IDJ: People in Hong Kong expect electricity to always be ‘there’ when they switch on their lights and appliances, but give little thought as to where it comes from or how and where it is produced. Additional information added on 20th June 2019 to IDJ’s original article is in red below. This covers technical data regarding both the A and […]
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Eleanor Wong has written A History of the Wong Family Textile Business, a detailed account of her family’s business history in Shanghai, then in Hong Kong and finally Indonesia. She was assisted in this project by her editor, Carey Vail. Part One: Life in Shanghai is a history of the Wong family’s interests in the textile industry in the city from 1911, […]
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HF: I am very pleased to able to offer a little publicity on the publication of Nancy Kwan’s recently published book, Beyond Lion Rock, self-published, 2019. The book is part biographical but also includes the effects of political and historical events on her family and the people of Hong Kong. Nancy contacted me a few months ago, explaining she was […]
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York Lo: Unitex (裕泰針織) Left: IPO notice of Unitex in 1972 (WKYP, 1972-12-15) ; right : article about the IPO of Unitex in 1972 (WKYP, 1972-12-5) Unitex Ltd was a leading publicly listed knitwear manufacturer in Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s, making shirts for the leading brands in the US and Europe. The firm was founded in 1960 by Frank […]
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Hugh Farmer: Land for Oriental Brewery’s plant was acquired in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, in the spring of 1907, when it was announced that the consortium behind it intended to spend “over a quarter of a million dollars on an up-to-date brewery”. The Brewery opened in 1908 with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a year, using brewing equipment imported from […]
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York Lo: Stores for the Elite – Mode Elite (慕愛) and Elite Styles (伊利) In the 1930s to 1960s, two stores in Central with “Elite” in its names – Mode Elite and Elite Styles – catered to high-end customers and imported the latest fashions from the US and Europe. Mode Elite (慕愛公司) – from Shanghai to Hong Kong Left: Mode […]
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IDJ: After the war the school was re-established catering for up to two-hundred pupils at a time. In 1952, the school was absorbed into the Wheelock Marden group of companies. One result of Typhoon Wanda in 1962 was that the school’s hangars housing its training facilities were destroyed, along with a number of its aircraft. Flying instruction then ceased to […]
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IDJ: Probably ‘the first’ formal engineering training school in Hong Kong was the Far East Flying Training School Ltd established as a private venture in November 1933 at Kai Tak Airport. Pupils from Hong Kong, China, Macao and many countries in Asia attended class-room courses on aeroplane structures, engine technology, as well as the use of hand-tools and workshop machine […]
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HF: “In 1971, the government approved a proposal to install a cable-car system leading to the 495-metre peak [of Lion Rock in Hong Kong]. Despite never being realised, the mountain remains popular with hikers and a symbol of Hongkongers’ ‘can-do’ attitude.” {If you can provide further information about this proposal or any other cable car/aerial ropeway at other locations in […]
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York Lo: Raoul Bigazzi (卞根基) – leading specialist in marbles, bronzes and mosaics in the Far East from the 1920s to the 1960s One of Bigazzi’s masterpieces in HK – the mosaic mural of the old HSBC building built in 1935 From the 1920s to 1960s, an Italian sculptor by the name of Raoul Bigazzi from Florence carved out a niche (pun […]
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