Stephen Davies: In the early 1850s in Sai Wan there was a boiler shop run by James Logan and William Swan, and a foundry run by William Dunphy at 58 Praya. Nearby at 63 Praya Harper & Co sold shipbuilding equipment (basically the bits and pieces of patent slips). In 1855 either someone bought out Logan, Swan and Dunphy, or maybe […]
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York Lo: C.T. Chiu (招曙東) and Hong Kong Iron & Steel Works (香港鋼鐵廠) Left: Ad for HK Iron &Steel Works in 1950 (HKBCA yearbook, 1950); Right: ad for steel windows by HK Iron & Steel Works in 1954 (WKYP, 1954-7-5) Hong Kong Iron & Steel Works was one of the leading producers of iron and steel bars and steel windows […]
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HF: Delfino Noronha (1824-1900) ran a printing press in Hong Kong from 1844, Noronha and Co., a quasi-government printer, which later on became the actual Hong Kong Government Printer. He was also involved in the first regular ferry between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon though this was apparently little more than a weekend pleasure launch to his “country house” in Yau […]
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York Lo: Lee Wui-tao (李會桃): Textbook and Tabloid Publisher and Movie Producer In the 1950s to 1970s, Lee Wui-tao was a major figure in the entertainment, education and publishing industries as the owner of the Tao Yuen organization, which included a leading textbook publisher (HK Cultural Service), a leading movie studio (Tao Yuen, ran by his wife and known for […]
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York Lo: Ng Lian-chin (黃連振, 1922-2015) and Life Records (麗風唱片) Left: logo of Life Records; Right: Ng Lian-chin with young Teresa Teng Southeast Asia, particularly the Chinese diaspora in the region,has always been an important market for many HK products including music records. In the 1960s and 1970s, a Malaysian Chinese entrepreneur by the name of Ng Lian-chin was a […]
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York Lo: Wo Shing Company (和聲唱片): Leading Record Label from the 1930s to 1960s Left: Robert Kotewall in 1941 (Harrison Forman Collection); Right: Wo Shing’s posthumousalbum for Siu Ming Sing after the War (review33) From the 1930s to the 1960s, Wo Shing Co Ltd was a leading local record label in Hong Kong and the firm was also responsible for […]
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York Lo: Wong Man-keung (王文強, 1903-1976) and W.S. Sherly & Co (些厘洋行) While Wong Man-keung and his W.S. Sherly & Co might be very low profile, the products which they acted as sole agent for in HK such as the malted drink Horlicks, Pepsodent toothpaste, Longines watches and Kleenex tissues are the opposite and his family is also connected to […]
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York Lo: Luen Yick Knitting (聯益織造) Article about Luen Yick’s IPO on 1973 (WKYP, 1973-4-25) Founded in 1940, Luen Yick Knitting was one of the leading knitwear manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s and went public in 1973 as Luen Yick Manufacturing & Property. Luen Yick founder Chan Luen-fun (陳聯芬, 1907-1974)has the exact same Chinese name as a KMT official […]
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HF: Blackhead Point (黑頭山, lit. “black head hill”), also known as Tai Pau Mai (大包米), Tsim Sha Tsui Point or Signal Hill ( 訊號山), was a cape before land reclamation in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It remains as a small hill almost hidden away behind Chungking Mansions. The industrial connection? Blackhead Point was named after a German businessman in Hong Kong, Friedrich Johan Bertold Schwarzkopf, (also […]
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York Lo: Kar Cheung Chong Bank (嘉彰莊銀行) Founded in 1911 and operated out of the Nam Pak Hong district, Kar Cheung Chong Bank was a Chinese banking firm in HK and affiliate of Tan Peng Choon Banking Co in Thailand and Swatow which played a key role in the trade and remittance between HK, Swatow and Thailand for decades before […]
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