York Lo: Tak Chuen Distillery (德泉酒庄) and “Double Happiness” Wines Left: Ko Ho-ning; Center: Close-up of Tak Chuen’s display at the 1954 (KSEN, 1954-1-13); Right: Yau Chi-ho, manager of Tak Chuen (HK Pun U District Association) While the family of Ko Ho-ning (高可寧, 1878-1955) might be best known for their pawn shops, many properties, movie star daughters in law (Grace […]
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Mary Anne Le Bas has sent an SCMP article, Six home-grown Hong Kong trades at risk of dying out, published on 21st June 2015. The fifth of these is a product that has been around for around 200 years. The company was founded by current manager Yuen Yee Lum’s great-great-grandfather in Guangzhou, in 1835. Mr Yuen believes his is the last company making […]
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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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The Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography has an article about Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee b.1880, Balsar, India d.10th February 1960 in Hong Kong, written by Sooni Shroff-Gander. The following are extracts from this: Summoned by his father Hormusjee Rottonjee, a trader in wines, spirits and provisions in Hong Kong since 1884, Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee arrived in the colony at the age of 12 […]
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Mike T: There’s a lengthy, quite detailed article for Chinese-language readers at the link below. (I can’t read it myself, so have to infer from a poor-quality Google translation.) The author seems to have gotten a tour of the factory in 2011, and provides photos inside and out. I found it quite interesting that their production was once significant enough to […]
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HF: For more information about the Hongkong Milling Company and AH Rennie please refer to our related articles shown at the end of this article. AH Rennie was born at Hamilton, Ontario on 17 November 1857, he was educated at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute and Upper Canada College at Toronto. He then worked as a junior clerk in the wholesale […]
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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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HF: Here’s another in our series of Ginger Factories from the late 19th century and early 20th. I cannot find out much more about this company and would like to know when it was established. Also about Wong Chi Chau mentioned in this article. And the company of which he was the compradore of, Messrs. Alvares & Co. The article […]
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Martyn Cornell has kindly given permission for extracts from his article, A Short History of Beer in Hong Kong, to be posted on our website. The article was published in the Journal of the Brewery History Society, Brewery History, Issue 156, 2012 Martyn has his own blog, Zythophile – Beer now and then, linked below. Despite its title the article is […]
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York Lo: Kowloon Confectionery & Bakery Co (九龍糖果公司) “Eat More Bread” ad for Kowloon Confectionery in 1941 (A Century of Commerce) The Kowloon Confectionery & Bakery Co was one of leading confectionery firms and bakeries in Hong Kong from the 1920s to the 1960s but has since faded into history. Sam Shong-won (岑崇運, 1895-1969), the founder of Kowloon Confectionery, went […]
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