Hugh Farmer: When Hong Kong was established as a free trading port in 1841, there was no local currency available for daily circulation. Foreign currencies such as Indian rupees, Spanish and Mexican 8 Reales, Chinese cash coins and British currency were used instead. Coins specially issued for Hong Kong did not appear until 1863 when the first regal coins of Hong […]
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HF: The Hong Kong Mint was established by ordinance on 26th February 1864 and opened on 7th May 1866 under the direction of Thomas William Kinder with the purpose of producing Hong Kong silver dollars and half dollar coins. After two years having incurred a huge loss to the government it closed on 25th April 1868. The image of Kinder has […]
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Hugh Farmer: Stone is the only commodity in which Hong Kong is still self-sufficient, and quarrying was a major early industry. The granite extracted from the quarries in East Kowloon, Stonecutter’s Island, Quarry Bay and from the Kowloon hills were used throughout the territory and shipped to Canton for building purposes. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Guangzhou was constructed in the […]
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York Lo: Chung Cheu Kee (鍾照記) – Building Contractor Left: Chung CheuKee; Right: Ad for Chung Cheu Kee in 1950 – the building featured in the ad was the Hop Hing Cooking Oil Factory which was likely built by the firm (HKBCA Yearbook) Founded in the early 1900s and dissolved in 2000, Chung Cheu Kee was one of the oldest […]
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Hugh Farmer: Kwik Djoen Eng was apparently also known as Chun Yang, the shortened form of Guo Chun Yang, and somewhat confusingly, for non-Chinese readers, Kwok Chun Yeung. Many thanks to Thomas Ngan for confirming that Kwik Djoen Eng and Kwok Chun Yeung are the same person. Thomas suggests this array of names is likely due to the romanisation of the same Chinese […]
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York Lo: Union Construction Co/Union Contractors (華聯建築) Left: Union Contractors founder Kew Chan (Geni); Right: Ad of Union Construction Co in 1950 (HKBCA Yearbook) Earlier in the group, I wrote a series of articles on Shanghainese builders and in Part 7 of the series, the firm Union Contractors was misclassified as a Shanghainese builder as its proprietor Chan Bing-quan(陳炳鈞, 1924-1988) was […]
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Our Group started in November 2012 with the website following in October 2013. We currently have over 1,500 articles posted all of which are shown in the Index. Contributions have come from an estimated 450 people ranging from a single line comment to a full length article. Plus those who help the group in other ways as shown in the […]
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To follow the history of the Kwan family is to trace a complete history of Hong Kong graphic design. In 1845 the ‘China Trade’ artist Kwan Chuk Lam, known to the West as ‘Lamqua’ settled in Hong Kong. He was the only known pupil of the English painter G. Chinnery, and had exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy in the […]
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Two versions of the wrecking of the SS Hong Moh which sailed from Hong Kong in March 1921 First version SS Hong Moh was a passenger ship that was wrecked on the White Rocks off Lamock Island, Swatow, on 3 March 1921 with the loss of about 900 lives. City of Calcutta The ship was built by Charles Connell & Company of Scotstoun, and was launched on […]
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York Lo: The King of Watchbands: Poon Yuen-sang (潘遠生) and Yuen Sang Hardware (遠生金屬) Poon Yuen-sang delivering a speech as chairman of the HK & Kowloon Watch and Clock Merchants Association in 1961. Left to right: Mrs. Gertrude Kwok (郭贊夫人), Poon Yuen-sang, Lau Kam-fat (劉錦發), Lun Tin-lok (倫天樂), Chan Peng-fei (陳鵬飛) (WKYP, 1961-9-10) In the 1950s and 1960s, the HK […]
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