York Lo: Cheong Sun Development (昌生興業) and the Trio Behind the Firm Cheong Sun Development was a notable listed property developer in the 1970s which was founded in 1972 by a trio from Shanghai (K.S. Cheng, T.O. Liu and K.L. Kung) and acquired by Far East Consortium in 1981. Most of the buildings in HK starting with the character “Cheong” […]
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3rd June 2021 An additional image and information sent in by Dheeraj Khiytani was added. See 1907. HF:Watson’s is possibly the oldest retailer still in existence in Hong Kong and unquestionably among a tiny few that have opererated continuously since the early days of the colony… By 1941 Watson’s was already the largest chemist, retailer of health and beauty products, […]
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HF: The SCMP of 26th July 2015 carried a report about the death of Ho Hung Yee who ran an umbrella stand on at the top end of Peel Street for decades. The article begins…”A fixture of the Central street scene dubbed the “Umbrella Man” for the decades he spent helping Hongkongers stay dry has died at the age of […]
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York Lo: N. Lazarus (明晶洋行)– Leading Opticians of the Far East Left: N. Lazarus store in Central; Right: ad for N. Lazarus in HK in 1900 (China Mail, 1900-4-10) Eyeglasses is a big business in Hong Kong and one of the first opticians in record in the city was N. Lazarus, started in the late 19th century by oculist-optician of […]
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York Lo: Ching Cheong Weaving & Dyeing Works (禎昌織染布廠) The Ho family at the 70th birthday celebration of Ho Cheuk-yau in 1956 (TKP, 1956-9-23) Ching Cheong Weaving & Dyeing Works was one of the largest and oldest weaving and dyeing mills in Hong Kong founded in 1923 by Ho Cheuk-yau (何卓猷, 1886-1960)and run by his family until the 1980s. A […]
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York Lo: Crown, Fung Hang and Wing Hang – Three Leading Independent Record Companies and the Golden Age of Cantopop in the 1970s and 1980s Crown Record, Fung Hang Record and Wing Hang Record are three leading independent record labels in Hong Kong. The first two traced its roots to Cantonese opera in the 1960s and all three helped to […]
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York Lo: Pushing Out Buttons– Beutron, Chung Wah, Hoover, Union and Wah Hing Since the 1950s, Hong Kong have been one of the leading producers of buttons in the world, made fromwide range of materials from metal, wood, leather, animal bone, ivory, porcelain, glass, genuine or synthetic jewels, ocean and freshwater pearl shells, plastics and polyester. Below are the profiles of […]
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York Lo: Tung Fong Hat Factory (東方帽廠) Left: Tung Fong Hat Factory’s booth at the 1957 HK Products Expo (WKYP, 1957-12-29); Right: Lee Kung-po delivering a report at a CMA board meeting in 1958 (WKYP, 1958-5-16) Founded in 1928, Tung Fong Hat Factory was one of the leading hat manufacturers in Hong Kong from the 1930s to the 1960s alongside […]
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York Lo: The Kwan Family – Theatre Owners and Movie Producers From the 1930s to the 1970s, the families of Kuan Ka-pak and his brother Kuan Ka-yue (the next generation used the English spelling of Kwan instead for their surname) played an important role in the HK movie industry as the owners/operators of at least a dozen movie theaters known […]
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Hugh Farmer and “Tide Swell”: New information in red. These are introductory notes about Jan Hendrik Marsman, b1892 Netherlands, d1956 [exact dates needed], known as Hank to his friends. He started his working life as an engineer. He developed extensive business interests in the Philippines. As elaborated on below he became involved through his company Marsman Hong Kong China Ltd, in […]
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