Sally Aw was nicknamed Tiger Balm Lady as well as Chinese Howard Hughes.

At age 5, Sally was adopted by fellow relative Aw Boon Haw.

[1] Aw was known foremost as a media mogul, proprietor of the English language business newspaper The Standard and the Chinese language news group Sing Tao Holdings, including Sing Tao Daily and Sing Tao Wan Pao, founded by her father in 1938, as well as Express News [zh] (Chinese: 快報) she founded in 1963[4] and Tin Tin Daily News she owned via Sing Tao Holdings' listed subsidiary Culturecom Holdings [zh] (better known as its Hong Kong subsidiary Jademan Holdings) Due to the Asian financial crisis and a corruption case in which she was named co-conspirator in 1998,[5]: 132  Aw was forced to sell her media interests.

In 1997, Aw was appointed to be a delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Aw was given the award for building Sing Tao into an international Chinese-language newspaper.