York Lo: Chow Yau (周有, 1912-1983) – Vertical Integrator of the HK Death Care Industry With over 45,000 deaths per year, the death care industry is a huge business in Hong Kong. While many Chinese articles have covered Siu Ming, the king of funeral homes who monopolized the business in the 1960s and early 1970s, little has been written about […]
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York Lo: King of Towels: Lee Yiu-wah (李曜華) and Hop Hing (1950) Weaving Factory (合興毛巾織造廠) Lee Yiu-wah speaking at the formation ceremony of the HK Cotton Made-up Goods Manufacturers Association in 1963 (WKYP, 1963-5-26) In the 1950s to 1970s, Hop Hing (1950) Weaving Factory was one of the largest manufacturers of cotton towels and terrycloth in Hong Kong, earning its […]
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York Lo: Kun Wing Fook Medicine Co. (靳永福藥廠) and “Coconut Tree” brand carminative oil (椰樹牌驅風油) Left: Kun Wing Fook booth at the 1971-72 HK Products Expo (HK Memory); Right: article and picture of Kun Wing Fook booth at the 1959 HK Products Expo featuring a tree with coconuts imported from Singapore (TKP, 1959-12-6) Kun Wing Fook Medicine Co, best known […]
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York Lo: Tung Kin Land Investment (東建置業) Tung Kin’s ad for Tung Fat and Tung Lee building in 1962 (WKYP, 1962-8-25) Tung Kin Land Investment Ltd was one of the active property developers in HK in the early 1960s and the firm was incorporated in 1958 with HK$1 million in capital by four directors of the Tung Wah Group of […]
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York Lo: South China Tea Corporation (華南茶業) and “Cocktail Tea” (鷄尾茶) Left: Outdoor advertising for South China Tea’s “Cocktail” covering the building which housed the Mayfair Studio in Kowloon (likely 3 Saigon Street); Right: a South China Tea Corp’s “China Beauty” Chinese green tea tin (Worthpoint) While the family of Southeast Asian tycoon Eu Tong-sen might be best known in […]
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York Lo: Shui Hwa Watch (瑞華表行) Ad of Shui Hwa Watch in 1977 listing all the brands it was sole agent of (WKYP HK Yearbook, 1977) From the 1950s to the 1980s, Shui Hwa Watch was one of the leading watch dealers in Hong Kong, best known for being the sole agents for famous Swiss brands such as Piaget (伯爵表, […]
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York Lo: Chow Deuk Sang and Aurora Chow When it comes to prominent HK jewelers with the surname Chow, the first two that comes to most people’s mind are Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang, which also happens to be the top two chains by the number of stores. From the 1940s to the 1960s, there were two other […]
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York Lo: Fotoprint Service (浮圖攝影) Fotoprint on Stanley Street in 1959 on the right next to Mow Kie Ladies Tailor (ABC); Right: Fotoprint on D’Aguilar Street in 1965. (Gwulo) Fotoprint Service was a prominent distributor of photo supplies and provider of photofinishing service from the 1940s to the 1980s alongside several of the firms covered earlier such as Asia Photo […]
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York Lo: K.K. Lam (林君傑) – the Rise and Fall of a Watch Band Merchant turned Speculator Left: K.K. Lam (Federation of HK Watch Trade & Industries); Right: opening of Ying Kit Stock Co in October 1972 (WKYP, 1972-10-30) Earlier in the group we have covered three HK industrialists whose high-profile disappearances captured the headlines in their respective decade – […]
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York Lo: T.B. Hwang and Benny Tang Hwang Tiong-beng (hereafter referred to as “T.B. Hwang”) was a prominent figure in the shipping and shipbuilding business in the 1960s and 1970s while Benny Tang Kar-hung, the brother of Hwang’s daughter in law was a key figure in the HK construction industry and local football circle from the 1970s to the 1990s. […]
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