IDJ: Before HAECO came into existence, three companies offered aircraft maintenance services at Kai Tak. JAMCO and PAMAS merged to become HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company) on 1 November 1950. CNAC disappeared from the scene in 1949 when the government in China changed hands and CNAC’s assets were then subjected to a long drawn out legal battle in the […]
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York Lo: Cheng Hong (鄭航) and Victory Advertising (勝利廣告) Left: Cheng Hong (center) next to Tin Tin Daily publisher Wai Kee-shun (right) and Miss HK 1969 Tam Mei-mei (left) at the press conference regarding the Miss Hong Kong contest in 1970 (WKYP, 1970-5-5); Right: Article about Victory’s client General cigarettes’ promotional campaign with a song guessing contest across HK ran […]
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HF: The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd (ICSNC), was established in 1873 as a subsidiary of Hong Kong based Jardine, Matheson & Co. With the advent of steam, Jardines became concerned that it might lose its former advantage in operating fast clippers. As a result, the company became seriously involved in steamships in the mid-1850s servicing the Bengal – China trade. […]
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Peter Crush has kindly sent the following article. Peter has also improved the clarity of the images used in the original article. KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY (BRITISH SECTION) The Kowloon-Canton Railway project that has for its purpose the safeguarding of the interests of Hongkong as a distributing center for South China by establishing a railway connection with the trunk line that, when completed, […]
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HF: With thanks to moddsey for pointing out a couple of sources. The banking industry began in Hong Kong in 1845 with the opening of a branch of the Oriental Banking Corporation, which had its headquarters in India. This Bank was also the first bank in Hong Kong to issue banknotes when in 1847 “it put in circulation $56,000 worth of […]
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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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York Lo: Howah, Blue Heaven and BG: three key players in the post-war HK lighting industry With the housing and hotel/restaurant boom in the 1960s and 1970s, lighting products such as lamps and chandeliers became a huge business in Hong Kong and like the wallpaper industry covered earlier in another article, majority of the products were imported from the US […]
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York Lo: Chan Chart-man (陳策文) – Developer and King of Pawnshops In March 2013, Oi Wah Pawnshop Credit Holdings became the first operator of pawnshops to go public in HK. Its founder Chan Chart-man had been involved in property development since the 1960s and although a relative newcomer in the centuries-old pawnshop industry, he and his family built the largest […]
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Dan Waters’ article, Hong Kong’s Hongs with Long Histories and British Connections, includes the following information about The Hongkong and China Gas Company. The article appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong in 1990. Dan has written several articles directly for our Group. HF: The queries are mine. I have also added the images. “William Glen, who […]
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York Lo: Richard C.K. Chan (陳卓堅): timber baron, shipping tycoon and stamp collector Left: Richard C.K. Chan (standing) delivering a speech to the press as head of the Timber Guild in 1962. To his left were Wong Shui-leung of Kwong Chan Timber, Kan Chi-nam of Wing Tai Cheung and Leung Kam-tong of Hip Shing Timber (WKYP, 1962-12-18); right: cover of […]
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