York Lo: Three Generations and Three Industries: From Budson Watch to Casey Diamonds to Ingrid Millet The Liu family in 1949. Budson Liu (second row, second from right), his sons Pak-fei, Wan-fei, Casey and Ping-cheong (back row left to right) and their spouses and children. For close to a century, three generations of the Budson Liu family have been at […]
» Read more
York Lo: Chan Ching-pow (陳清雹) and Po Wah Land Investment (寶華置業) – Real Estate Developer from the 1960s Po Wah ad in 1964 advertising four of its properties in Kowloon – Po Kwong, Po On, Po Fung and Po Tai (WKYP, 1964-10-9) During the property boom in the early 1960s, one of the most active developers in Hong Kong was […]
» Read more
York Lo: Chan Chak-man(陳澤民) – Forgotten Knitwear Tycoon from the 1960s Chan Chak-man (second from left) greeted by his family after returning from the opening of his factory in Portugal in 1964 (WKYP, 1964-6-17) In the early 1960s, Chan Chak-man was a major figure in the HK knitwear industry who was a founding director of Hong Kong Woollen Knitting Manufacturers’ Association (香港毛織業廠商會, […]
» Read more
York Lo: Cheong K. (章記) – Real Estate Pioneer from the 1950s and 1960s Ad for Cheong K’s Kam Hoi Mansion at the former site of the Coca Cola bottling plant in North Point in 1962 featuring Cheong K’s logo on the right (KSDN, 1962-10-4) Left: Swiss House (瑞士樓) on 983-987A King’s Road, Quarry Bay with “Cheong K Building” (章記樓宇) […]
» Read more
York Lo: Goodyear(嘉年): The Rise and Fall of a Real Estate Giant Pang Kwok-chan’s lecture for the HKU Department of Extramural Studies (precursor of SPACE) in 1966 about the 5 stages of post-War development of the HK real estate industry with the only picture of him available in the public domain (香港工商日報, 1966-10-26) Goodyear was a major Hong Kong real […]
» Read more
HF: Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, 1st Baronet (15 July 1783 – 14 April 1859), also spelt Jejeebhoy or Jeejebhoy, was a Parsi India merchant and philanthropist. He had close connections over a lengthy period with Hong Kong, through his business association with William Jardine, his merchant fleet using its harbour and for having had the first Hong Kong built ocean-going ship constructed here. This extract it […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: Robert Gordon Shewan was born in London on 13th November 1859 (1860 according to 20th Century Impressions – see below) but achieved prominence in Hong Kong as a Scottish businessman. He was the son of Andrew Shewan, master mariner, and Jane Thomson. He arrived in Hong Kong in 1881, at the age of 2,1 in connection with the American […]
» Read more
York Lo: Faithful Trading and Polytek Engineering Industrial trading and engineering firms such as China Engineers, Reiss Bradley and Andersen Meyer covered earlier in other articles played an important role in the industrial development of Hong Kong and the broader region as they facilitated the necessary technology transfer from the West by acting as importers and installers of state of the […]
» Read more
The following article was written by Peter E. Hamilton, 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. Forbes, Robert Bennet b. 18 September 1804, Jamaica Plain, Boston, USA; d. […]
» Read more
James Chan: Frank Bowden was born in Exeter, England on 30th January 1848. In the early 1870s he came to Hong Kong. By 1872, when only 24, he had made a fortune in the local stock market. It would be of interest to have further details about Bowden’s time here. In particular how he made his fortune at that time […]
» Read more