HF: The engineerng consultancy Binnie & Partners, though British, has had a close connection to Hong Kong through several large-scale engineering projects. From the late 1990s it has been part of the multi-national consultancy Black and Veatch which has its HK office in Ngau Tau Kok. In 1909 AR Binnie and Son merged with another UK engineering consultancy to become […]
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York Lo: Cheong Hing Co/Cheung Hing Construction (祥興建造) – leading building contractor Left: Cheong Hing ad with picture of the Queen’s Garden civil servant quarters on May Road which was completed in 1949. (HKBCA) Right: Cheong Hing founder and manager Yee Chung (HKBCA yearbook) Cheong Hing Co and its successor firm Cheung Hing Construction Co Ltd (the Chinese name stayed […]
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HF: On the evening of 30th July 1969 the vessel San Juan arrived at Ocean Terminal. It departed 15 hours later having loaded 150 containers. This marked the first scheduled container service between Hong Kong and the US. The San Juan was operated by Sea-Land and the new container service was a by-product of the company’s contract with the US […]
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York Lo: Kam Kook Yuen (金菊園) – A Century of Delicious Dried Meat Left: Kam Kook Yuen ad promoting its dried duck during Chinese New Year in 1964 (WKYP, 1964-2-9); Right: Kam Kook Yuen ad featuring the popular cartoon character Old Master Q, probably in the early 1960s based on the number of outlets listed in the bottom Aside from […]
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IDJ: People in Hong Kong expect electricity to always be ‘there’ when they switch on their lights and appliances, but give little thought as to where it comes from or how and where it is produced. Additional information added on 20th June 2019 to IDJ’s original article is in red below. This covers technical data regarding both the A and […]
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Eleanor Wong has written A History of the Wong Family Textile Business, a detailed account of her family’s business history in Shanghai, then in Hong Kong and finally Indonesia. She was assisted in this project by her editor, Carey Vail. Part One: Life in Shanghai is a history of the Wong family’s interests in the textile industry in the city from 1911, […]
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HF: I am very pleased to able to offer a little publicity on the publication of Nancy Kwan’s recently published book, Beyond Lion Rock, self-published, 2019. The book is part biographical but also includes the effects of political and historical events on her family and the people of Hong Kong. Nancy contacted me a few months ago, explaining she was […]
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York Lo: Unitex (裕泰針織) Left: IPO notice of Unitex in 1972 (WKYP, 1972-12-15) ; right : article about the IPO of Unitex in 1972 (WKYP, 1972-12-5) Unitex Ltd was a leading publicly listed knitwear manufacturer in Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s, making shirts for the leading brands in the US and Europe. The firm was founded in 1960 by Frank […]
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Hugh Farmer: Land for Oriental Brewery’s plant was acquired in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, in the spring of 1907, when it was announced that the consortium behind it intended to spend “over a quarter of a million dollars on an up-to-date brewery”. The Brewery opened in 1908 with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a year, using brewing equipment imported from […]
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York Lo: Stores for the Elite – Mode Elite (慕愛) and Elite Styles (伊利) In the 1930s to 1960s, two stores in Central with “Elite” in its names – Mode Elite and Elite Styles – catered to high-end customers and imported the latest fashions from the US and Europe. Mode Elite (慕愛公司) – from Shanghai to Hong Kong Left: Mode […]
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