1964 - Tiger Balm Garden

The description on the message side of this postcard purchased new in 1970 reads: View overlooking Tiger Balm Garden towards Victoria City.

Color photograph by Cheng Ho-Choy

According to A Touristic Guide to Hong Kong, “Located on the Tai Hang Road, this garden, the residence of the late Mr Aw Boon Haw, the Tiger balm magnate, has been consistently popular with tourists, who are fascinated by the garden’s unusual layout and statuary.” The aforementioned 1968 publication was compiled and edited by Mr Edward Y. Hsu in collaboration with the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Further comment is provided in a contemporary article published by the Hong Kong Travel Bulletin: “Tiger Balm Garden is Shutterbug Paradise. Opinions may differ as to the merit of the Tiger Balm Garden on the artistic plane, but whatever the verdict, the place is no doubt colourful, affording many interesting views that provide good background and material for photography. It is, as always, a paradise for shutterbugs. Situated on a hillside with landscaping laid on steeply rising terrain, the Haw-Par Mansion (to call the garden by its proper name) has long been a mecca for sightseers local and foreign, and was the home of the late millionaire philanthropist Mr Aw Boon-Haw, who, together with his brother, founded the Tiger Balm fortune. Besides the hodge-podge of plaster statues with which the garden is liberally strewn, the Haw-Par Mansion contains the Aw residence, which normally is not open to the public. The greatest claim to fame of the Tiger Balm Garden of course is in its collection of statues, which are a melange of man and beasts, saints and sinners, gods and mortals, mermaids and dancing girls, fictional characters and personalities from history, and pure figments of the imagination.”