Chan Wing Kee

Biography Highlights Records Photos & Documents
Family Background of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Family Migration and its’ crests and troughs
W.K. Chan was a second-generation manager of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. His grandfather or earlier forebears were already involved in the drapery. The Chans were native to Dongguan, Guangdong. They built up a career in their hometown by sun-baking rust-coloured summer silk, a common fabric used for the clothes worn by Cantonese women. By the Early Republican Period, the Chans had already risen to affluence. Due to the frequent outbreaks of wars in the countryside, they moved to Shunde and Guangzhou successively. WK Chan’s grandfather died early, and his father Chan Sui Wai took over the family business at the age of about 17. Chan Sui Wai’s younger brothers Chan Sui Kau and Chan Sui Hung were still very young then. In wartimes, Chan Sui Wai and his family took refuge in Macau, a neutral place. He shipped rice from places including Zhongshan and Jiangmen to Macau on two motor sampans for a living. As peace was restored, different countries from the Allied Forces sent representatives to Japan for negotiations. China’s military delegation was headed by Ho Shai Lai. Taking advantage of his acquaintance with Ho Shai Lai, Chan Sui Wai decided to go into business in Japan. He set up Datong Company in Tokyo and traded in cotton prints. He bought cotton prints in Japan and resold them to Hong Kong, the Mainland and South East Asia, and was hence nicknamed ‘Cotton Prints Chan’. In the first few years of the post-war period, Chan Sui Wai commuted among Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Tokyo and other places for business. Besides purchasing of cotton prints from Japan, he applied for a rice license from the relevant authority in Hong Kong, which allowed him to import rice from Thailand for sale in Hong Kong. In those years rice was a strategic resource in Hong Kong. The government required a certain store of rice in the city to stabilise the sentiment of the public. Therefore, rice selling was a business that required a large capital. 

WK Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1947. His home was a western styled house with garden in Tung Shan Terrace in Happy Valley. He had a refreshed memory about the luxury house, outside which he used to play slugs and bats in his childhood. In 1949 his uncle Chan Sui Kau set up Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs, one of the scarce garment manufacturing companies being set up prior to China’s liberation. The garment manufacturing was a low-capital industry. After 1949 most of the factory owners were Cantonese. Those factory owners who had moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai set up spinners which required a larger capital. Both Datong Company and Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs were family businesses that belonged to a clan organisation called Yu Hing Tong. As the Korean War broke out, the price of cotton prints plummeted, which devastated Chan Sui Wai’s business and forced him to give up his Hong Kong licence for rice dealers and transfer it to Yee Wo Loong of the Yangs. Chan Sui Wai went into trade in Thailand instead. Having fallen into a plight, WK Chan’s family moved to Fort Street and Kai Yuen Terrace in North Point successively. Their new residence became smaller and smaller. When in Kai Yuen Terrace, the old and new generations of the families of the two Chan brothers lived together. There were over a dozen children in the house then. WK Chan had been through all the crests and troughs of the family. He heard about his father’s stories from Mong Man Wai, Lambert Kwok and other seniors.



Title Family Background of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Family Migration and its’ crests and troughs
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 19m1s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-001
Family and Education Background, Starting his career
Chan Sui Wai had 6 children with WK Chan being the fourth eldest. Chan Sui Wai travelled around doing businesses all year round. His mother told his wife to accompany him wherever he went in consideration of his unsound health. As a result, WK Chan rarely saw his parents and he was taken care of by his grandmother. The Chans’ businesses and their family members scattered in different areas, which was a common occurrence for the families of Hong Kong businessmen. In the early post-war period, local Chinese businessmen were active mainly around Sheung Wan and Sai wan, while western businessmen prevailed in Central. Li & Fung Limited was the only Chinese company running in Central. Datong Company of the Chans was located at Jervois Street in Sheung Wan, where Kwok Tak Seng, Lee Sui Kei and Fung King Hei also did businesses in that period. The three of them co-founded Sun Hung Kai Properties afterwards. In his early years of business, Kwok Tak Seng traded in Chinese and foreign sundries and sold goods such as YKK zippers and cotton prints. The cotton prints were supplied by Datong Company. 

WK Chan had studied in Hong Kong since he was small. He attended kindergarten and primary school at Shek Kong Primary School at Tanner Road at North Point. When in Primary 4, he was outraged at being ordered to repeat, he went to Ling Ying College to study Primary 5. Hong Gao Huang was the principal of Ling Ying. Unfortunately he had to repeat Primary 6 at Henrietta Secondary School which was located at Park Road. Seeing his need to repeat again, WK Chan’s grandmother hired a teacher of Dongguan origin to give him and his elder brother home tuition on the subject of Chinese. That teacher was also teacher of Chan Sui Wai. The private teacher had taught WK Chan a great deal of principles of dealing with the world around him. Upon graduation from primary school, he stayed in Henrietta Secondary School for secondary education. He had a girlfriend in junior secondary school. His studies had turned to the better since he was driven by love. This was the first turning point of his life.
When WK Chan was studying Secondary 4, his father wanted his younger brother to go to Thailand to be his company. WK Chan requested to go to Thailand alongside his youngest brother, taking into consideration that he could barely get into The University of Hong Kong due to his education at a Chinese-medium secondary school, and that the English language would also hinder him from studying overseas. His father granted him his wish to go to Thailand. The two brothers were arranged to study at an international school. This marked the second turning point of WK Chan’s life. Having finished his high school education in Thailand, WK Chan furthered his studies in the USA. He studied industrial engineering out of his determination to assist with the family’s factory. Businesses of the Chans scattered in three different places. A garment factory ran in Hong Kong. A bamboo curtain factory ran in Thailand. And a hemp bag factory ran in Taiwan. In 1968 Chan Sui wai suffered from heart diseases and strokes, and so sold out his business in Thailand and returned to Hong Kong to restore his health. While studying overseas, WK Chan returned to Hong Kong in every summer vacation to do heavy work in the garment factory, for example such as moving and measuring fabrics. He was thus familiarised with the operations of the factory plant. Upon graduation from university, he firstly went into internship at a US sewing machine company, learning to repair machines. In 1970 he returned to Hong Kong and joined Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs as the manager of the Shirt Department.



Title Family and Education Background, Starting his career
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 16m13s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-002
Plant expansion of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Division of labour among the family members
WK Chan joined Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs Company on 10 October 1970 as the manager of the Shirt Department, being held in charge of shirt production. In the early 1970s, the family had only one company, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Chan Sui Kau’s eldest son joined it as early as in 1969, acting as the assistant to his uncle Chan Sui Hung (editor’s note: that is the elder brother of Chan Sui Wai and Chan Sui Kau) in the Sales Department. He was later transferred to a plant in Singapore. Then Chan Sui Kau’s second eldest son was also transferred to the plant in Singapore. After that WK Chan’s youngest brother also joined the company. He was the first PhD of Chan Sui Wai’s family. WK Chan’s younger sister was the first Master, while he himself was the first Bachelor. Later the family’s company was broken down into three parts, namely YGM Garment, YGM Trading and other businesses. YGM Trading primarily dealt with branding business, and was now managed by Chan Wing Fui, Chan Wing To and Chan Sui Kau’s eldest daughter. In the 1960s, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs was already relocated in San Po Kong. This main plant at 22 Tai Yau Street was completed in 1966 and came with Trousers Department and Suit Department. The company subsequently set up a plant as the Shirt Department at 18 Ng Fong Street. In mid 1970s, the company expanded the main plant by purchasing the neighbouring site at 24 Tai Yau Street. Besides, the Chan family had already founded Fabrica de Artigos de Vestuario in Macau by the 1950s. It produced mainly shirts to be exported to Portuguese lands with tax premiums. In the early 1970s, when Hong Kong-made garments faced import quotas, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs increased productions of the Macau plant and sent WK Chan over there to take charge of the plant. Fabrica de Artigos de Vestuario was quite a sizable garment manufacturing factory in post-war Macau. Others included a trousers factory set up by family of Francis Tam Pak Yuen and a knitter factory co-founded by Chao Kuang Piu and Chow Man Hin.


Title Plant expansion of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Division of labour among the family members
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 8m52s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-003
Participation in Asian-European textile. Intriguing experiences of setting up plants in undevelop...
In the 1970s, Europe and the USA imposed import quotas on Asian garments. Faced with the impacts on trade caused by quotas, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs increased the production of high-end garments and exported suits, which were not restricted by the quota system. At the same time they set up plants in countries unrestricted by quotas. Since the 1970s, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs had set up plants in Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Lesotho, etc. The Chan family had their members stationed in different plants for management. Whenever a quota negotiation was initiated between an Asian and a European country, all the family members would seize the chance to participate in the international trading conference as a consultant for the country they were stationed in. WK Chan jokingly said that the quota negotiations were but their family meetings. In the early 1980s, a conference was convened in Brussels, which Chan Sui Kau, Chan Wing Kee and Chan Wing To attended on behalf of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore/Malaysia respectively. Cheng Wai Chee and Cheng Wai Keung from Wintech Textiles Ltd. also attended as representatives of Hong Kong and Singapore/Malaysia respectively. In those days many of the manufacturers were Shanghaies who loved hairy crabs. Hairy crabs were then introduced in Brussels. The quota problem had been relieved since WTO replaced GATT in the early 1990s, the latter of which was a conference organization in the period from the 1970s and 1980s. 

Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs’ prime concerns were transport network, labour supply and transparency of the legal system when setting plants outside Hong Kong. Given that Hong Kong was a British colony, it preferred setting up plants in areas with much US or British influence to take advantage of their parallel and comprehensible legal systems. They once invested in former British colonies such as Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, and visited Central South America, which was under US control, to conduct inspections. The company gathered investment information from different agents such as TDC, KPMG and British banks. Banks played a particularly important role for them. For instance, assistance was rendered by British banks when the company set up plants in Bangladesh. Thanks to British colonisation, British banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank had extensive networks in British colonies or overseas territories. They could refer potential local partners to Hong Kong manufacturers, which, upon successful referrals, brought tremendous businesses to the banks. To WK Chan, TDC was important for the company in expanding their business. An expatriate staff member of TDC’s Italy office had been employed by Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. He had worked in Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs’s office in Italy and their plant in Sri Lanka. 

WK Chan once looked for sites for setting up plants for the company all around the world. Many undeveloped countries became his eye-openers. He said that such experiences were intriguing and memorable ones. He once travelled to India for negotiations on plant setup, and was planning to have an inspection in a small town on the Indian-Pakistani border called Lydia. On the way, he stayed overnight in a small town called Bujj, where city walls were still erected. The inn he stayed in had a stable on the ground floor. WK Chan sighed that it was like going back to the times of the Bible to do business in remote towns. In the 1980s, he went for an inspection in Costa Rica. Her neighbouring country, Nicaragua, was suffering from a civil war. Leftist guerrilla groups were everywhere and WK Chan was constantly threatened by kidnapping. He had had all sorts of hardships when setting up plants in Mainland. At that time, the Chan family were already running a plant in Taiwan. They did not want the Taiwanese authorities to smell their investments in Mainland. So, WK Chan had to first leave Hong Kong for Macau, where he crossed the border onto the Mainland and arrived at Wuxi via Guangzhou and Shanghai. The roundabout single trip took 3 nights and 4 days, which was the same for the return trip. Transport in Mainland was undeveloped in the early years. Even a trip to attend the Canton Fair (China Import and Export Fair) in Guangzhou would mean exhausting travelling and poor living conditions. He missed Shiqi’s and Daliang’s delicacies though. The trips he made in his young days were his sweetest memories.



Title Participation in Asian-European textile. Intriguing experiences of setting up plants in undeveloped regions
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 18m46s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-004
Hong Kong delegates in international textile quota conferences
Between the 1970s and 1980s, the Hong Kong government had sent delegates to sit in different international business conferences and negotiate with the European Union and USA on textile quotas. The delegates were headed by Deputy Director-General of Commerce and Industry Department, who was Chief Negotiator. In those years Director-General of Commerce and Industry Department was a senior official of the same rank as today’s department secretaries. Commerce and Industry Department answered to the three Secretaries of the Hong Kong government. Both the director and deputy-director posts were taken up by westerners. WK Chan was most impressed by Lawrence William Robert as a leader of the delegates. Lawrence William Robert was Chairman of TDC afterwards. WK Chan regarded Commerce and Industry Department as a cradle of senior officials. Many political stars were once deputy-directors of Commerce and Industry Department, for example, Donald Tsang, Regina Ip, John Tsang, Michael Sze and Chan Cho Chak. 

When Commerce and Industry Department went for negotiations, members of Textile Advisory Board (TAB) were also invited to the meetings to provide immediate advice. TAB members were appointed by the government. They came from both the industrial and commercial sectors as the quotas were allotted to trading companies and textile factories in equal halves. One of the more famous members of the commercial field was Lydia Selina Dunn, representative of the Swire Group. She later held office in Legislative Council and Executive Council. She even became a member of House of Lords, thanks to Mrs Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Early TAB members representing the industrial field included YL Yang, Jack Tang, Henry Tang, SKChan, WK Chan, Francis Tien, James Tien, Christopher Cheng, John Chow, Lam Kan Shing, Kenneth Fang, William Fung, Frank Lin, Willy Lin, Andrew Leung, Stephen Cheong, Eleanor Wong and others. TAB was the first consultant body of Hong Kong’s industrial field. It had exerted a huge influence on government policies between the 1960s and 1970s. Quite a number of the then TAB members were now influential figures. WK Chan once represented the Macau government in quota conferences in the early period. The Macau delegates comprised of Susana Chou, Francis Tam, Sammy Liu, Victor Ng and others. They were now the upper class of Macau. Some of the representatives of Macau’s industries were recommended by trade unions while some were appointed by the government.



Title Hong Kong delegates in international textile quota conferences
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 14m26s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-005
Role played by Hong Kong representatives in international textile quota conferences
Textile quota conferences were convened by Asian export countries and European/US import countries. Official were sent for negotiations by different governments. Manufacturers from the export countries stood by to give advice. The negotiations were held between countries. The Hong Kong delegates played a leading role among the Asian countries. Many Hong Kong manufacturers had plants in Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other places. Their representatives of the textile industry were mostly Hong Kong manufacturers. The quota conferences were in one way a meeting of Hong Kong’s textile families. WK Chan exalted colonial Hong Kong’s senior officials as outstanding negotiators. Examples included Tony Miller, Chan Cho Chak, Chau Tak Hay, Donald Tsang, Yue Chung Yee, Regina Ip. The Hong Kong government stuck to Bilateral Negotiation principles and demanded the USA comply to the GATT rather than bullying the Asian countries with her power, or else she should resign from GATT. Hong Kong’s senior officials made themselves equal to the US part. They once successfully turned down a request from US companies to inspect the factories in Hong Kong. The manufacturers acted as consultants during the negotiations. Many Hong Kong manufacturers had plants outside Hong Kong and were a good source of information for the government. WK Chan had high praise on the open-mindedness of Hong Kong officials. They followed the mainstream when collecting opinions and so managed to execute the final plan. In retrospect of the rise of Hong Kong’s textile industry after the WWII, WK Chan deemed the key factor to be the Chinese political turmoil. It caused an influx of capitals, skills and labours into Hong Kong, which formed the foundation of Hong Kong’s prosperity when circumstances arose.


Title Role played by Hong Kong representatives in international textile quota conferences
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 8m23s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-006
Downstream development prospect of Hong Kong Industry: Retailing and Branding
Hong Kong counted on the labour-intensive manufacturing industry for her success. The manufacturers rarely invested in high-tech research and development. Nowadays, given the rapid development of manufacturing engineering, the requirement for labours was significantly lowered. Apart from this, a globalised economy had caused capitals to flow to the most cost-effective regions. It would be difficult for Hong Kong to return to mass production, and any thought of reviving local manufacturing industry was deemed impractical. WK Chan stressed that manufacturing activities was not the whole of industry, which had a wide coverage from production of cottons to the retail of garments, as in the case of garment industry. He proposed that Hong Kong’s industry should dig deep down to the lower end with an accent on retail and brand development. Take the garment manufacturing industry as an example. Many local manufacturers tapped into the overseas market in recent years. For instance, KF Chao, Chao Kuang Piu’s son, marketed the Tommy Hilfiger brand, which exerted a rich western style, in the USA. By now the company already went public in the states. Their purchasing office was based in Hong Kong. The Chao family were the best example of Hong Kong manufacturers tapping into the US market. Esprit, a big fashion label in Germany, was jointly run by Hong Kong and Germany businessmen with Hong Kong as their purchasing base. Giordano, a famous Hong Kong brand, focused on Asia for marketing with headquarters in Hong Kong. YGM adopted a strategy of acquiring famous brand names. Few years ago, they bought Aquascutum, an old British brand, and promoted it in Mainland and South East Asia. WK Chan held the view that Hong Kong’s industry had transformed from manufacturing to service, the latter of which was still part of industry. He accented that companies of famous brands need not be headquartered in Hong Kong. Now many companies had moved their headquarters to the Mainland. Should this trend continue, Hong Kong’s future would be adversely affected.


Title Downstream development prospect of Hong Kong Industry: Retailing and Branding
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 12m23s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-007
Reviews and suggestions regarding Hong Kong Government’s role in industrial development
To WK Chan, at the peak of the Hong Kong industry, the government played a positive role. This could be seen mainly from land use. The government developed areas such as Kwun Tong and San Po Kong into industrial areas and built resettlement estates in the vicinity to supply the manufacturers with labour. Since the land was restricted to industrial use, it was cheaper and attracted many manufacturers to buy land for factory setup. On the other hand, the government built industrial buildings to be leased to smaller factory owners on cheaper rents. WK Chan lamented that Hong Kong was no longer led by administration but by the LegCo Council. The government became unable and her administration inefficient. Hong Kong was severely undermined by her internal strife. He criticized the Hong Kong government for her failure to put her large foreign currency reserve into good use, and her stubbornness in sticking to the ‘discreet financing’ principle. He suggested that the government should take Singapore as model, and invest her public capital globally. By so doing, not only stronger international influences could be gained, but also more job opportunities could be offered to her people. WK Chan thought that Hong Kong should take advantage of her traditional strengths as a logistics centre and financial hub, while her service and production centres should be strengthened.


Title Reviews and suggestions regarding Hong Kong Government’s role in industrial development
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 6m51s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-008
Development of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs prior to 1970s. Review on personal career
The founding of YGM coincided with the family’s failure of their cotton prints business, so the company had to start with a smaller size. The garment manufacturing industry was less demanding on capital. Many wealthy manufacturers from Shanghai invested in spinners, and were called ‘Shanghai Spinner Tycoons’. These were represented by Chen Din Hwa,Vincent Woo and TY Wong. Between the 1950s and 1960s YGM was in the growth stage and had limited capital. Accurate shipping scheduling and costing were key to the company’s survival. If goods failed to be shipped on schedule, the workers could not be paid, which threatened the company’s survival. WK Chan joined YGM in 1970 as the manager of the Shirt Department. He lamented over his failure to apply his professional skills to the management of the factory despite his background in Industrial Engineering. He could only reply on senior staff’s experience, which hindered the company from achieving scientific management and catching up with competitors like TAL Group and Tristate Holdings Ltd in production technology. 

In retrospect of his career that had lasted several decades, WK Chan deemed himself an industrialist. He was most proud of a successful shipment during the Spring Festival of 1971. In the beginning the staff felt desperate about fulfilling the production order on time. They still managed to catch up the schedule just in time under WK Chan’s endeavour. When the goods were about to be transported to the port for export, he was informed by his staff that the cargo ship was departing in two hours, which was too short for the goods to go on board. WK Chan was not willing to see his efforts in vain, and escorted the goods to Tsim Sha Tsui CargoTerminal (Today’s Ocean Terminal) by himself. At the very moment the Scandinavian cargo ship was just about to start off, WK Chan went aboard together with the goods and found a storeroom for the goods. He even instructed the Scandinavian sailors to move the goods. The goods eventually were shipped on schedule. WK Chan was subsequently complimented by Chan Sui Kau, who told him that the same strategy was adopted by their precedents in the old days, and that successful shipment was critical to the company’s survival. Fortunately the company had been on track by the 1970s. Payment of wages was not affected by delays in shipment. He was delighted at the recognition from his uncle.



Title Development of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs prior to 1970s. Review on personal career
Date 14/06/2011
Subject Industry
Duration 11m15s
Language Cantonese
Material Type Audio
Collection Oral History Archives
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-CWK-SEG-009