York Lo: Leader of the Battery Pack: Hing Wah and Five Rams Batteries Left: Five Rams batteries ad in 1955 (Source: IDJ); Right: Hing Wah’s HK plant in the 1950s (Source: HK Memory) Founded in Canton and expanded to Hong Kong in 1938, Hing Wah Battery Factory (興華電池廠) was one of the oldest and largest players in the batteries industry in […]
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‘At his shop in Yau Ma Tei, Mak Kam-sang’s walls are covered in calligraphy signs he has written. Passers-by stop and peer into the store, curious about what it sells as it is so different from everything else in the area Mak is the last calligrapher in Hong Kong behind the red and blue signs informing would-be passengers where a […]
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York Lo: The Kings of Industries – the family behind Wearbest Garment in HK and Wha Mei Tobacco in old Shanghai As profiled in many other articles in this group, Shanghainese industrialists played a crucial role in the post-WWII industrialization in HK in fields ranging from textile, plastic, enamelware, construction and many others. In the field of garments, Sieh-Ting King […]
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Tymon Mellor: Galena ore, the main source of lead was first discovered at Lin Ma Hang in around 1914. As described in Part 1, a number of attempts were made to commercially exploit the lead ore, but they all failed. That was until Mr Morrison Brown Yung took an interest in the site and introduced modern mining methods to extract […]
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Louis Heermann was an assistant in the shop of Charles Weiss from the year 1854. After the shop was closed upon the death of Henry Vaucher, Mr. Heermann opened his own shop on Queen’s Road in February 1858 (Friend of China 1 Feb 1858)… Not long after opening his own store, Mr. Heermann left Hong Kong. (Adapted from source 1) Thanks […]
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No, they are not grandmothers made out of cardboard. If you don’t live in Hong Kong or have never visited you may well be puzzled by the expression, cardboard grannies. Here’s an image of one. The SCMP ran an article on the 7th February 2021, ‘Cardboard granny’ dies after beinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaMlJG1o6y4 struck by truck in Hong Kong, linked below. And suggested […]
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York Lo: Notable Players in the history of the HK Glass & Mirror Industry The glass and mirror industry in Hong Kong has a long history tracing back to the 19th century but unlike its products, there is little transparency into the history of the industry and its key players as most of them were and remain very low key. […]
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HF: If anyone comes across further information about or images of the Roy Farrell Export-Import (Hongkong) Company I would be very grateful to be sent it. Roy Clinton Farrell (June 19, 1912 – January 3, 1996) was the American co-founder of Cathay Pacific Airways along with the Australian Sydney de Kantzow. ROY FARRELL EXPORT IMPORT COMPANY (HONG KONG) LIMITED -THE- was incorporated on 28-AUG-1946 […]
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York Lo: SMC, DEMC and TAT – Pioneers of the Hong Kong Electric Fan Industry Entrepreneurs from Hong Kong have long played an important role in the electric fan industry globally. The property and investments billionaire Joseph Lau made his first fortune selling ceiling fans to the US and the Middle East with his Union Ngok Kee and Evergo in the […]
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Tymon Mellor: Hong Kong International Airport handles over 1,000 aircraft movements a day, a long way from the first Hong Kong airfield at Sha Tin, where at 5:10pm on 18th March, 1911 Charles Van den Born, a Belgian undertook the first powered flight in the territory. Flying a 1910 Farman Mk II bi-plane named “Wanda”, he made a short flight […]
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