Brian Edgar: 1938 was an important year in the modernisation of baking in Hong Kong. In November Lane, Crawford moved to a fully mechanised facility in the Happy Valley section of Stubbs Road – my father, Thomas Edgar, had become the company’s bakery manager in the spring, probably to oversee the move from Wanchai (“see 1” below). But it seems […]
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IDJ has kindly sent an article published in the The Hongkong Telegraph on 25th January 1947 on the subject of constructing a cross harbour tunnel. The first cross harbour tunnel linking Hong Kong Island and Kowloon was actually opened on 3rd August 1972, though there were proposals for a bridge pre-WW2, see articles linked below. HF: The copy IDJ sent […]
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HF: An SCMP article from September 2006 said “The city’s four dominant asphalt manufacturers are Pioneer Asphalts (Hong Kong), Anderson Asphalt, Asphalt Surfaces (International) and Tarmac Asphalt Hong Kong, and they produce about 1 million tonnes of asphalt a year… The four companies comprise the Asphalt and Macadam Association of Hong Kong.” Anderson Asphalt Ltd Anderson Asphalt Limited, a wholly owned […]
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HF: I found this report while searching for information about American companies with a presence in Hong Kong in the latter part of the 19th century. My effort to provide a source for the report, shown below, leaves me somewhat mystified about where it was originally published. Feel free to clarify me and us on this. The Hong Kong Report […]
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HF: The following article about Dadabhoy Rustomjee Banaji and Maneckjee Rustomjee Banaji was written by Sooni Shroff-Gander and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright over this material from 2012. I have been […]
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IDJ has kindly sent two newspaper articles from the Hong Kong Sunday Herald about the removal of a 33 year old wall of the Orient Tobacco Manufactory Company on Nathan Road. We have several articles about this company, all linked below. This article was first posted on 23rd June 2020. Related Indhhk articles: Orient Tobacco Manufactory – many questions, any […]
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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 fifth of these is a product that has been around for around 200 years. The company was founded by current manager Yuen Yee Lum’s great-great-grandfather in Guangzhou, in 1835. Mr Yuen believes his is the last company making […]
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IDJ sent the English version of what the piece calls Rat Boxes. Mak Ho Yin has kindly translated it. 「香港電燈公司和煤氣公司與老鼠箱關係密切，因為老鼠箱是掛在電燈柱上的。由於華人極為抗拒（滅鼠人員）進入私人住宅，政府於是鼓勵華人在殺死家中的老鼠後，將鼠屍放在就近的老鼠箱內，由衛生部門職員每日收集清理。老鼠箱掛在電燈柱一景，還衍生了一句香港獨有的俗語「電燈柱掛老鼠箱」，以形容夫妻二人中丈夫瘦削兼且二人身高矮懸殊。」 Ho Yin continues: This paragraph raised my curiosity on the topic of rat bins so apart from translating it I also did a quick check about its history. I have no memory of seeing them hanging at lamp-posts, and I […]
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The Gutta Percha Company by Bill Burns The following paragraphs are extracted from Bill’s article, with his permission, which can be found on his large and absorbing website. The article can be read in full via the link below, along with an extract from the book “London by day and night:or, Men and things in the great metropolis” by David W. Bartlett, […]
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HF: Many thanks to IDJ for sending this newspaper article about the preserved ginger industry in Hong Kong in 1947. The article was published in the Hong Kong Sunday Herald of 7th June 1947. I’m not sure if ginger was HK’s oldest industry with both the manufacturing of salt from sea water and quarrying of rock being very old. However, […]
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