York Lo: Merchant Prince: the life and many pursuits of real estate pioneer Lee Sai-wah (李世華, 1916-1975) Left: S. W. Lee (Source: liuhan.org.hk); Right: S.W. Lee’s Waldorf Hotel at 2-6 Causeway Road in the 1950s From the 1930s to 1970s, Lee Sai-wah (hereafter refer to as “S. W. Lee”) was a colorful figure active in Hong Kong’s business world and […]
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York Lo: George M. Lau – Father of the Hong Kong wig Industry Left: Advertisement of Regina Hair Products from the early 1970s; Right: 1953 ad of George M. Lau & Bros. (Source: IDJ) In 1970, the Hong Kong wig industry included 478 factories which employed 5 percent of the city’s total workforce (39000 workers) and its export value of […]
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York Lo: Famous HK Tailors (5) – Other Notable Chinese Firms (James S. Lee, Tung Sun, Tung Hing, British Textiles, Maiwo Yang, Tom Bros, James Lau, Smiley Chow and Kwun Kee) The final part of this series covers 9 notable firms in the HK tailor industry – James S. Lee which was once the largest custom tailoring concern in HK; […]
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York Lo: Famous HK Tailors (Part Four): the Shanghainese Tailors – Loa Hai Shing, H. Baromon, Ying Tai, Jimmy Chen, W.W. Chan, Ascot Chang and William Yu In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a large number of Shanghainese tailors relocated from Shanghai to HK and became a major force in the HK tailoring industry with their excellent craftsmanship […]
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York Lo: Famous HK Tailors (Part Three): Dress Makers – Fairall and Mme. Flint, Mow Kie and Moon Kee, Hong Zang and Lo Kai Fook, Johnson and Zeepha While many of the tailors covered in this series also made ladies dresses, a number of custom tailors which specialized in dresses played prominent roles in the history of the HK tailor […]
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York Lo: Founding Fathers of the HK Fur Industry: Stephen Fong of Siberian Fur and Michael Sun of Hong Kong Fur For a city with a sub-tropical climate, Hong Kong seems an unlikely place to emerge as the world’s biggest exporter of fine fur garments and accessories with export sales of over HK$2.5 billion and local sales of HK$125 mil […]
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York Lo: Famous HK Tailors (Part Two) – the British (Sayle, William Powell, Diss Bros, James. T. Shaw and Mackintosh’s) and the Indians (Tajmahal’s, Mohan’s, Harilela’s, J. Kima, Raja and Sam’s) The second groups of tailors to be covered in this series about prominent HK tailors are the British and the Indians. THE BRITISH Although currently there are no major […]
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York Lo: Famous HK Tailors (Part One): the Cantonese – Tak Cheong, A Man Hing Cheong, Yee On Tai, Tailor Cheung, and Others Earlier in the group, a SCMP article was posted about the rise and fall of the tailor industry in Hong Kong but the article primarily told the story of Sam’s Tailor. The following series of articles […]
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York Lo (with additional information by Peter Li): I searched the Chinese name of Chan Kim Ming and came up with one entry. The article below from 1963 was published when a Japanese businessman by the name of Sasaki, the CEO of Japan Paper and Pulp, visited Hong Kong together with a Mr Cox, accompanied by his wife, from Bell […]
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York Lo: Shanghainese Builders in HK (Part Seven) – John Lok, Yao Kee, Paul Lee, TK Shen, Wide Project and Wai Kee In the first six articles in this series, all the Shanghainese builders profiled were firms that were established in pre-war Shanghai and moved to HK before or after 1949. This article will profile seven Shanghainese builders who were […]
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