Hugh Farmer: For over two thousand years the Chinese have used incense in religious ceremonies, to venerate ancestors, in traditional medicine and in daily life. The two most important ingredients in Chinese incense are agarwood and sandalwood. In what was to become colonial Hong Kong local producers brought in agarwood from across southern China as far back as the Song […]
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York Lo: The World-Light Manufactory (光宇製造廠) Left: Lai King-ha at his residence in Tsuen Wan (Chiao Tung Alumni publication); Middle: World Light’s Globe brand logo (HK Government Report, 1935); Right: World Light and Feuerhand lanterns (eBay) From the 1930s to the 1960s, The World-Light Manufactory was one of the most prominent industrial enterprises in Hong Kong, best known for […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent the Naval section of a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) Waichow Intelligence Summary (WIS No.25) dated 27th March 1943. This covers shipping movements in and out of Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation in World War Two during February/March 1943. The reports also describe time spent by vessels undergoing repairs and maintenance in a number of Hong […]
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HF: Peter Crush kindly sent me the following article published in October 1931. While it does not mention the history of phones in Hong Kong I thought it would be of general interest. I have very occasionally changed the script where I thought it was a little old fashioned. And indicated where the script was illegible or missing. The original […]
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Hugh Farmer: From 1938 to 1974, the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong (CMA) organized 31 exhibitions of locally made products, to promote the industrial products manufactured in Hong Kong to local citizens and overseas buyers. IDJ has sent these these photos of CMA Trade Exhibitions. Next Wanchai. Can anyone identify details:- streets, reclamation, harbour front details (what is the long structure […]
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Tymon Mellor: Within the first 15 minutes of the opening of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel on the 3rd August, 1972 over 700 vehicles had driven through the tunnel, signalling the future success of the project and allowing the tunnel to become part of the Hong Kong DNA. But from the outset, construction of this new icon had many hurdles to overcome […]
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York Lo: Fung Tang: The Firm, the Family, the Transpacific Metals Trade and Tin Refinery For almost three quarters of a century from the 1870s to the 1940s, HK-based Fung Tang (馮登記, Fung Tang Kee in Chinese) was a powerhouse in the transpacific metals trade with branches in Shanghai and three cities in Yunnan, affiliates in the US and Japan and […]
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HF: This company was established in 1955 and incorporated on 27th October 1964. The building shown in the recent photos below is at 1 Tung Yuen Street, Yau Tong where the company operated from the entire seven storeys. Gloria Weaving is listed as manufacturing cardigans, sweaters, pullovers and winterwear. Photos taken by HF on 25th September 2014. This article was […]
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Jane Taylor: My grandfather, Robert Taylor, appears to have started out in Macau in 1912 and moved to Hong Kong around 18 months later. He served as manager of the Green Island Cement Company, I think from the late 1920s, until his retirement in 1949. Recently discovered family photographs show the manager’s house clearly, and also its pre- and post-war […]
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“We’ve had shops there, there, there and here,” says Antony Yu Kai-chiu, director and general manager of chilli-sauce maker Yu Kwen Yick, as he points out various shopfronts on Third Street, in Sai Ying Pun. Yu Kwen Yick has only strayed once from Third Street – and that was for a four-year stint on nearby Second Street. “We’ve always been […]
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