York Lo: Yew Sang Hong (耀生行) – distributor of electrical appliances and equipment Left: 1958 ad for Yew Sang Hong listing brands of refrigerators carried by the firm and promoting monthly installment plans for radios starting at $13 and refrigerators starting at $50. (WKYP, 1958-5-14); Right: 1966 ad for Yew Sang Hong with pictures of appliances carried by the firm […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: “John Finnie, the present Manager, was born at Greenock in 1897 and served his apprenticeship with Scotts’ Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd. He came to Taikoo Dockyard as Ship Draughtsman in 1924, became Assistant Manager in 1930, and was appointed Manager in 1937 on K.E. Greig’s retirement. The […]
» Read more
York Lo: J. Ullmann (烏利文) – Swiss Watchmaker and Jeweler in HK and China Pictures of the interior and exterior of J. Ullmann’sTientsin store in the 1900s. (Directory and Chronicle of China, 1905) Founded in HK in the 19th century by a Swiss native of the same name, J. Ullmann & Co was a leading watchmaker not just in Hong […]
» Read more
Thanks to IDJ for sending in this 1950 newspaper article about Radio Hong Kong expanding its broadcast programmes. The British Hong Kong Government launched its first radio broadcasting station, known as “GOW”, on 30 June 1928, with a starting staff of only six people. Several name changes occurred over the next few years, and it eventually became known as “Radio Hong Kong” (RHK) […]
» Read more
York Lo: The Office Appliance Co. and Scientific Service Co. – distributors of office equipment The Office Appliance Co (hereafter referred to as OAC) and Scientific Service Co were two major distributors of office equipment and other products in HK and beyond but has since faded into history like the typewriters it represented. Below are their profiles: The Office Appliance […]
» Read more
York Lo: Cheng Hong (鄭航) and Victory Advertising (勝利廣告) Left: Cheng Hong (center) next to Tin Tin Daily publisher Wai Kee-shun (right) and Miss HK 1969 Tam Mei-mei (left) at the press conference regarding the Miss Hong Kong contest in 1970 (WKYP, 1970-5-5); Right: Article about Victory’s client General cigarettes’ promotional campaign with a song guessing contest across HK ran […]
» Read more
York Lo: Alhambra Watch (平安表行) Left: Chiu Chun-fai (left) and Luk Ying-tai at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Shanghai Street store of Alhambra Watch in 1958 (WKYP, 1958-8-17); Right: Omtis’ congratulatory ad to Alhambra Watch on the opening of its Tai Po Road store in 1963 (WKYP, 1963-4-28) Operated by Chiu Chun-fai (招振輝) and his family, Alhambra Watch is […]
» Read more
York Lo: Howah, Blue Heaven and BG: three key players in the post-war HK lighting industry With the housing and hotel/restaurant boom in the 1960s and 1970s, lighting products such as lamps and chandeliers became a huge business in Hong Kong and like the wallpaper industry covered earlier in another article, majority of the products were imported from the US […]
» Read more
HF: One of my first memories of arriving in Hong Kong in 1989 was the smell of fish ball stalls in Causeway Bay. Unfamiliar food being cooked in oil that never seemed to be changed. Industrial strength. And real Dai Pai Dongs. Real in that all the equipment – cookers, gas bottles, tables, chairs, food and drinks arrived by trolley […]
» Read more
York Lo: Chan Chart-man (陳策文) – Developer and King of Pawnshops In March 2013, Oi Wah Pawnshop Credit Holdings became the first operator of pawnshops to go public in HK. Its founder Chan Chart-man had been involved in property development since the 1960s and although a relative newcomer in the centuries-old pawnshop industry, he and his family built the largest […]
» Read more