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: Ma On Shan Iron Mine 1906-1976 – biggest mine in HK is one of the most read articles on the website. This is a sister piece about the company that is supposed to have supplied and/or operated an underground railway(s) at the mine. I said when I posted this article in May 2014 I could find nothing out about Kuhn […]
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York Lo: Five Stars (五星牌) and Three Rings (三元牌) – Aluminum Pioneers Wah Chong (華錩) and Ting Tai (鼎大) Production of aluminum (or aluminium based on the British spelling) sheets and products in Hong Kong began in 1949 with two firms – Wah Chong, the maker of the “Five Stars” brand of aluminum ware which opened its branch factory in […]
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Tymon Mellor: Mining is always a high risk enterprise, but in the case of the Lam Tsuen lead mines, it was compounded by remote terrain, objecting villagers and corrupt officials. This is the story of the lead mines on the Lam Tsuen river at Ng Tung Chai, near Tai Po. After the Second World War, interest in mining picked up […]
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IDJ: In Hong Kong until around the mid 1990s, curious observers and old men with nothing better to do were a familiar sight gathered at gaps in construction sites fences where amongst the usual activities they could observe a practise possibly unique to Hong Kong. Husband and wife teams constructing large diameter, hand dug piles, known as caissons were common […]
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York Lo: Au Shue-Hung (區樹洪, 1902-1991) – Real Estate Pioneer and Philanthropist Left: Au Shue-hung (center) and his wife with Governor Sir David Wilson (right) in 1988 at the dedication ceremony of the Au Shue Hung Centre for Film and Television; Right: Everest Building – the blue billboard on the right contained evangelical messages put up by the Au family. […]
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Fung Chi Ming: The type of man-powered transport known in English as “sedan chair” has different regional names, including jiao (轎) in China and kago (駕籠) in Japan. In Hong Kong, where it is no longer used as a means of passenger transport, it is known in local Cantonese dialect as san-dau (山兜, “mountain cabin”), kin–yue (肩舆, “shoulder carriage”) and […]
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York Lo: Advertising & Publicity Bureau (湯臣廣告公司) APB’s booth at the British Industries Fair in 1939 in Birmingham, UK. APB was the first overseas ad agency to have exhibited at the show, which was the most popular attraction in the UK from the 1920s to the 1950s (Malaya Tribune, 1939-3-28) As mentioned earlier in the article about the HK neon […]
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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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