James Chan: Chen Din Hwa was born in Ningbo, China in 1923. His family were poor and he left school when he was 12 and became an apprentice to a silk merchant. When he was 22 he was already chief manager of his family business and owned several shops in Shanghai and Ningbo. In 1949, Chen’s family moved to Hong […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Captain Charles ‘Chic’ Eather, born 1920, has had a long life. A great part of his working life was spent in aviation and much of this was connected to Cathay Pacific, Kai Tak airport and aircraft maintenance companies at the airport post WW2 and up to his retirement in 1975. His biography Syd’s Last Pirate was published as a CD-Rom. […]
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HF: Double congratulations to Dan Waters (Dr Deric Daniel Waters) who on the 12th September at the Chartered Institute of Building’s Annual Dinner in Hong Kong was presented with a Construction Industry Honorary Award. Dan is also going to be made an Honorary Fellow of Lingnan University, HK, at a ceremony on Monday 13th October 2014 Dan was the first […]
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HF: Charles ‘Chic’ Eather was born on 2nd August 1920 in Sydney Australia. He has had a full life and was an airline pilot for Ansett Airways and Cathay Pacific retiring from the latter in 1975. Chic has a large website, packed with mostly aviation related information and images. Of great interest to to us are the following: – On […]
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Hugh Farmer: Yuen Hing Hong & Co was established in 1945 by a Mr Yeung. and appears to have started out in “the raw plastic business acting as an agent importers from Britain, USA, Germany and Italy.”[1] [Cecilia Young, would like to make it clear that she finds errors and discrepancies in this article. Ms Young is the daughter of […]
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Hugh Farmer and “Tide Swell”: New information in red. These are introductory notes about Jan Hendrik Marsman, b1892 Netherlands, d1956 [exact dates needed], known as Hank to his friends. He started his working life as an engineer. He developed extensive business interests in the Philippines. As elaborated on below he became involved through his company Marsman Hong Kong China Ltd, in […]
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Tymon Mellor has sent the following report published on 11th April 1939 on Labour and Labour Conditions in Hong Kong. The author was Mr HR Butters. Sessional Papers 1939, Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong 1939. HF: The Hong Kong Memory Project introduces this report with the following: – The 65-page report was prepared by the first Labour Officer in […]
» Read moreNewsletter 04 Hugh Farmer: Kwok Acheong (b? Canton d.1880 Hong Kong) became one of the richest men in Hong Kong during the 19th century as a compradore, shipowner, merchant and landowner. There is considerable information about his life and business interests. One of the latter was taking over the ‘shipwright and engineering department’ from the P&O Steamship Company in 1854. I can […]
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