Brief biography of Mr.Geok-Eng Gan

The founder of White Flower International, Mr.Geok-Eng Gan, was born on in 1900 at Haizhen County in Zhanzhou, Fujien Province . His family and extended family lived in the area of Jingmen and Xiamen . Mr. Gan was the third child in the family with an elder brother and an elder sister. Mr. Gan's father was a medical doctor of Chinese medicine. Mr. Gan left Xiamen when he was 7 and traveled with his father to Southeast Asia , a common destination for his contemporary Chinesefellows who sought for new opportunities overseas. Mr. Gan worked very hard as a low-waged piece meal laborer and a peddler in Singapore when he first arrived there. Therefore he experienced the hardship of everyday life for ordinary people. Mr. Gan established his own business after a long time of hard work. He owned a candy factory and ran a rubber business in Penang . He also had some small-scaled business running in Singapore. However , most of his early achievement was devastated by the second world war. After the war, Mr. Gan represented Chinese immigrants in Singapore to travel to Nanjing for the celebration of China 's victory and met Mr. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek for the first time. After the communists took over mainland China , Mr. Gan fortified the his bond's with Taiwan . He returned to Taiwan every year, celebrating Mr. Chiang Kai-shek's birthday, participating in charities and government activities. He invested in Taiwanese business and his contribution to Taiwan was recognized by the government. He was presented with numerous awards and medals. He met many important government officers then . In addition to the factories in Singapore and Hong Kong ,

 

 In 1920, Malaysia and Singapore was affected seriously by mosquitoes and miasma due to the compromised sanitary conditions. Non-fatal illness caused by heat-stroke, injuries and bug bites would still inflict people very much. Mr. Gan, in his 20's and struggling to build his own careers, was also affected by these problems. With Chinese medicine training given by his father, Mr. Gan dedicated himself to find out a solution for these annoying inflictions. After years of testing and improvement, he came up with an embrocation oil and ointment containing mints , camphor, lavender s and eucalyptus extract. The embrocation oil was amazingly effective for cold, headache, heat-stroke, dizziness and mosquito bites. The embrocation oil later was proved very adequate and hence very popular for daily use in tropical zones. The promotion for the ointment was then delayed due to the overwhelming success of the oil.Mr. Gan built a factory in Taiwan , producing The White Flower Embrocation and other products. The White Flower Embrocation was the first domestic herbal soothing oil made in Taiwan and has become the No. 1 brand in the Chinese world.
 
The embrocation oil and ointment initially were made just for personal use. Mr. Gan circulated them among his family and friends. The effectiveness of the embrocation oil made people who had used them asked Mr. Gan for more. Responding to the good feedback, Mr. Gan decided to mass-produce the oil. With the reasonable price he set, he hoped more people can benefit from his invention.