‘Maverick’ has kindly sent this film of the Wo Hop Shek Spur Line. It has moments of great charm and nostalgia for those old enough to remember single line branches – children running at the station along side the train as it pulls in, the safety system of passing a token (what was the particular system with a large loop […]
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IDJ has sent this SCMP article about 99 year old Mak Sing-ying. Mr Mak has for 81 years been making pans, cans, boxes and buckets out of tin from his workshop in Sai Kung. The article was published on 9th November 2014 See: SCMP article Sai Kung’s ‘tin man’ 9th November 2014 This article was first posted on 18th December 2019.
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IDJ has sent the following article about F. Blackhead & Company written about 1908: In the early days, before the establishment of Hongkong as a British Colony, Whampoa was the farthest point to which the Chinese permitted foreign ships to proceed up the West River. Many difficulties were experienced at this port by vessels in obtaining stores, and it was […]
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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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HF: Patrick Hase and James Hayes have kindly given permission to post their article, Traditional Tea Growing in the New Territories. KC Iu was also co-author but regrettably I have been unable to contact him. The article was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol 24, 1984. It has three sections, each written by one […]
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Dean Foyle is very interested in how long and where Dinky Toys were manufactured in Hong Kong, when they stopped being made there and the switch to Hot Wheels die-cast car production introduced by American toy maker Mattel in 1968. For initial information regarding Dean’s queries please see our article, Dinky Toys, made in Hong Kong by Hong Kong Industrial […]
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IDJ: When Hong Kong was liberated after the surrender of the Japanese, one of the first groups to arrive was “Shield Force.” This mainly comprised 3,000 Royal Air Force personnel who had been diverted from their expected task of building Pacific island aerodromes to assist the Allied advance towards Japan. Not all RAF personnel in the war were involved in flying […]
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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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York Lo: The Rise and Disappearance of Kin Son Electronic (建生電子) Left: So Kin-keung (front) Right: article about Kin Son’s earnings in 1991 (WKYP, 1991-10-4) In 1995, the business world in Hong Kong was shocked by the unraveling of the publicly listed Kin Son Electronic (Holdings) Ltd, starting with the disappearance of its chairman So Kin-keung (蘇健強) in Shenzhen in […]
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