ramlee The Musical.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Magnate with a heart". The Straits Times. 4 March 1985. p. 10. Retrieved 1 December 2022 – via NewspaperSG.
  2. ^ "Semakan Penerima Darjah Kebesaran, Bintang dan Pingat".
  3. ^ "Five made Datos by Pahang Sultan". The Straits Times. 30 May 1966. p. 7.
  4. ^ "彭亨蘇丹殿下 封賜丹斯里邵仁枚 DIMP最高勳位" [His Highness the Sultan of Pahang conferred upon Tan Sri Runme Shaw the DIMP]. 新明日报 (Xin Ming Ri Bao). 30 May 1968. p. 4.
  5. ^ Chua, Dennis (8 October 2014). "Back with a bang". New Straits Times.

Sources

External links

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