HF: The SCMP of 17th September 2014 contained an article about the demise of the shrimp paste industry in Tai O on Lantau island. In particular it provides details about the Cheng Cheung Hing Shrimp Paste Factory and its owner Cheng Kai-Keung shown in the photo below. The company was founded by his great-grandfather in 1920. Production was badly affected […]
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HF: If you visit Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market during the day you may well think it’s closed, ready to be fenced off and facing imminent demolition. However, piled boxes of fruit on the surrounding streets and inside locked wire cages within indicate there’s life in the old place yet. If you want to see the market fully functioning […]
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IDJ + HF: This short report from the mid-1950s mentions: a) The different breeds of fish b) The levels these breeds feed at within the ponds c) The economic dynamics of photoplankton as shown in this charming illustration drawn by Ip Tam Po The Bionomics of Pondfish Culture in the New Territories T Chow, Fisheries Research Unit, Dept of Zoology, […]
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James Hayes has kindly given permission for his short article about the production and use of hemp in Hong Kong to be posted on our website, though much of it is taken up with a description of this practice in China. The article was first published in the Royal Asiatic Society (HK Branch) Journal Vol 10, 1970. For further information about […]
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Many thanks to IDJ for sending in this article. As he says, a company ahead of its time! HF: The article was pretty legible but I thought I would retype it anyway. Any further information about, or image of the company would be very useful. There has recently been started in Hong Kong an industry which should prove of enormous […]
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HF/Richard Hale: At one time Hong Kong was home to a thriving pearl cultivation industry which appears to have been initially centred on Tolo Harbour. “Tai Po was the centre of the local pearl industry. As far as we know, pearls were first collected from the nearby sea in AD 761 during the fourth year of the reign of the […]
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York Lo: H.O. Tong (唐海安, 1893-1961): KMT Official, Shanghai Hotelier and Jai Alai Operator and HK Industrialist and Banker Left: H.O. Tong in his later years in HK; Right: H.O. Tong in his official outfit when he attended the coronation of King George VI in the UK in 1937 with T.V. Soong (Photo courtesy of Benjie Wong) Tong Hoi-on (better […]
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HF: Many thanks to IDJ for sending this newspaper article about the preserved ginger industry in Hong Kong in 1947. The article was published in the Hong Kong Sunday Herald of 7th June 1947. I’m not sure if ginger was HK’s oldest industry with both the manufacturing of salt from sea water and quarrying of rock being very old. However, […]
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York Lo: South China Tea Corporation (華南茶業) and “Cocktail Tea” (鷄尾茶) Left: Outdoor advertising for South China Tea’s “Cocktail” covering the building which housed the Mayfair Studio in Kowloon (likely 3 Saigon Street); Right: a South China Tea Corp’s “China Beauty” Chinese green tea tin (Worthpoint) While the family of Southeast Asian tycoon Eu Tong-sen might be best known in […]
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York Lo: From Curios and Jewelry to Soy Milk and Cinemas – the 150 year old saga of the Shiu Lock Hing family Several articles on the website have covered Chinese family businesses in Hong Kong which have existed for not only a century but close to or over 150 years – these include Kwong Fat Yuen Hong in the […]
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