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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York Lo: The Hui family of Chan Kwong Kee and New Universal Left: Firecrackers outside of the new Chan Kwong Kee store at 198 Queen’s Road Central in 1953 (David Hui; hkoldphoto); Right: Ad for New Universal in the 1970s (1976 HK Scouting Gazette) Earlier on the website we covered several jewelers who have been in business for three generations. […]
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York Lo: Fou Wah Weaving Mills, Kia Fung Textile and Wing Wah Textiles Left: Chao An-chung (left) and S.C. Lok (right) in 1963; Right: Chao An-chung at Kia Fung Textile in the early 1960s Fou Wah Weaving Mills, Kia Fung Textiles and Wing Wah Textiles are three textiles companies founded in HK after the War by three Shanghainese entrepreneurs who […]
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York Lo: Hong Kong Jade Industry and some of its pioneers The trading and manufacturing of jade is one of the oldest businesses in HK but the industry did not form its group until June 1965 when the US government imposed an embargo on HK jadeite goods and in response, J.D. McGregor, then Deputy Director of Commerce and Industry suggested […]
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York Lo: Foo Hang, Tai Hang, Lee Heng and B. Green– Four Leaders of the HK Diamonds Industry Left: Lo Fong Siu-po of Foo Hang (right) receiving a souvenir for her generous donations to establish the Lo Ka-chow Memorial Opthalmic from Sir Oswald Cheung while Max Ma of Lee Heng (center) as chairman of Tung Wah looked on. (WKYP, 1983-3-4) […]
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York Lo: Vincent and Wesintex: two local apparel brands from the 1960s to 1980s Vincent and Wesintex were two popular local apparel brands which were manufactured by Winner Co Ltd and Wu Wei Shing Knitting respectively with similar sounding Chinese names. Both brands have since faded into history. Winner (永南) and Vincent Shirt (永勝恤) Print ad for Vincent shirt in […]
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York Lo: Razzle Dazzle: International Jeweler, Developer and Hotelier Kevin Hsu (許開文) Left: Kevin Hsu (Business Times, 1984-2-16); Center: ad announcing the acquisition of the Cockpit Hotel in Singapore by Kevin Hotels with financing provided by DBS Bank in 1980 (Business Times, 1980-5-19); Right: Kevin Hsu in 2019 with painter Zhang Yuan (张媛)whom he bought a painting from. Kevin Hsu […]
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