York Lo: Samuel Gee Yen (嚴欣淇) and East Sun Textile(怡生紗廠) Left: Bio and picture of Samuel Gee Yen in 1948. Source: 實業界名人錄(1948); Right: picture of Samuel Yen before boarding CAT plane to Taiwan to visit his relatives in 1959 (WKYP, 1959-8-24) Founded in April 1949 by Samuel Gee Yen (aka Shing-Gee Yen 嚴申耆,1906-1984), East Sun Textile was one of the […]
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Swire’s story begins with a young man setting off to seek his fortune as a result of family bankruptcy. While this is not a classic rags-to-riches tale, resilience in the face of adversity was a characteristic that was to stand the firm he founded in good stead on more than one occasion over the following 200 years. The founder of […]
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York Lo: Makers of Preserved Fruits – Wong Wing Kee, Lee Wah Mui, Hing Ah, Lee Sin Kee, Yam Hop Hing and Koon Wah I wrote an article earlier on the website about the “Five Treasures” of the HK sauce industry. Another traditional Chinese food product industry which is closely associated with sauce is preserved fruit (eg. Dried plums) as […]
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York Lo: Po Chai Lemonin (普濟檸檬精) Left: “Lemon King” Chan Shiu-chuen; Right: Po Chai Lemonin ad Founded in Canton in the early 1920s by Chan Shiu-chuen (陳少泉, 1903-1968) and moved to HK in the late 1940s, Po Chai Drug Co (普濟藥行) was best known for its Lemonin – a popular pain killer medicine across China and Southeast Asia from […]
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I would like to thank David Bellis for reminding me about the book: “City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City” Girard G. and Lambot I. Watermark ,1993 The following article draws heavily on this book which may still be available in bookshops and is certainly to be found in HK Public Libraries (915.25 GIR). The book contains an undated […]
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York Lo: Fung Yuen-hon (馮元侃) and Wai Yuen Cheong (惠元昌) Left: Fung Yuen-hon in front of the Wai Yuen Cheong sign (HKET); Right: Shaolin Temple brand medicine label – address listed as 42A Bonham Strand West and stating that pregnant ladies should avoid consuming. In 2014, the 96 years old Fung Yuen-hon (馮元侃) decided to shut down Wai Yuen Cheong, the […]
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York Lo is researching L. R. Nielson of HK Mines which ran the Lin Ma Hang mine before WWII. York noticed in the Indhhk article about the mine, see below, that he re-visited the mines in the mid 1950s though there is conflicting information on the Web that he died or went missing during the War. York says he has found one […]
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The following article was written by Christopher Munn and published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. The publisher, HK University Press, and Christopher have both given permission for this to be posted here. Christopher co-authored the article with Sooni Shroff-Gander. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. Dent, Lancelot b. 1799 Westmoreland, England d.1853 Cheltenham, England. Merchant Dent, […]
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HF: Tymon Mellor’s article, Sha Lo Wan Mine, includes, “A local company, The Bank Line (China) Ltd was interested in production of the ore for shipment to Japan, through Andrew Weir & Co, a local “reputable firm” as advised by the superintendent of Mines in a memo dated 7th January, 1953.” Further research led to our article, Andrew Weir Shipping and Trading […]
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At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, 106 years ago today, the British ocean liner Titanic sank into the North Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The massive ship, which carried 2,200 passengers and crew, had struck an iceberg two and half hours before. “Eight Chinese men were among the 2,200 people on board the RMS Titanic. Six […]
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