Runme Shaw (1901–1985), alias Shanke, was born in Zhenhai, Ningbo, Zhejiang, the third of the eight Shaw siblings and son of a Shanghai textile merchant; he reverted to his original name after going to Singapore. When his eldest brother Shao Zuiweng founded the Tianyi Film Company in Shanghai in 1925, Runme handled distribution, and in 1926 he carried Tianyi's first production to Singapore, only to find the cinemas screening mainly Western films. Blocked by a boycott of six Shanghai studios and by contracts tying local distributors and major houses to a rival, he turned to small cinemas and small towns, touring Singapore and Malaya with a van fitted with a projector and screen to hold open-air screenings as far as Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Malacca and Penang. Backed by the Penang tycoon Wang Jingcheng he moved into amusement parks, and by 1928 had built a chain of Shaw cinemas and a Southeast Asian distribution network. In 1930 he and his younger brother Run Run Shaw set up Shaw Brothers Ltd, taking over Singapore's Great World amusement park and a number of cinemas; by 1937 Shaw Brothers ran more than 50 theatres and ranked among the region's leading entertainment players. During the Japanese occupation he was forced to work as a coolie in Singapore for three years, and after the war he quickly rebuilt Shaw Brothers. The two brothers worked together for 30 years until 1957, when Run Run moved to Hong Kong to run production while Runme stayed in Southeast Asia to oversee distribution. In 1958 the brothers established Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited, built the Clearwater Bay studio and produced thousands of films. Runme managed the southern cinemas, amusement parks, hotels and property and was honoured with Malaysia's Tan Sri title. After a stroke left him in a deep coma in 1983, he died in Singapore on 2 March 1985, aged 84.
Runme Shaw opened Southeast Asian markets through mobile screenings and small cinemas, wove distribution, exhibition and amusement parks into a network after forming Shaw Brothers in 1930, and helped build the Clearwater Bay studio in Hong Kong in 1958 — a channel that let Chinese-language films be mass-produced and sold across the region.
Achievements
- 1926 · Took Tianyi's first production to Singapore, opening a distribution and mobile-screening network across Southeast Asia
- 1930 · With Run Run Shaw formed Shaw Brothers Ltd, taking over the Great World amusement park and several cinemas
- 1958 · The brothers established Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited and built the Clearwater Bay studio