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 […]
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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) […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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York Lo: Richard C.K. Chan (陳卓堅): timber baron, shipping tycoon and stamp collector Left: Richard C.K. Chan (standing) delivering a speech to the press as head of the Timber Guild in 1962. To his left were Wong Shui-leung of Kwong Chan Timber, Kan Chi-nam of Wing Tai Cheung and Leung Kam-tong of Hip Shing Timber (WKYP, 1962-12-18); right: cover of […]
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York Lo: Long To Cotton Yarn (浪淘花紗) Left: Long To founder Lam Man-yan; Right: Long To Building in Cheung Sha Wan (Primeoffice) Long To Cotton Yarn was a major manufacturer of cotton yarn in Hong Kong which derived its name from the word play of the Chinese saying based on Tang Dynasty poetry of “Waves washing the sand” (浪淘沙) and […]
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HF: Vol. 34 of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch published in 1994 contains a lengthy article about German speakers in Hong Kong and of the companies they were involved in. It was written by Carl Smith. I am familiar with only a small number of these companies and even fewer of those persons working for […]
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