York Lo: YC Moy – the Friendly Compatriot and the Yau Kiu Film Studio (友僑片場) Left: YC Moy in his later years (Source: World Moy’s Clan Association yearbook); Right: Front gate of the Yau Kiu Film Studio in Kowloon City Earlier in the year, the author wrote an article about Hua Nan Motors, the distributor of DeSoto and Peugeot automobiles […]
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HF: The Douglas Steamship Company was a British merchant company and maritime trading company founded in 1833 in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong by John Steward Lapraik and dissolved in 1987. After arriving in Hong Kong in 1858 to join his uncle, Douglas Lapraik’s shipping empire at Douglas Lapraik & Company, John Steward Lapraik quickly became one of the […]
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Tymon Mellor: Directly after the Pacific War, like many other places, Hong Kong was struggling to recuperate. There was limited capital available and the Government had few resources. Mining was seen by many as a low cost investment, creating employment, generating hard currency and providing revenue to the Government. Unfortunately, this vision was not shared by the Government’s Interim Mining […]
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A little more information on the history of taxis in Hong Kong to add to our other articles, on the subject, linked below. Many thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped version. Taxis cars can be further classified into those that charged according to the meters and cars for hire which did not charge by mileage. 1922 From the 17th […]
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York Lo: Wong Pui-kow (黃佩球): the HK Toy Industry and Chinese Products Store Pioneer Left: Wong Pui-kow and Yuen Luk-on and their children – including future Legco Councillor Wong Ting-kwong (front row center) in 1951 (Apple Daily); Right: Wong Pui-kow (left) presenting a flag to Kwan Hang-sze in 1985 at a CIEA function (TKP, 1985-6-29) During the Double Ten riots […]
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James Chan: This advert from the Hongkong Government Gazette of 9th January 1886 caught my eye. Further investigation brought up the announcement shown below the advert, published in Australia and New Zealand, warning readers that Norman Electric was an “unmitigated fraud and swindle” and exposing one Emil Bassett of New York who was operating under the alias Marsh Bassett. I […]
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Tymon Mellor: The supply of fresh drinking water to the residents of Hong Kong has always been a challenge, not because the territory is particularly short of water, but because the continuously fast-growing demand has always out stripped supply. The first attempts to address this conundrum were taken in the 1860’s with the construction of the first water supply reservoir […]
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HF: First some information about these companies extracted from the excellent HK Memory Project: In 1937, after buying the assets of Keung Hwa Aluminium and Enamelling Company, Mr. Dung Ji-fu founded I-Feng Enamelling Company in Hong Kong to sell aluminium and enamel ware. In 1940, Freezinhot Bottle Co., Ltd. was founded in Hong Kong also with Mr. Dung as the general […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent this photo of Cheung Chau in 1936 showing street lighting, which she thinks may be gas. And a row of barrels in the background on the seawall. Elizabeth wonders if the barrels were being imported or exported from the island. Can you confirm it is indeed gas street lighting and suggest what lovely delights are hidden […]
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York Lo: King of Plastic Beads and Buttons –Shen Bing-su (沈炳樞) of Yee Sing Industrial (義生實業) Yee Sing Plastic Factory’s ad from 1957 In the 1950s and 1960s, plastic manufacturers in HK had built up the HK plastic industry through a variety of products ranging from toys to artificial flowers to water buckets to mahjong tiles to sandals and even […]
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