York Lo: Ruby (紅寶石) – Restaurant Empire from the 1950s to 1980s Left: The fa pai of Ruby Restaurant in Causeway Bay at its opening in 1966; Right: Ruby’s ad promoting its Mother’s Day special featuring pigeons and fruit punch at all five of its locations in 1984 (WKYP, 1984-5-9) From the 1950s to the 1980s, Ruby was one of […]
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HF: It was never mined here. So this article is an initial attempt to put together what little we have about importing coal and how it was used in Hong Kong: transport, manufacturing, utilities, shipping, domestically…can you add to this article? I have also included charcoal and for general interest information about and images of China and Taiwan/Formosa on these […]
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York Lo: Kwong Sang Engineering (廣生機器廠) Left: Kwong Sang Engineering founder Ng Kai-lau (HK Pun U District Association, 1955); Right: Family of Kwong Sang founder Ng Kai-lau welcoming his fifth son Chung-yau (triangle) back from studies in the US in 1961. (KSDN, 1961-7-7) Kwong Sang Engineering was one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of ship machinery in Hong Kong […]
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IDJ sent the English version of what the piece calls Rat Boxes. Mak Ho Yin has kindly translated it. 「香港電燈公司和煤氣公司與老鼠箱關係密切，因為老鼠箱是掛在電燈柱上的。由於華人極為抗拒（滅鼠人員）進入私人住宅，政府於是鼓勵華人在殺死家中的老鼠後，將鼠屍放在就近的老鼠箱內，由衛生部門職員每日收集清理。老鼠箱掛在電燈柱一景，還衍生了一句香港獨有的俗語「電燈柱掛老鼠箱」，以形容夫妻二人中丈夫瘦削兼且二人身高矮懸殊。」 Ho Yin continues: This paragraph raised my curiosity on the topic of rat bins so apart from translating it I also did a quick check about its history. I have no memory of seeing them hanging at lamp-posts, and I […]
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York Lo: Mixing Concrete and Construction Equipment with Cantonese Opera and Wing Chun: the Wan family of Wai Hing and Modern For over six decades, the family of Wan Wai-yin has been supporting the construction industry in HK and beyond by supplying building materials and equipment such as gravel, concrete, timber, scaffolding and elevation platforms through various Wai Hing and […]
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York Lo: Lun Sang & Co (聯星建築) and The Pressure Piling Co (HK) Ltd (香港壓力打樁) Left: Lun Sang & Co founder Henry Luk Hing-yao (the spelling in the Chinese and English caption are inaccurate, a mix-up with the Malaysian Chinese millionaire/philanthropist Loke Yew); Center: ad for for Lun Sang and its affiliate Pressure Piling; Right: Luk Ping-sheung, second generation leader […]
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York Lo: Luks Industrial (陸氏實業) – Maker of Etron TV Left: Luks founder Luk King-tin (Capital, 1990); Right: logo of Etron TV from a 1988 TV ad in HK listing Luks as its manufacturer and Yin Kin Ltd as its distributors and being available in the Sheung Wan, Yaumatei and Mongkok branch of Wing On (VCRBase) A history of television […]
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HF: Our article, A Brief History of Hong Kong Cinema to 1988 – Film Studios and Personalities states that in 1913, the American, Benjamin Brosky and Li Minwei co-founded HK’s first film studio, Huamei (Chinese-American). [Brosky appears to have been actually called Brodsky but has also been written about as Brasky and Polasky.] Here is a brief biography of Brodsky. […]
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York Lo: Far East Candle Works (遠東燭業) and Ki Yip Chemical Works (基業化工廠) Article about Far East Candle & Chemical Works’ booth at the 1964 HK Products Expo with a picture of its products in its booth (KSEN, 1964-12-28) Earlier in the group, we have covered Mark V, the HK-based affiliate of US retail chain Cost Plus Bazaar which was […]
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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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