Eastern Associated Investment (東聯置業)
York Lo: Eastern Associated Investment (東聯置業)
Advertorial of Tung Hing Building developed by Eastern Associated Investment in 1957 (WKYP, 1957-12-3)
Earlier on the website, we covered Tung Kin Land, which was formed by several directors of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in the 1950s to engage in property development. As it turned out, two of these directors, Cheung Chan-hon of Cheong Lee Construction (see article on the Cheung brothers) and Kwan Kai-ming of Kai Ming Investment (see article on Kiu Fung Investment for more details), also teamed up with other Tung Wah directors from that same year to form another property development firm – Eastern Associated Investment in 1957. (The Chinese character “Tung” are in both firms’ names, likely a homage to Tung Wah Group of Hospitals)
According to the advertorial above, Eastern Associated operated out Room 314 of the Man Yee Building in Central and acquired the former site of Far East Oxygen in To Kwa Wan which it re-developed into Tung Hing Building (東興大廈) at 249-259 To Kwa Wan Road in To Kwa Wan, comprised of over 200 residential units with balcony selling for $10000 each in 1957. (WKYP, 1957-11-28) At the time, the firm also had development sites on Wyndham Street in Central and in North Point with total square footage of several hundred thousand.
The other directors of Eastern Associated aside from Cheung and Kwan all came from outside of the construction business including Ernest C. Wong of Danemann Watch Case Factory, James Lee Pak-tat of Kin Kwok Paint, rattan magnate Yuen Sze-ho, accountant and later founder of the Kowloon Stock Exchange Peter Chan Po-fan (see article on HK Antenna) and educator Leung Tuen-hing (梁端卿), all of whom had been covered in other articles earlier except for Leung so only Leung will be covered here.
A graduate of the HK Vernacular Normal School and son of a noted late Ching scholar Leung Sut-ting (梁述亭), Shunde native Leung worked as a teacher at the Dunmei School (敦梅學校) on Heard Street in Wanchai before the War and founded the private Tuen Ching School (端正中學) in 1945 in a tenement building with 10 rooms on Lockhart Road in Wanchai. The school over time expanded to branches in Wanchai and North Point, providing kindergarten through secondary school education and over the decades had tens of thousands of graduates. Aside from Tung Wah, Leung was chairman of the Association of Private Chinese Schools in the 1950s and chairman of the HK Confucian Academy from 1966 until his death in 1972.
Left: Leung Tuen-hing handing out diplomas to his Tuen Ching School students in 1955 (WKYP, 1955-7-20); Right: Leung Tuen-hing (Confucian Academy)
Based on records, it appears that Eastern Associated later became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kwan Kai-ming’s Kai Ming Investment. As a firm it was dissolved in 2010.
Sources (other than those cited above):
http://www.confucianacademy.com/load.php?link_id=27658
This article was first posted on 18th May 2020.
Related Indhhk articles:
- Tung Kin Land Investment (東建置業)
- The Cheung brothers and Cheong Lee Construction (昌利建築)
- Kiu Fung Investment (僑豐建業) and the Trio behind the Firm
- HK Oxygen – HK Oxygen & Carbide – Far East Oxygen & Acetylene Companies WW2
- Watch Case Pioneer: Ernest C. Wong (王澤流) and Danemann Watch Case Factory (德明錶壳廠)
- The Inventions and Ventures of HK Tech Pioneer Prof. S.C. Loh (樂秀章)
- Ching Yee Construction & Investment Co (正義置業)
- H.K. Wah Yuen Investment (華源置業) – Leading Property Developer in the 1950s and 1960s
- Chan Ching-pow (陳清雹) and Po Wah Land Investment (寶華置業) – Real Estate Developer from the 1960s
- Lynhall Land Investment (聯合置業) – Real Estate Powerhouse from the late 1950s and early 1960s