HF: Thomas Sposato has kindly sent information about possibly one of the most luxurious boats ever built in Hong Kong – the 65-foot Carolyn Quincy. Thomas is the son of one of the boat’s previous owners. It was custom built in 1963 by American Marine Ltd boatyard at Junk Bay, which was run by Robert J Newton and his sons John and Whit. Father […]
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HF: “It should come as no surprise that the waxworks of the Los Angeles ‘Palace of the Living Arts,’ famously described in Umberto Eco’s comic nightmare, Travels in Hyper-Reality were designed in Hong Kong, the work of Jack Chen, the Shanghainese trained sculptor who joined Hong Kong Chemical Industries in the mid-1950s. The company had built a reputation for designing ornamental wax […]
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HF: New Information in red. Following AH Rennie’s suicide on April 14, 1908, the site of the Hongkong Milling Company was left vacant. It’s workers were laid off and the mill was left to various receiverships. There was no interest in restarting the business. A syndicate of local banks appear to have taken over ownership of the mill. I can find […]
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Carles Brasó: According to an article written by David M. Swan, Jardine Matheson concerns in China developed a particular kind of control method named “managing agency system”. Industrial companies were not subsidiaries of the main company but had its own shareholder structure and charter of association. They kept this system in the diverse sectors such as silk, sugar, brewing, egg processing, […]
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HF: In 1951, China requisitioned all property belonging to the Asiatic Petroleum Company in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government’s requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao. Further information comes from this account in the book, Via Ports: From Hong Kong to Hong Kong, Alexander Grantham, Governor of Hong Kong from 1947 to 1957. This image is of the Yung Hao in later life as the […]
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HF: This company was incorporated on 12th January 1965 and was dissolved in 2001. In 1972 [in Hong Kong the] dyeing industry was very prosperous. There were over ten large factories with each employing over a thousand workers. These factories included China Dyeing Works, Pacific Dyeing Works, King’s Dyeing Factory, Link Dyeing Works, Island Dyeing and Printing Company, Winnitex Limited, […]
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HF: Added information in red. It seems extraordinary now that there was a farm with 80 imported dairy cattle in 1886 on Hong Kong island. In 1941 just before the Japanese occupation of HK this number had risen to between 1,800 and 2,000. Where were they? In Pokfulam at Dairy Farm’s estate. Dr. Edward Yiu, Associate Professor of the Department […]
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Lawrence Tsui adds more to our growing information about the proposed Ping Shan airport. He has sent an extract from his father’s autobiography which highlights tensions regarding constructing the airport in this location. Lawrence writes:-There’s a slightly different perspective to the Ping Shan Airport in Paul Tsui’s unpublished memoire “My life & My Encounters’ Chapter XVI (para. 7) regarding his […]
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HF: I came across this company(ies) when shown the May Ming Building, (310)-312 Nathan Road which has apparently been vacant since the 1970s. The ground floor was occupied, apparently, at that time by the Tai Un Radio Service Company. A quick online check of both the address and that company produced a wikipedia file on the Tai Lin Radio Services […]
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HF: I am told the ground floor of this building at 310-312 Nathan Road, Jordan has been empty since the 1970s. Nathan Road, prime real estate…bit of a mystery then. Why unused or not redeveloped for forty odd years? Looking at this recent google image it appears as if the upper floors are occupied. So maybe only the ground floor […]
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