HF: From the SCMP -“A 20-minute boat ride from Sai Kung pier, the tiny island of Yim Tin Tsai now teems with activity on weekends. Most are day-trippers exploring the old Hakka settlement, but others are workers harvesting salt from resurrected salt pans. The scene is a far cry from six years ago, when its many deserted fields and dilapidated […]
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Ming Kee Shoes 明記皮鞋 , operated for over forty years hand-making leather footware at 30 Bowring Street, Jordan, until its closure in 2011. The owner, known as Uncle Ming, was forced to close due to a large increase in rent but also because his skilled workers were aging. However, Ming Kee’s wooden lasts, stitching machines and other tools were bought by […]
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Hugh Farmer: Thanks to Tymon Meller for notifying me of the following: A short report by James Hayes which appeared in the RASHKB Journal Vol 15, 1975 : Pottery Kilns – Wun Yiu – RASHKP Hugh Farmer writes. On 11 November 2013 I visited Sheung Wun Yiu village located to the south west of Tai Po Market. The village has several […]
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‘Leung Kit-lam’s eponymous steelware store is…probably the last of its kind in Hong Kong. For decades, he has operated the business alone. Tucked away in an alley, with a barely visible storefront, Leung works seven days a week making strainers, rat traps and crab pots. “Some neighbouring hotels have bought a few of my rat traps,” he says. The years […]
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HF: The SCMP of 17th September 2014 contained an article about the demise of the shrimp paste industry in Tai O on Lantau island. In particular it provides details about the Cheng Cheung Hing Shrimp Paste Factory and its owner Cheng Kai-Keung shown in the photo below. The company was founded by his great-grandfather in 1920. Production was badly affected […]
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“Long before the age of cash boxes and the Octopus card, Hong Kong’s buses and trams had conductors who would collect fares. China Motor Bus (CMB) vehicles also had a gateman to supervise passengers boarding and leaving the bus. But by the mid-1970s, both CMB and Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) were running one-man buses, with a cash box next to […]
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Elizabeth L Johnson wrote an article about “Patterned Bands” in the New Territories which was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Volume 16, 1976. [HF: I have been unable to copy the Chinese characters which appear in the article.] The article begins: These notes on a form of peasant textiles are based on research conducted in Kwan […]
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Further to Dan Waters article “A Joss-stick Mill in Tsuen Wan” published August 26 2013 Here is a photograph of a water powered tilt-hammer used in crushing the production of incense. It is taken from a 1952 book “Hong Kong” by Harold Ingrams published by her Majesty’s Stationary Office, London in 1952. The book contains a chapter on Hong Kong’s […]
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IDJ + HF: This short report from the mid-1950s mentions: a) The different breeds of fish b) The levels these breeds feed at within the ponds c) The economic dynamics of photoplankton as shown in this charming illustration drawn by Ip Tam Po The Bionomics of Pondfish Culture in the New Territories T Chow, Fisheries Research Unit, Dept of Zoology, […]
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Mary Anne Le Bas has sent an SCMP article, Six home-grown Hong Kong trades at risk of dying out, published on 21st June 2015. The fourth of these is about the last remaining letterpress company in Hong Kong. Between the 1970s and 90s there were over 200 such companies around Sheung Wan and Central. All of these have now closed or […]
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