York Lo: In 2013, the Ford Motor Company released a 1924 letter which Sun Yat-sen sent to Henry Ford inviting him to open up a plant in south China – the bearer of the letter was a Chinese American merchant named Ng Jim Kai (a.k.a. Ng Tung Kai 吳東啟, 1859-1935). [1] A major financial backer of Sun Yat-sen for over […]
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York Lo: For decades after the War, the plastic industry and two closely related industries – toy and artificial flower manufacturing had played an important role in the industrial growth of Hong Kong and thanks to the efforts of pioneering entrepreneurs and the hard work of an industrious labor force, Hong Kong had emerged from nothing to become a top player […]
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HF: The article containing the report, The Causes and Effects of the Present Trade Depression in HK 1935 mentions The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company Ltd and its manager, a Mr Carter. Curious about the history of submarine communication cables linking Hong Kong and the rest of the world I discovered an absorbing website run by Bill Burns. This goes under […]
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HF: Peter Crush has sent this article extracted from the Far Eastern Review of October 1931. HF: I have retyped the original version to aid clarity and searches. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped version shown here. A new era of rapid telephone communication in China began on September 1, when long distance telephone service was established between the […]
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York Lo: K.C. Leong (梁溎春)– F&B Industrialist and his Family and Ventures Leong Kwai-chun (hereafter referred to as “K.C. Leong”) might not be a household name but he was a notable figure in the history of the food and beverage manufacturing industries in HK as he was responsible for bringing “Green Spot” orangeade, “Meadow Gold” and “Champion” condensed milk to […]
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For latest updates please see items highlighted in blue. On 12th September 2021 information about Louis Auguste Cossart was added. HF: We have been sent information about a couple of employees of the Asiatic Petroleum Company in China and one in the UK. We have also received requests for information about two more employees. I thought it might be more […]
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York Lo: Synthetic Marble Pioneer Dr. Andrew Liu and his Family While his father physician Dr. Liu Yan-tak and sibling jurist Benjamin Liu and politician Dorothy Liu might have a higher profile, Dr. Andrew Tze-chiu Liu (1929-2000) left his mark in HK industries as the founder of Marble Synthetic Products, the first local manufacturer of synthetic marble in the 1970s […]
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York Lo: Fourseas Bowling Centre and Whimsy Fourseas Bowling Centre and the Wonderful World of Whimsy are two family entertainment venues which have left a mark in two different generations of Hong Kong people and both enterprises were founded by the family of Daniel C. Go (吳文卿), a Filipino Chinese financier. The Go Family and Paramount Insurance in the Philippines […]
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York Lo: The Chan/Tyson Family and Gande, Price & Co The Chan/Tyson family is one of the most prominent Eurasian families in Hong Kong. Family patriarch Chan Kai-ming made his fortune serving as the secretary of the Hong Kong Opium Farm and he acquired the control of Gande Price, which remained one of the leading distributors of liquor in Hong […]
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York Lo: Marklin Advertising (美靈廣告) Left: Chinese New Year ad of Marklin Singapore in 1958(Singapore Free Press, 1958-2-16); Middle: BOAC “Visit Hong Kong” poster in 1960 designed by Marklin; Right: Marklin founder Derek Nurse (HK Album, 1967) From the 1950s to the 1970s, Marklin was one of the leading ad agencies in the Far East with branches in Hong Kong, […]
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