HF: The Tien Chu (H.K.) Company Ltd. was founded by Wu Yunchu (1891-1953). Wu was a chemist and industrialist and known as the “Father of Monosodium Glutamate”. He was involved in the chemical and condiment industries in China especially I believe in Shanghai in the 1930s. York Lo says Wu Yunchu actually went by the name of “P. N. Woo” (probably due […]
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York Lo: Wah Mei Electric – Leading Distributor of Electronics from the 1920s to 1960s and related firms Left: Wah Mei ad in 1927 (8th Far East Games brochure); Right: the old Wah Mei store in between Sunlight Hing Kee and Kin Ming Radio on Des Voeux Road Central Wah Mei Electric was one of the oldest and largest distributor […]
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York Lo: Cost Plus Bazaar (美廉市場) and Mark V (美發) Left: Chinese advertisement for Cost Plus Bazaar at the Ocean Terminal in 1964 featuring some of the Japanese furniture. The store opened daily from 10 to 10 (WKYP, 1964-7-19) American retailers, big and small, have been the key driving force of industrial development in HK and China for the past […]
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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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HF: The SS Alaska was a 4,012 ton, 8 speed, side-wheel steamship launched on 27th November 27th 1867 for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. She saw service between New York and Aspinwall, now known as Colón, Panama, and was later used on the San Francisco to Panama City and San Francisco to Hong Kong routes until 1879. During the night of Tuesday 22 September […]
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York Lo: Ng Yue-kwong (吳裕光, 1902-1977) and Ng Yee Hing Weaving & Dyeing Factory (吳義興織印染製衣廠) Ng Yue-kwong (南洋商报, 4 March 1964, Page 14) Earlier in the group, several leading weaving mills from the 1940s-60s were covered such as the Ngai brothers’ Yuen Hing, Shum Choy-wah’sKow Yue and Chong Hu-kwong’s Tai Loong. Ng Yee Hing Weaving & Dyeing Factory was another […]
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York Lo: Shanghainese Builders in Hong Kong (Part Three) – Voh Kee, Chang Sung and Dah Cheng Voh Kee, Chang Sung and Dah Cheng were three Shanghainese builders which set up shop in Hong Kong between 1945 and 1949 and remained active in the local construction scene during the 1950s. All three firms have since faded away from the HK construction […]
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York Lo: Bernard Van Zuiden (萬瑞庭, 1899-1979) – Dutch Trader and Philanthropist in Hong Kong Bernard van Zuiden (right) welcoming his visiting elder sister at a cocktail reception in HK in 1959 (WKYP, 1959-12-10) Life and Career of Bernard Van Zuiden Born in Enschede in eastern Netherlands, Van Zuiden studied textile and commerce in his hometown in the 1910s. He […]
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HF: This article has been extracted from Twentieth Century Impressions…All images are attached to the article. I cannot find any information about the “Imperia del Mundo” Manila cigars mentioned in the article or the “special brand known as El Oriente”. “It was in 1868 that Mr. Kruse, a shrewd man of business, laid the foundation of the extensive import trade […]
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