York Lo: Wing Sang Cheong (榮生祥) – A Century of Food and Wine Provisions The original Wing Sang Cheong store (blue arrow) on Queen Victoria Street in Central in the 1940s Aside from Wang Kee which was covered earlier, another provisions firm which has been in existence for over a century is Wing Sang Cheong, which was founded in 1911 […]
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HF: Dan Waters wrote a short piece in 1990 about the Dairy Farm Ice and Cold Storage Company. Dan has kindly drawn my attention to this and given permission to reproduce it. This was part of a longer article, Hong Kong Hongs with long histories and British connections, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol […]
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York Lo: Kam Kook Yuen (金菊園) – A Century of Delicious Dried Meat Left: Kam Kook Yuen ad promoting its dried duck during Chinese New Year in 1964 (WKYP, 1964-2-9); Right: Kam Kook Yuen ad featuring the popular cartoon character Old Master Q, probably in the early 1960s based on the number of outlets listed in the bottom Aside from […]
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Hugh Farmer: Land for Oriental Brewery’s plant was acquired in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, in the spring of 1907, when it was announced that the consortium behind it intended to spend “over a quarter of a million dollars on an up-to-date brewery”. The Brewery opened in 1908 with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a year, using brewing equipment imported from […]
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York Lo: The Fourth Horse: Ma Ping-san (馬平山) of M. Ping San Co., Tin Wah Gourmet Powder Factory and On Wah Perfume Co. Left: trademark registration for M. Ping San Co. in 1938 (HK Government Reports); Right: Ma Ping-san and wife at a charity concert by the Cantonese opera troupe Sin Fung Ming (仙鳳鳴) in 1961 (WKYP, 1961-2-17) Earlier on […]
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HF: Additional information about Fish Farming in HK courtesy of the Public Records Office. These photos were taken near Yuen Long 1961. I don’t know whether the fish market was at Yuen Long though all the photos seem to be from the same collection. See: Call for stand-alone body to enforce protection and management of Hong Kong’s wetlands SCMP […]
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HF and IDJ: The latter says this extract comes from a booklet titled ‘History of RAF Kai Tak’ produced by RAF Kai Tak in the 1970s. So much for the Kai Tak Bund area being the high class residential area the original promoters (Kai & Tak) hoped for! If you come across information about other lard factories in Hong Kong please send it in. In […]
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HF: See added extract from a report at the end of this article regarding suggested reason for the final demise of the salt industry in Tai O which had probably been in existence (at least in HK) from about the 3rd century BC. 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau island. It was […]
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York Lo: Charles L. Corn (陳耀坤, 1898-1973) – operator of quarry in Shau Kei Wan and Chinese leader in Guam Left: Ad for Charles L. Corn & Co in 1950 (HKBCA yearbook); Right: Charles L. Corn (left) shaking hands with Vice President C.K. Yen in Taipei (National Cultural Database) In the 1950s, a colorful Chinese businessman in Guam and the Philippines […]
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York Lo: Yick Kwan Gripe Water (益群肥仔水) Left: Yick Kwan Dispensary in Central in 1948 next to Chinese Optical and Sam Tai Distillery. Right: newspaper ad of Yick Kwan gripe water in Shenbao in Shanghai, 1948 Flipping through old pictures and old newspapers from Hong Kong in the 1940s through 1960s, one can often find the ads or street signs […]
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