Production of cans, preserved gingers and soy sauce.
The iron used to make Amoy’s cans was ordered and imported from overseas with vessels divided into half-pound, one-pound and five-pound variants. The cut iron plates were fed into the machines to undergo processes known as flanging, lidding and pressure leak testing. Afterwards, empty cans were stored in warehouses. While half-pound and one-pound cans were manufactured by fully automated machines, the five-pound cans had to be processed manually. Amoy was the first company in Hong Kong to produce canned dace with salted black beans. Wong Wing Man thought that Amoy’s canned dace with salted black beans tasted delicious and gave off a mouthwatering aroma when deep-fried with lard and Amoy’s salted black beans. After relocating its plant from Ngau Tau Kok to Tsuen Wan, Amoy began buying cans from Singapore rather than making the containers itself. As a result, the company eventually ceased production of cans for dace with salted black beans. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Amoy produced a wide variety of canned foods including pigs’ trotters with ginger, shark’s fin, minced fish, longans, lychees, pickled shallots, bamboo shoots, mixed vegetables, dace with salted black beans, salted black beans, miso and pickled cucumbers. The white cucumbers used to make this last delicacy were imported from China before being preserved by male and female casual staff working overtime shifts. Different kinds of food were either canned manually or by machines in the pickle room and then sent to another department for vacuum sterilisation and capping by machines. Female workers in the pickle room canned the food while their male colleagues transported the goods. Amoy’s canned food was not only sold locally but also exported overseas. Amoy’s preserved gingers were very expensive and so tended to be exported. Preserved gingers were made of ginger cubes which were divided into wet and dry piles and graded according to size. All gingers used were imported from China. After the raw gingers were peeled manually by the female workers, they were preserved in a big pool with salt. Technicians had their own secret recipe for making preserved gingers, often testing the temperature of the sugar being heated with their bare hands before adding the ginger cubes. Employees’ first step in making soy sauce was to soak soya beans in water during the day and then pick them up and leave them in the hall before clocking off and heading home. At around 5 to 6 a.m. the next morning, the beans would be steamed in an oven. The cooked beans were then placed on the floor to cool, ploughed loose, mixed with flour, fermented and then left to get mildewed. The male workers took charge of these steps while their female colleagues hard-pressed the remains of the beans to help them dehydrate. The technicians making soy sauce also had their secret techniques. To this end, they often sprayed the beans with fluid to reduce the temperature or turned up the oven to increase the heat according to the demands of the fermentation process. Between the 1940s and the 1950s, Amoy’s boss was a native of Fujian. As a result most of the company’s male workforce was predominantly made up of Fujianese people mixed with a few locals or migrants from Chaozhou. Surprisingly, there were very few female workers from Fujian.
Raw Material Suppliers and Factory Owners in the Beginning Stage of Plastic Manufacturing Industry
When Lam was an employee at Yuen Hing Hong Co. Ltd., the company expanded on its raw plastic material business, acting as an agent for importers from Britain, USA, Germany and Italy, from whom he bought and resold plastic materials to local factories. Lam once conducted a research for information about American plastic firms such as Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Rohm and Haas, and Du Pontetc. In those days, Yuen Hing Hong used to represent British companies like Distiller Plastic Groups, Imperial Chemicals Industries, Saro (High Impact Polystyrene Sheet), and British Celanese (Cellulose Acetate). Simultaneously, Yuen Hing Hong was an agent for Styrene Hair, which was artificial hair made of Styrene for toy dolls, and for nylon, which was used to make toothbrushes. In 1960, Lam was invited by Distiller Plastic Groups to go on training in the UK. Larger companies such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical had appointed their agents in Hong Kong from early on. From 1947, some small-scale plastic factories in Hong Kong had been buying raw materials via Yuen Hing Hong to produce spoons, small bowls, combs, dolls, and imitation jewellery targeted markets in Southeast Asia. Yuen Hing Hong once sold perspex sheets to a mahjong factory on Wellington Street. Perspex sheet was a kind of plastic materials that were used to produce mahjong tiles, signs, lampshades, lamps, and umbrella handles. Winsome Plastic Works used to make sign stands which can be placed on reception desks. In the post-war period, major plastics works in Hong Kong were founded by wealthy Shanghainese industrialists, including Kader, Chong Yuen, Far East Plastic, Perfekta and Po Yuen initially produced toothbrushes. Early suppliers of plastic materials were Chinachem, Wo Foo Plastics, Tins Chemical and Wah Sun Hong etc. Chinachem was an agent for an American material called ‘US Chemical High Density Polyethylene 666’, while Wo Foo Plastics and Tins Chemical focused on making PVC materials. H.C. Chieng, a plastic tycoon who ran factories in Shanghai, moved to Hong Kong in 1946/47 and openedChong Yuen on Tam Kung Road, To Kwa Wan, making daily products such as plates and hangers.
Upbringing, Family Background and the Start-up of Pak Fah Yeow
Gan Wee Sean was born in Penang in 1946. His grandfather was born in China and his grandmother was born in Singapore. Gan’s grandfather started the Pak Fah Yeow business in 1927. The business was started in the same premise where the family was living in Penang. The place was rented at a low rate. The formula of Pak Fah Yeow was initially intended for uses among family and friends only, but as it grew popular among the people, Gan’s grandfather turned it into business. The sales expanded in Malaysia and later to Singapore. In the 1950s, as Gan’s grandfather saw the potential of the Chinese market, he moved the operations to Hong Kong because of her proximity to China. The company was registered in Penang as a private company. Together with the trademark, they were named after Gan’s grandmother as Hoe Hin . At first she was the sole proprietor of the trademark but she later sold it to the company. Gan’s grandfather used to tell a story of a German professor giving him the formula of Pak Fah Yeow, but Gan believed that the formula should have come from his grandmother’s or great grandmother’s side. Like other medicated oils, Gan believed the formula originated in Malaysia and was not likely to have derived from Chinese medicine.
The Operation of Pak Fah Yeow at early stage: manual production, simple instrument, family workers
The earliest manufacture of Pak Fah Yeow was purely manual. Around 10-20 workers sat around a long table, and a few hundred dozens of bottles were produced in a week. Menthol crystals and camphor tablets were broken into smaller pieces and put into big wine jugs, dissolved in oil and then mixed and shaken by hand. Then the oil was sucked up and filled into small glass bottles using injection syringes. The paper package boxes were folded and glued by hands. Until today the shape of the bottles used at that time remained unchanged. When Gan was in primary school, he helped out as a small boy after finishing schoolwork. The operation was on home-made scale and did not demand much skill. Workers were mainly family and relatives. Most were women workers, while male workers mainly did the heavy work.
Continued development of Pak Fah Yeow: Expansion of sales to Singapore, building up brand image in Hong Kon...
Before the operations were moved to Hong Kong, the factory had been in Penang only. Products were shipped to Singapore for sale. The factory in Hong Kong was first started in King’s Road, which was later moved on to Electric Road and subsequently to Hennessy Centre above the former Chinese Emporium. The place was later sold to the emporium and the factory was moved to Zung Fu Industrial Building in Quarry Bay. Gan also started a branch factory at Westlands Garden at Quarry Bay to guarantee continuous production in case accidents like fire or water suspension might jeopardize the whole production and the company couldn’t afford it. Yet later the government reclaimed the land of Westlands Garden for development. Both operations at Quarry Bay were then sold and merged into one operation in Paramount Building at Chai Wan. Gan’s grandfather worked much on building up the brand image in Hong Kong. He joined the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association and actively participated in the past product exhibitions. He engaged movie actresses to promote the product and did a lot of outdoor promotion. In the old days, people could sell a product on the street by performing Kung Fu strokes. Gan believed that for a product to be successful, marketing strategies, adequate pricing and the effectiveness of the medicine were equally important factors.
The beginning of Hong Kong batter industry: major factories founded before the war and their products
In pre-war Hong Kong, major battery factories were Hing Wah (Brand: Five Ram), Kai It (Brand: Bright Night) and Yong Gu (Brand: Flying Elephant). They were operated by families on rented residential units on the ground floor for production. In pre-war Hong Kong, productions were mainly operated manually, and since the end of the World War II, the machines used for military productions in Germany were left idle. A large quantity of these machines were introduced into Hong Kong factories, which had enabled the semi-automation of the production processes, for example, the making of zinc shells and carbon rods by molding machines. Batteries were wrapped with paper tubes in the early years and the packaging itself involved multiple manual procedures. These German machines were initially confidential in Hong Kong and the battery plants were required to spare separate rooms where the machines were installed for production. Only production staff were permitted entry into these rooms. Panansonic in Japan applied full automation in production in an earlier stage and was a pioneer in the industry. Hing Wah and Kai It continued with production during the war and expanded their businesses. Hing Wah's factory was in Tai Kok Tsui (relocated to To Kwa Wan in 1951) while Kai It's factory was also in To Kwa Wan. Yong Gu used to run a factory in Shanghai before the World War II and moved the factory from Hong Kong to Taiwan after 1949. During the 1960s, someone surnamed Ding set up Colliers Battery Factory in Sam Ka Tsuen and registered the trademark "HW", an initial identical with Hing Wah. Thus, people always thought the "HW" brand was produced by Hing Wah. Large scale manufacturers in the same period included Gold Peak and Golden Power. Gold Peak at first manufactured 9W batteries to be used in lighters in Hong Kong. It had been temporarily relocated to Taiwan and then back to Hong Kong, in Kwai Chung. The factory produced cascaded batteries. The founder of Golden Power, Mr Chan, was a former employee of Gold Peak. He then started up his business at Ting Kok Road, Tai Po, producing cascaded batteries. He switched to doing electronic business afterwards.
History of the textile industry in Post-War Hong Kong. Pioneers of Hong Kong textile industry.
Hong Kong's textile industry first started with mainly weaving factories, as the technology required was introduced here quite early. Dyeing technology also had a significant impact on textile industry. The progress made in chemical dye technology also drove the Hong Kong textile industry to change. In the earlier days, chemical dyes were imported from Europe. Yu Kam Kei's Cheung Wah Ho Dyestuffs Company and another agent Wing Wah Company were in the business of importing dyes and they made considerable profits. After the war, spinning became the major component of the local textile industry.During the 1940s, many Shanghainese entrepreneurs moved to Hong Kong after the liberation of China.They contributed to the development of the spinning industry here.Nan Fung Mill was such example. The company owned a lot of land for its factories. It later on became a listed company as a property developer. Other pioneers in the spinning business were TAL Group's Li Zhen Zhi; Winsor Industrial's Chou Wen Hsien and Peninsula Knitters Ltd's Tang Hsiang Chien. Pioneers in weaving were Lim Por-Yen of Lai Sun Garment which was in weaving and his wife U Po-chu's Bo Ngai Company which was in knitting business; Yangtzekiang Garment Ltd's Chan Sui-kau who started his company with weaving and knitting, and Esquel Group's Yang Yuan Lung who started at TAL Group but later developed his own business. And those in knitting were Law's Textile Industrial Ltd's Law Ting Pong who was in knitwear and knitting; Lap Shun Textiles's Law Siu Lun; Unison Knitting Factory's Ng Chong and Unitex Ltd's Chan Fok Hei.
Local knitting factories and knitting machinery factories in early post-war period
Au Kwan Cheung recalled that established before World War II and respectively producing the Chicks, 555 and Cicada singlet brands, the Chun Au, Chuen Sun and Lee Kung Man knitting factories were Hong Kong’s biggest brands at that time. As these were large-scale knitting factories which adopted a one-stop production mode, smaller squatter knitting factories had little chance of taking their orders. These long-established knitting factories imported high-quality cotton yarns from overseas and produced expensive knitted garments such as sweaters on old-type knitting equipment known as Granville Yankee machine. These factories seldom bought cloth from squatter factories to produce their brands. Most small local knitting factories only emerged after World War II. Many manufacturers came to Hong Kong from Guangzhou where they had specialised in knitting mass market mid- and low-end fabrics. Ultimately, only the long-established large factories could supply high-quality fabrics. Au Kwan Cheung’s father and his business friends were amongst the first manufacturers to run knitting factories in Hong Kong. As knitting machines occupied a small space, a 1,000-square-foot plant could accommodate two or three machines. Since weaving factories needed much more space, they were seldom operated in home factory style but mainly by manufacturers from Shanghai. Two notable early knitting machinery factories in Hong Kong were Fook Yuen and Tak Shing. Both of them were run by friends of Au Kwan Cheung’s father. Wah Luen and Wah Hing who came into the market at a later stage produced higher quality machines. Today, local machinery factories repair machines but no longer make them. In those days, most knitting masters began as apprentices because technical schools’ textile departments did not teach knitting technology. Au Kwan Cheung believed that one would find it easy to learn knitting technology but hard to be a skilled master as one needed to be a talent of machine.
The founding of Winsome Plastic Works
After joining Yuen Hing Hong, Lam Leung recommended his boss, Mr. Yeung, to set up a plastic factory. In those days, people from Mainland China would come to Hong Kong to purchase plastic sheets, which they made into set squares. Lam was inspired by this trend and suggested his boss to open a factory to make photo frames, as they were simple and easy to manufacture. The manufacturing procedures are as follows: 1) Crop the plastic sheets using a manual circular saw2) Deburr the sheets using manual polisher3) Glue the sheets and the photo stands together using chloroform 4) Put corrugated fiberboards at the back of the stands. The whole procedures did not require any machinery. By selling plastic sheets, Yuen Hing Hong could only get a 7% to 10% profit margin, so they ran their own photo frame factory to improve profitability. Lam helped his boss coordinated the opening of the factory, naming it Winsome Plastic Works. The factory was located in rented space on the ground floor of an old building on 93 Hennessey Road. Lam himself moved into the penthouse of the shop as his residence.
The Transformation of Fowind’s Toy Products
Lam Leung believed that impetus for Hong Kong’s manufacturers to develop new products depended on their relationship with clients and their receptiveness of product diversity. If a client committed to long-term orders, the manufacturers would be more willing to invest in innovative product development. The toys of Fowind changed along with the changing market tastes. At the beginning, Lam focused on plastic daily goods, but he switched to doll costumes, and toy cars that were made of aluminium alloy. In 1972, they began to produce electronic toys. Fowind had diverse product lines. Lam believed human resource was imperative to product development. Fowind established a research department in 2000, hiring graduates of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to do materials testing and introduce innovative ideas for product development. Overseas clients were mostly concerned about product safety. Giant retailers such as Wal-Mart would send representatives to the factory site and check the products, although they were not direct clients ofFowind. The International Council of Toy Industries was the international organisation governing the industry. It would blacklist manufacturers who had malpractices. Every country had its own safety standard over raw materials, regulating, for instance, the amount of lead content in paint. Fowind was aware of complying with each set of standard of different markets. For that, they needed employees who had knowledge of the safety standards of various importing countries.
