York Lo: Lee Yat-Ngok, the Local Printing Press Company and the Development of the Hong Kong Printing Industry Passengers on the upper deck of westbound trams passing by Wanchai would recall that the first floor of 48-50 Johnston Road was the home to both the Hong Kong Printers Association (香港印刷業商會, hereafter referred to as “HKPA”) and the Hong Kong Hok Shan […]
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“Lammert the auctioneers have a long history in Hong Kong. Their first association in Hong Kong was with the watchmaking trade. The transition form the watch to the auction hammer occurred as follows. One of the assistants in the watchmaking shop of Charles Weiss in 1852 was M Zobel. He is listed as a watchmaker from 1853 to 1855. In […]
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Nathan Laurent, who lives in Queensland, Australia, has an interest in industrial history. HF: Nathan contacted me “to see if your researchers know anything about a metal manufacturing business that used the name Kwok Hing. My father has a metal working lathe of this brand made in Hong Kong which seems to be from the 1950s.” Below is a picture taken […]
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Carles Brasó Broggi: Regarding Hugh Farmer’s request for details about Nanyang Cotton Mill, let me add some information about this firm. The following text appeared in “Hong Kong Textile Annual” published by the Hong Kong Cotton Merchants Association in 1956 (pp. 46-47). It gives an insight into the company and the mill proving two hypotheses suggested in previous posts by […]
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York Lo: Chi-Chung Yin (C. C. Yin, 尹致中, 1902-1988) – King of Needles Born into a poor family in the farming village of Laiyang (萊陽) in Shandong Province in 1902, C. C. Yin started working at the age of 13 in nearby Japanese occupied Tsingtao (which was occupied by the Japanese between 1914 and 1922) as an office boy at a […]
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Hugh Farmer: JH Stewart Lockhart was Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong from 1895-1902. He wrote a report to the Colonial Office in London, reporting on “The New Territory” . This followed “The Convention between Great Britain and China respecting an Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong.” The report was published on the 8th Oct 1898. Paul Onslow has sent this […]
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HF: Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press, a process by which many copies are produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the “bed” or “chase” of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it […]
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By York Lo For almost half a century stretching from the 1920s to the 1960s, the most popular casual footwear brand in Asia was Fung Keong (馮強). First manufactured in Canton in 1920, and later in Hong Kong and Malaysia, Fung Keong rubber sole canvas shoes had massive appeal during those years of economic hardship due to its affordability and are permanently etched […]
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Anthony Yao of British Columbia, Canada, at least on the 13th May 2004, when the following was posted, has written a brief account of the Hong Kong Flour Mill, popularly known as Rennie’s Mill, with a slant connecting the mill to the industrial history of western Canada. He has also added an interesting section about transport provided from Kowloon to […]
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Dodwell & Company (天祥洋行) was one of the leading British merchant firms, active in China and Japan during the 19th and 20th century. It was a direct rival to Jardine, Matheson & Co. “It was established in 1858 when W R Adamson and Company (silk dealers) set up in London, with its head office in Shanghai and branches in Hong Kong, […]
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