Mary Anne Le Bas has sent an SCMP article, Six home-grown Hong Kong trades at risk of dying out, published on 21st June 2015. The last of these is about one of the few remaining Hong Kong companies that make neon lights. Leung Lap Kei, who runs the China Neonlight Advertising Company, says that, “in the 80s and 90s, the […]
» Read more
Centenarian Mary Wong presenting a lace handkerchief to Princess Margaret and her then husband the Earl of Snowdon in March 1966 when they visited her shop. Her son and daughter in law Mr & Mrs Jimmy Tse were by her side. Source: Wah Kiu Yat Po, 1966-3-4. York Lo: Mention the Japanese name Oshin, (“Ah Shun” or 阿信 in Cantonese), […]
» Read more
‘A biography of Sir Paul Chater would be a history of Hong Kong’, the South China Morning Post obituary stated on 28 May 1926, Arriving as an impecunious but ambitious and extremely capable teenager, he was later to be described by the Sunday Times of London, ‘as one of the most powerful and…most beneficent figures in the Empire’. [This article […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
New information in red regarding Hong Kong lighthouse ladies. IDJ: The script below comes from one of my aviation books related to the 1930s China Coast. It’s an interesting aside about the wives of lighthouse keepers:- “Chinese keepers of the lights had invariably been pirated so often for their large supplies of specially refined kerosene, the lighthouse service found it […]
» Read more
Peter H.T. Woo – Father of the Hong Kong Electronics Industry – by York Lo Several years ago, I was invited by the editors of the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography (HKU Press, 2011) to write biographical entries for the book. In total I wrote 37 entries which covered many of the important figures in HK business history. However, there […]
» Read more
Stephen Davies: Credit must be given for the information below to a presentation given by Ma Koon You on Hong Kong dockyards at the HK Heritage Discovery Centre a couple of years back, and since supplemented by me. Capt George Underhill Sands (1824-1881) bought the old MacDonald Shipyard in Sai Wan (Western District, HK Island) after a complex history that […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
York Lo: Lee Shiu-kee (李兆基)of Kee Lee Co Ltd(基利有限公司) Left: Lee Shiu-kee as a founding director of the Real Estate Developers Association of HK. (Fung Pang-yin, 100 Years of HK Real Estate); Right: LeeShiu-kee’s residence at 12 Belleview Road in Repulse Bay At 12 Belleview Road in Repulse Bay stands a magnificent three-story Chinese style mansion with green roof which […]
» Read more
York Lo: Ying Ngan-ting (應雁亭, 1909-1972): Gold Magnate and Umbrella Manufacturer Left: an old ad for See Loy Umbrella Factory – likely in the 1960s based on the description on the right which mentioned that it has been popular for over eight decades. Right: Ying Ngan-ting (right) with Kwan Yuk-chi (left) of Hang Lung Bank as the new vice chairman […]
» Read more