York Lo: From Tea to Real Estate and Soy Milk and back to Tea – the six-generation saga of the family of Kwan Fan-fat Group picture of the Kwan family at the wedding of Kwan Fan-fat’s youngest son Kwan Kam-pui at the Kam Ling restaurant in Kennedy Town in 1949 (WKYP, 1949-7-10) Earlier on our website, we covered real estate […]
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HF: The following article about William Jardine was written by Alain Le Pichon and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright over this material from 2012. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. Jardine, […]
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York Lo: H.K. Wah Yuen Investment (華源置業) – Leading Property Developer in the 1950s and 1960s Article about Wah Yuen in 1958 hightlighting quick issuance of property deeds (WKYP, 1958-4-30) Earlier on the website, we covered the careers of the Chung brothers, whose “E.Wah Aik Sang” (怡華益新) earned them the title of “king of industrial buildings”. Before founding E.Wah and […]
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York Lo: Singnam Choy (蔡星南) – Founder of the HK Chinese Godown Association Left: Singnam Choy (right) with Lam Hau-tak (see Lam Yuen Fong article) and Chau Cham-kwong as heads of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in 1948 (WKYP, 1948- 6-19); Right: notice issued by The Ching Hua Co in 1947 to clarify that it had no relations with […]
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HF: This 1934 obituary of Wong Kwong (1875-1934) was first published in the 1934 Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK. I have been unable to find an image of Wong Kwong and would be grateful if someone could point me in the direction of one and/or further general information about his time as an employee of Bailey’s shipyard. […]
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York Lo has found this extract from the Carl Smith book linked below. One of the early business enterprises in which Tong Mow-chee and his brother, Tong King-sing, were interested was the first sugar refinery built in Hong Kong. The sugar company grew out of a business parnership between Tong King-sing, William McGregor Smith and a Mr Dahlbeck. When the […]
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York Lo: Tam Shiu-hong (譚肇康 1875-1961) – HK Construction Industry Pioneer and Supporter of Sun Yat-sen’s Revolution Left: Tam Shiu-hong Right: Memorial plaque at the HK Technical College building which cited its construction being supervised by Tam Shiu-hong (HKBCA Yearbook, 1954) The history of the HK construction industry would not be complete without a profile of Tam Shiu-hong, one of […]
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This photo comes courtesy of the Historical Photographs of China collection, University of Bristol, UK and shows Asiatic Petroleum Company staff, at the A.P.C. depot in Shanghai in the 1930s. Information attached to the image suggests the man marked with an x in ink is “Pop i.e. Edward Edelson Wilkinson).” We have information about a couple of employees of APC […]
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HF: Chavalier R Pescio was a man with vision. Especially when it came to trams and tunnels in Hong Kong. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 11 August 1909 contains this article which notes “rents in the Colony of Hongkong are abnormally so, more than in any part of the world in proportion to the accomodation offered”. Even then […]
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HF wrote this in response to a comment on the article below by Sally Trainor: Your comments made me dig out a book, Victoria Finlay, Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox, Sceptre, 2002, which is an extensive account of the history, origins and places of production of all the colours an artist would use. And that got me thinking about the textile […]
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