York Lo: Texwood (德士活) and “Apple Jeans”(蘋果牌牛仔褲) In March 2020, Texwood closed its flagship Apple Jeans store on Argyle Street inMongkok after 35 years, leaving only one store in HK in Diamond Hill although the jeans giant remains a major player in the mainland. Founded in 1959, Texwood was one of the major local brands of jeans in HK along […]
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York Lo: Canton Brothers Rubber Co (廣東兄弟樹膠) – China’s and HK’s First Manufacturer of Rubber Shoes Left: Canton Bros poster, likely from the 1930s; Right: Canton Brothers Rubber ad in HK in 1941 (A Century of Commerce) Founded in Canton in 1919, Canton Brothers Rubber Co was the first rubber shoe manufacturer in China and opened its factory in Hong […]
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York Lo: Cheong Sun Development (昌生興業) and the Trio Behind the Firm Cheong Sun Development was a notable listed property developer in the 1970s which was founded in 1972 by a trio from Shanghai (K.S. Cheng, T.O. Liu and K.L. Kung) and acquired by Far East Consortium in 1981. Most of the buildings in HK starting with the character “Cheong” […]
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3rd June 2021 An additional image and information sent in by Dheeraj Khiytani was added. See 1907. HF:Watson’s is possibly the oldest retailer still in existence in Hong Kong and unquestionably among a tiny few that have opererated continuously since the early days of the colony… By 1941 Watson’s was already the largest chemist, retailer of health and beauty products, […]
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York Lo: N. Lazarus (明晶洋行)– Leading Opticians of the Far East Left: N. Lazarus store in Central; Right: ad for N. Lazarus in HK in 1900 (China Mail, 1900-4-10) Eyeglasses is a big business in Hong Kong and one of the first opticians in record in the city was N. Lazarus, started in the late 19th century by oculist-optician of […]
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York Lo: Ching Cheong Weaving & Dyeing Works (禎昌織染布廠) The Ho family at the 70th birthday celebration of Ho Cheuk-yau in 1956 (TKP, 1956-9-23) Ching Cheong Weaving & Dyeing Works was one of the largest and oldest weaving and dyeing mills in Hong Kong founded in 1923 by Ho Cheuk-yau (何卓猷, 1886-1960)and run by his family until the 1980s. A […]
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HF: I was told many years ago that Hong Kong had the most ferry routes of any city in the world. And that Sydney was second and Seattle third. If that was true back in the 1980s it may not be so in 2014. During this period I have seen several routes vanish, including Jordan Road to Central, a wonderful […]
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York Lo: Crown, Fung Hang and Wing Hang – Three Leading Independent Record Companies and the Golden Age of Cantopop in the 1970s and 1980s Crown Record, Fung Hang Record and Wing Hang Record are three leading independent record labels in Hong Kong. The first two traced its roots to Cantonese opera in the 1960s and all three helped to […]
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York Lo: Pushing Out Buttons– Beutron, Chung Wah, Hoover, Union and Wah Hing Since the 1950s, Hong Kong have been one of the leading producers of buttons in the world, made fromwide range of materials from metal, wood, leather, animal bone, ivory, porcelain, glass, genuine or synthetic jewels, ocean and freshwater pearl shells, plastics and polyester. Below are the profiles of […]
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HF: Can anyone supply information about the period when these toys were made in Hong Kong? “In 1893 William Britain Jr., a British toy manufacturer, invented the process of hollow casting in lead, and revolutionized the production of toy soldiers. The company quickly became the industry leader, and was imitated by many other companies, such as Hanks Bros. and John Hill […]
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