York Lo: Crowning Achievement: Crown Motors (皇冠汽車) and 50 years of Toyota in HK Article about the opening of Crown Motors in 1966 with picture of one of its Toyotas (KSDN, 1966-12-21) Earlier on the website we covered three auto dealers which primarily focused on British cars that are part of the Inchcape group – Metro, Dodwell and Gilman. The […]
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Nicholas Kitto has a family connection to the Asiatic Petroleum Company. His grandfather, John ‘Jack’ Kitto, was recruited directly from school by Royal Dutch Shell in 1910. After training in their London office he travelled to Shanghai on the Trans-Siberian Railway and commenced work with The Asiatic Petroleum Company (North China) Limited on 16 September 1912. He remained with APC […]
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York Lo: From Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to Metro-Dodwell and MD Motors As a result of a series of acquisitions by the Inchcape group in the late 1960s, Metro Cars, the distributor of Austin automobiles covered earlier merged with Dodwell Motors and Gilman Motors to form Metro-Dodwell, the largest auto dealer in Hong Kong in the early 1970s. Below […]
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York Lo: Five Stars (五星牌) and Three Rings (三元牌) – Aluminum Pioneers Wah Chong (華錩) and Ting Tai (鼎大) Production of aluminum (or aluminium based on the British spelling) sheets and products in Hong Kong began in 1949 with two firms – Wah Chong, the maker of the “Five Stars” brand of aluminum ware which opened its branch factory in […]
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York Lo: Advertising & Publicity Bureau (湯臣廣告公司) APB’s booth at the British Industries Fair in 1939 in Birmingham, UK. APB was the first overseas ad agency to have exhibited at the show, which was the most popular attraction in the UK from the 1920s to the 1950s (Malaya Tribune, 1939-3-28) As mentioned earlier in the article about the HK neon […]
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York Lo: City of Neonlights: HK Neon Light Industry and some of its key players Hong Kong owed its reputation as “the Pearl of the Orient” to its neon light industry which lit up the city from signs for small shops on busy streets to giant record-breaking signs atop skyscrapers on the Victoria harbor front from the 1930s to the […]
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York Lo: Lee Man Rubber Manufactory (利民橡膠製品廠) Top: Wong Kwai and brief profile of Lee Man Rubber (KSEN, 1954-12-23); Bottom: two examples of rubber shoes made by Lee Man in the 1950s (WKYP, 1958) Another major rubber shoe manufacturer in HK in the 1940s through 1960s was Lee Man Rubber Manufactory, whose “Fly Gun” brand of rubber shoes was popular […]
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York Lo: Hing Wah Paste Manufacturing Co (興華製麵) Ad for Hing Wah Paste Mfg in 1921 with pictures of its premises and picture of its chief manager Siu Nai-lun (Official Guide for Shippers & Travellers to the Principal Ports of the World, 1921) Earlier on the website, we covered three noodle manufacturers – Winner, the maker of the popular Doll […]
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York Lo: King Kong: Kong Tak-yan (江德仁), tycoon in the 1950s-80s and the original developer of Lan Kwai Fong Left: IPO notice of Keng Fong Sin Kee in 1972; Right: Kong Tak-yan in 1974 (KSEN, 1974-3-24) While many credit Allan Zeman for turning Lan Kwai Fong into the entertainment hub it is today with the launch of his California Bar […]
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IDJ: Imperial Airways (Far East) Ltd Many people in Hong Kong have no concept of how airlines developed in the territory despite air services being their primary means of transport overseas. Airline services arrived late in Hong Kong relative to the rest of the world. Not until 1936, when the UK based Imperial Airways was slowly extending its routes from […]
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