HF: Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK’s larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significant role in the country’s overseas trade and in the First and Second World Wars. Foundation and […]
» Read more
HF: Nam Jam Factory, a manufacturer of torches (not boiled fruit and sugar) was set up in Hong Kong in 1928 and subsequently opened a branch factory in Canton. First some background information about pre-WW2 industries extracted from the HK Memory Project – The Origins of the Hong Kong metal industry. “The metal industry of Hong Kong started budding in […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: These pages from a HK government publication of December 1959 describe changes in the the manufacture of umbrellas in Hong Kong. Pre WW2 almost all parts were imported, by the time of this report however, at least some were being produced here. The second page shows the value of exported umbrellas to many countries worldwide. It’s interesting for at least […]
» Read more
Rob Weir: The following information comes from War Office (WO) and Foreign Office (FO) documents held at The National Archives at Kew, London, UK. These notes were basically made “in passing” as a diversion to my main interests and so are fairly rough. I’ve put them in ascending date order from the first reference I found until the last. This doesn’t mean there […]
» Read more
HF: China Sugar Refinery Co. Ltd. was established by Messrs. Jardine & Co., Ltd in 1878. The factory was built at East Point, Causeway Bay, where the factory had close proximity to the harbour for loading cargoes of raw sugar cane and packed products. The sugar cane was imported from Java, the Philippines, the Straits Settlements and various Chinese ports. […]
» Read more
HF: I took these photographs of the quarry at Lei Yue Mun on the 11th November 2014. The map shows that it is actually just east of Ma Pui Tsuen though this is an extension of the well-known Lei Yue Mun and I’ll stick with the latter until we have an “official ” name. I am especially interested in the […]
» Read more
HF: Taikoo Sugar Refinery started producing refined sugar in Hong Kong in 1884 and did not cease operation till 1972. During this period of almost a century, it produced some of the world’s highest quality refined sugar, widely consumed in many parts of Asia, Australia and North America. Its history illustrates important aspects of Hong Kong’s industrial development. John Samuel […]
» Read more
HF: Language and Sound Films in the Cantonese language have been made in Hong Kong since the beginning. In the 1950s, it also became a centre of Mandarin language film making after the Communist takeover in mainland China and the entertainment industry shifted from Shanghai to Hong Kong. From the 1960s to mid 1970s Mandarin film productions became dominant especially […]
» Read more
HF: The Kadoorie brothers, Sir Horace (right) and Lord Lawrence (left), sowed the seeds of the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) when they founded the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA) in 1951. In 1941 there were 1.25 million people living in Hong Kong. By the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 the population had shrunk to about 600,000. […]
» Read more
HF: The Hong Kong film industry – the star system According to Paul McDonald, a star system emerged in Hollywood as talent scouts, coaches and publicists were involved with finding performers and making them into stars. In the vertically integrated Hollywood film industry of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s these responsibilities were all undertaken by the studios themselves. The studios […]
» Read more