York Lo: Murjani – the Ups and Downs of a HK Garment Dynasty The history of the HK garment industry would not be complete without the profile of the Murjanis. Starting with a single shop in 1930, Bhagwandas Kewalram Murjani (B.K. Murjani) started one of the first and largest HK garment exporters to the US market in the 1950s. The family […]
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York Lo:The Wong Brothers of Yuen Kee Hong – from Preserved Ginger to Metals and Frozen Meats In the article about aluminum industry pioneers Wah Chong and Ting Tai, we have mentioned about Yuen Fung Metal Works, one of the four firms which partnered up with Wah Chong and Ting Tai to form the sales consortium known as Aluminium Manufactures […]
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York Lo: Five Stars (五星牌) and Three Rings (三元牌) – Aluminum Pioneers Wah Chong (華錩) and Ting Tai (鼎大) Production of aluminum (or aluminium based on the British spelling) sheets and products in Hong Kong began in 1949 with two firms – Wah Chong, the maker of the “Five Stars” brand of aluminum ware which opened its branch factory in […]
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York Lo: Au Shue-Hung (區樹洪, 1902-1991) – Real Estate Pioneer and Philanthropist Left: Au Shue-hung (center) and his wife with Governor Sir David Wilson (right) in 1988 at the dedication ceremony of the Au Shue Hung Centre for Film and Television; Right: Everest Building – the blue billboard on the right contained evangelical messages put up by the Au family. […]
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York Lo: Advertising & Publicity Bureau (湯臣廣告公司) APB’s booth at the British Industries Fair in 1939 in Birmingham, UK. APB was the first overseas ad agency to have exhibited at the show, which was the most popular attraction in the UK from the 1920s to the 1950s (Malaya Tribune, 1939-3-28) As mentioned earlier in the article about the HK neon […]
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York Lo: City of Neonlights: HK Neon Light Industry and some of its key players Hong Kong owed its reputation as “the Pearl of the Orient” to its neon light industry which lit up the city from signs for small shops on busy streets to giant record-breaking signs atop skyscrapers on the Victoria harbor front from the 1930s to the […]
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York Lo: Lee Man Rubber Manufactory (利民橡膠製品廠) Top: Wong Kwai and brief profile of Lee Man Rubber (KSEN, 1954-12-23); Bottom: two examples of rubber shoes made by Lee Man in the 1950s (WKYP, 1958) Another major rubber shoe manufacturer in HK in the 1940s through 1960s was Lee Man Rubber Manufactory, whose “Fly Gun” brand of rubber shoes was popular […]
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York Lo: Private Technical Schools – World, Southeast and Columbia While the government and many industry organizations have played a role in providing the necessary vocational training for various industries in HK, several private technical schools emerged in the 1930s to 1950s to fill the unmet need of training workers for the burgeoning electronics industry. Of these, the most famous […]
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York Lo: Norman F.C. Li (李福杖): Audio Visual Equipment and Plastic Bag Pioneer Elephant founder Norman Li introducing the “Victoria 8” film projector with a dual 35/70 mm film gauge produced by the Italian maker Cinemeccanica in 1963 (Elephant Holdings FB page) The Li family of Bank of East Asia, as covered in Frank Ching’s Li Dynasty and known for its […]
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York Lo: Lau Chi-yuen (柳子元) of Wilman Rubber (惠民橡膠廠) and South Ocean Rubber Works (南洋橡膠化工廠) Left: Lau Chi-yuen in the early 1950s (KSEN, 1953); Right: Production of rubber shoes at the WIlman Rubber plant in 1955(KSEN, 1955-12-26) Earlier on the website, we covered several players in the once prosperous rubber shoe industry in HK from the 1930s through the 1960s […]
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