AIMEE K. WILES SHANGHAI * Yu Zhu Mao trains a new employee, Gu Ming Hui, to work in his Kodak Express retail store. In 1984, he opened one of the first Express stores in China; he now owns 10 stores and is the sole distributor of Kodak products in Shanghai. Yu prides himself on the quality of prints his stores provide -- and on being the third generation in his family to work with Kodak. ''Since Kodak invests in my business, I want to do my best to help the Kodak company.''

By Ben Rand
Democrat and Chronicle

(June 25, 2000) -- Over seven decades and across two continents, Yu Zhu Mao and his relatives have gotten more than just good pictures from Eastman Kodak Co.

They have gotten a way of life.

Yu, who supplies 400 stores in Shanghai with Kodak products, is the third generation in his family to build a career on the company's broad shoulders.

Preceding him in league with Kodak were his uncle, George Wu, a scientist at the company's research labs in Rochester, and his grandfather, T.K. Wood, a sales manager in Shanghai.

The Kodak link among the three took shape as smoothly as it has for countless other families in Rochester over Kodak's 120-year history.

George Wu, 74, fondly remembers going to work with T.K. Wood, his father, at Kodak's offices in Shanghai starting in the late 1930s. Wood sold Kodak movie film and related products for about three decades.

Sometime in the mid-1940s, Wu read a book by Kenneth Mees, the famed director of research for Kodak in Rochester. Wu told Mees how much he liked the book and asked for a job.

''He wrote right back and said I could work for him after college,'' said Wu, now retired and still living in Pittsford with his wife, Caroline, 68. Give Wu credit for sticking to a goal. He got his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Ta Tung University in Shanghai, then moved to Rochester and made contact with Mees.

Even though several years had passed, Mees remembered his promise. He hired Wu on the spot, then assigned him apprenticeship roles in the film-processing labs and other parts of the company.

Wu enrolled at Rochester Institute of Technology and got a master's degree in materials science. In the mid-1960s, he finally was assigned to the research labs -- his long-held objective.

Thus launched a 25-year career as a research associate that landed Wu numerous patents. His best known project: Wu made some of the key discoveries that led to development of the first 1000 speed film in 1983. He later helped develop higher-performance versions of 400 speed film; he retired in 1990. It was a letter from George Wu that got the family's third generation geared toward Kodak. When Yu read about his uncle's work in Rochester, he decided the industry was for him.

''He said, 'Maybe I can work for Kodak like my uncle,'' recalled Caroline Wu. ''We said, 'You'll have to study hard and work hard.' He said, 'I'll try.' ''

Yu, 48, first got a job at a Shanghai film plant as an assistant engineer. After about four years, though, he broke out on his own. In 1984, Yu opened one of the first Kodak Express retail stores in China. The stores are independently owned but supported by Kodak.

Momentum has been building ever since. Yu, a smiling man who frequently flashes the ''thumbs-up'' sign, owns 10 Express stores.

AIMEE K. WILES PITTSFORD * George and Caroline Wu, here in front of their home, have long ties to Kodak. (His nephew, Yu Zhu Mao, is pictured above.) George, whose father worked in Kodak's Shanghai office, came to Kodak Park as a researcher about 50 years ago. Caroline now teaches Chinese to Kodak executives.

He also serves as Kodak's sole distributor of film and other products to more than 400 Kodak Express stores in Shanghai.

He has good reason to give the thumbs-up signal. He says he brings in about 10 million renminbi -- the equivalent of $1.2 million -- a year.

''Kodak has invested in our business, and it's growing,'' Yu said in an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle in Shanghai. ''Since Kodak invests in my business, I want to do my best to help the Kodak company.''

There actually is a fourth generation of the family involved in photography.

Yu's father started and his nephew now operates Wood's Photo Store in Hong Kong.

The Kodak connection has spread to other members of the family. Over the past eight years, as the company's China investments have grown, Caroline Wu has helped teach hundreds of Kodak executives in Rochester about Chinese language and culture.

''We are very devoted to Kodak,'' said Caroline Wu.

''We're very gratified this has lasted for three generations.''