York Lo: Chow Yau (周有, 1912-1983) – Vertical Integrator of the HK Death Care Industry With over 45,000 deaths per year, the death care industry is a huge business in Hong Kong. While many Chinese articles have covered Siu Ming, the king of funeral homes who monopolized the business in the 1960s and early 1970s, little has been written about […]
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Our article, G Falconer & Company, Watchmakers & Jewellers, mentions that Falconer were the HK agent for Ross Optical Ltd, Clapham, London. The following information and images about Ross come from the excellent Grace’s Guide website, linked below. Ross of Optical Works, 3 North Side, Clapham Common, London, SW4 (1922) Ditto Address. Telephone: Battersea 3876-7. Cables: “Rossicaste, Phone, London”. (1929) […]
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York Lo: Kun Wing Fook Medicine Co. (靳永福藥廠) and “Coconut Tree” brand carminative oil (椰樹牌驅風油) Left: Kun Wing Fook booth at the 1971-72 HK Products Expo (HK Memory); Right: article and picture of Kun Wing Fook booth at the 1959 HK Products Expo featuring a tree with coconuts imported from Singapore (TKP, 1959-12-6) Kun Wing Fook Medicine Co, best known […]
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York Lo: South China Tea Corporation (華南茶業) and “Cocktail Tea” (鷄尾茶) Left: Outdoor advertising for South China Tea’s “Cocktail” covering the building which housed the Mayfair Studio in Kowloon (likely 3 Saigon Street); Right: a South China Tea Corp’s “China Beauty” Chinese green tea tin (Worthpoint) While the family of Southeast Asian tycoon Eu Tong-sen might be best known in […]
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York Lo: Shui Hwa Watch (瑞華表行) Ad of Shui Hwa Watch in 1977 listing all the brands it was sole agent of (WKYP HK Yearbook, 1977) From the 1950s to the 1980s, Shui Hwa Watch was one of the leading watch dealers in Hong Kong, best known for being the sole agents for famous Swiss brands such as Piaget (伯爵表, […]
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York Lo: Chow Deuk Sang and Aurora Chow When it comes to prominent HK jewelers with the surname Chow, the first two that comes to most people’s mind are Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang, which also happens to be the top two chains by the number of stores. From the 1940s to the 1960s, there were two other […]
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York Lo: Fotoprint Service (浮圖攝影) Fotoprint on Stanley Street in 1959 on the right next to Mow Kie Ladies Tailor (ABC); Right: Fotoprint on D’Aguilar Street in 1965. (Gwulo) Fotoprint Service was a prominent distributor of photo supplies and provider of photofinishing service from the 1940s to the 1980s alongside several of the firms covered earlier such as Asia Photo […]
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IDJ: The majority of engineering projects of all types generally evolve from an idea, to a sketch and move through stages to become physical models that can be discussed, commented on and hopefully approved. These can stretch from major civil engineering projects such as the airport and its infrastructure all the way through to designs for small manufactured consumer goods. The […]
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York Lo: Kowloon Confectionery & Bakery Co (九龍糖果公司) “Eat More Bread” ad for Kowloon Confectionery in 1941 (A Century of Commerce) The Kowloon Confectionery & Bakery Co was one of leading confectionery firms and bakeries in Hong Kong from the 1920s to the 1960s but has since faded into history. Sam Shong-won (岑崇運, 1895-1969), the founder of Kowloon Confectionery, went […]
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York Lo: Edmond Ip (葉榮昌): Industrialist, Community Leader and Fugitive Left: Edmond Ip (HK Scouting Gazette, 1970); Right: article about the arrest of Edmond Ip in 1977 when he returned to Hong Kong from Taiwan (WKYP, 1977-5-22) In August 1971, shockwaves were sent across Hong Kong when Edmond Ip Wing-cheong, the 41 years old industrialist and community leader suddenly disappeared. […]
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