Cheng Chi Ping

Cheng Chi Ping was born in 1931 in Shanghai, and moved to Hong Kong in 1948. He studied at the Lingnan University in Guangzhou. Because of the Korean War, he could not finish his study and went back to Hong Kong. His father knew some textile industrialists from Shanghai, so Cheng also decided to join the business, and became a trainee at a weaving factory owned by a friend of his father. The factory was located at Castle Peak Road, just opposite to Hong Kong Spinners, operated by a textile industrialist from Shanghai. The factory would buy cotton yarns from Hong Kong Spinners, and then made woven twill. Its fabrics were sold in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the UK, etc, for the production of mainly khaki pants. The factory operated with day and night shifts. When Cheng was a trainee, he was on the job twelve hours a day. He learned how to operate the weaving machines and managed the workers from a foreman, and read books on textile during his free time.

After a year as a trainee, Cheng left the factory and went to Japan. As he wanted a career in the textile industry, he enrolled himself at the Kyoto Institute of Technology to study textile at its fibro-science faculty. Under a 4-year university programme there, Cheng studied general subjects including mathematics and history during the first two years. From Year Three onwards, he studied textile related subjects including fibro-mechanics and quality control, etc, with an emphasis on production technique. At that time, Japanese universities' textile courses were quite famous with a more comprehensive curriculum. Even silkworm farming and silk reeling were taught.

In 1959, Cheng graduated and returned to Hong Kong. The local textile industry was at its boom at that time. More spinners and textile factories were established, with as many as 34 spinners at one time. With the referral of his former boss, Cheng got a job as an administrator at Central Textiles (Hong Kong) Ltd. Central Spinners was the spinning division of Central Textiles. Cheng was assigned to the testing department (its quality control section now), and was responsible for the inspection of spun yarns and to learn the craft of spinning. The then factory director and engineer of Central Spinners were both from South Sea Textile Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The factory director and the engineer were once the engineer and supervisor of South Sea Textile respectively. They both had degrees in textile from universities in Shanghai. During the end of 1950s when Central Spinners was first established, its engineer had to oversee management technique and human resources, but not sales and marketing. When Cheng was a trainee, he followed the engineer and factory director to learn spinning and management. [Editor’s Note: Central Textiles (Hong Kong) Ltd first established its fabric business. Then in 1957 the company bought a piece of land in Tsuen Wan and built Central Spinners. Central Fabrics and Central Spinners were both operated under Central Textiles.]

Title	Education background and starting his career
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	15m4s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-001

Central Spinners was established by Central Textiles, and at its earlier stage it was a 5-storey factory on Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan. In 1957, Central Textiles started its plan to open a spinning division. In 1958, Central Spinners was in operation. To increase its productivity, Central Textiles bought a piece of reclaimed land in Tsuen Wan (i.e. 8 Sha Tsui Road). In 1962, Central Spinners and Central Fabrics were moved from Castle Peak Road to the new factory on Sha Tsui Road. Central Textiles was operating 24 hours a day. At first there were two shifts, each of 12 hours. Later it changed to three shifts, each of 8 hours. At the beginning, Central Fabrics made his products by weaving. When the second generation took over, knitting and dyeing were introduced with the set up of production and sales of knitted fabrics. Central Spinners bought cotton from India, Pakistan and US, and sold the yarns to local factories, and also to supply its own fabrics division. When Central Fabrics was established, it produced twill, khaki and greige fabrics for the export to UK and Southeast Asia. Later with combed cotton yarns it was able to produce water repellent fabrics for supplying to UK's rain coat factories.

Title	Central Textiles' factory, facilities and production in the 1950s
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	6m18s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-002

Central Textiles was founded by Vincent Woo. He started a small spinner in Shanghai before he moved to Hong Kong and started Central Fabrics, followed by Central Spinners. During that time, most of the spinners also ran fabrics factory, such as South Sea Textile and Nanyang Cotton Mill. Hong Kong Spinners was one of those that only had spinning as their sole business. Central Spinners started with a small factory. Its manpower and product quality could not compare with the bigger competitors. During the mid 1960s, Vincent Woo's son, Alex Woo, took over the business. Alex Woo studied in the UK when he was young. Later on he went to London University to study engineering. Under his father's request he also studied management. During 1967 to 1968, Alex Woo introduced knitting production and sales to the family business. At that time, Cheng Chi Ping was already promoted to supervisor. At its earlier stage, Central Textiles' management system was copied from that of Shanghai, with machines bought from Japan. Its products were selling under the Double Happiness brand. Central Textiles was able to follow what the market demanded and produced in mass certain products, such as Dacron fabrics.

From the late 1970s onwards, Cheng started to attend international fairs on textile machines to learn about the latest machines in the world. He also visited new spinning factories in Europe and began to buy the latest European spinning machines in the market. With new machines, Cheng was able to make new fabrics and cotton yarns to compete with manufacturers from Taiwan and Korea. From 1980s to 1990s, he took multiple trips to Japan and visited spinning factories there. He examined the process of producing elastic yarns and bought Japanese machines to improve on them. During the early 1990s, Central Spinners started to produce elastic yarns which were used to produce elastic denim. The company was the first among all spinners in Hong Kong which was able to produce elastic yarns. In retrospect, Cheng said the introduction of new machines enabled them to produce new yarns and fabrics. In 2005, Pat-Nie Woo, son of Alex Woo, joined the business. Pat-Nie Woo studied accounting and chemical engineering at the London University. From 2000s onwards, Central Textiles tightened its association with tertiary institutions, with the aim to research and develop new products, such as to improve the softness of cotton yarns.

For decades, Cheng was responsible for the production technique of Central Textiles. The management and technical team of Central Textiles came from different background. Some were graduated at local institutes, some studied textile related subjects in Shanghai, and some were graduates from universities in UK, US and Japan. Cheng said though with a diverse background, but everyone works harmoniously in the company.

Title	Succession of a family business for Central Textiles, its development, progress in technology and background of its technical workers
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	21m31s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-003

At the beginning, Central Textiles was mainly in the production of greige fabrics. The fabrics would be further processed by local dyeing factories before they were sold to local garment factories. Central Textiles started with weaving. In the 1960s, knitting was also introduced to the production line. The company added its dyeing department as knitting required the yarn to be dyed first. In the mid 1980s, the Hong Kong government rolled out its environment protection policy. Since Central Textiles had no land to build its own sewage facility, it closed its knitting division during 1988 to 1989. The company thus had its knitting business for around two decades.

In the early 1990s, Central Textiles started to invest in its factory in mainland China. At that time, there was a state enterprise looking for a business partner in Zhanjiang, with a factory in place for production. Through a close connection, Central Textiles partnered with this state enterprise and moved some old machines from Hong Kong to Zhanjiang. The factory there would produce fabrics that were easier to handle, and production cost was lowered. Cheng Chi Ping reckoned it would be good to start with products that were easier to handle as the working habit was still very different in mainland China than in Hong Kong.

Since the Hong Kong government’s vigorous push of its environmental protection policy, many local dyeing factories had to close down. Central Textiles started to produce denim in 2002. To produce denim, the yarn has to be dyed before production. The environment of a denim factory is less desirable than that of a factory that produces greige fabrics. During the earlier days, most of the larger fabric factories would produce greige fabrics, and smaller factories run by Cantonese industrialist would produce denim. Looking back at Central Textiles' decades of operation, Cheng believes that a constant improvement of machinery and products is the key to survival. Even larger factories would not be able to survive for standing still.

Title	Development of Central Textiles' production after 1970s (1): introduction of knitting, investment in fabric factory in mainland China, production of denim
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	8m21s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-004

Central Textiles spent a lot of years producing greige fabrics. At its earlier stage, sales were led by buyers' demand. The company's clients would make contact and place order and the company would produce according to the clients' requirements. There were also OEM orders from clients in the US. Nowadays the company is selling its products directly to its clients, providing fabrics to garment factories here as well as those in Japan. In 2002, after the company started to produce denim, it also became more fashion conscious. In 2005, for the first time the company took part at the exhibition, Premiere Vision, held in France. Its fabrics were displayed for the fashion brand companies to choose and place their orders. The exhibition became a sales opportunity for the company. Marks & Spencer has been ordering denim from Central Textiles for the production of its men's fashion. Central Textiles was also among the first few manufacturers in the world which uses T400 (an elastic silk fibre) to produce denim. With T400, it can produce 360 degree stretch denim which was comfortable to wear.

In the earlier days Central Textiles' denim yarns were mainly for the supply to local denim factory. From 1990s onwards it started to export to Japan. At the end of 1980s, the company started to produce elastic yarns. Before that the company imported elastic yarns from Japan. But since its own production started, the company was able to export elastic yarns to Japan. Factories in Japan had higher standard towards the yarns. Central Textiles had to constantly improve the quality of its products. Apart from denim and elastic yarns, the company also had other yarn products for the export to India, US, Switzerland, Thailand, Belgium, etc.

Title	Changes of Central Textiles' sales channels and its export market
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	14m
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-005

Central Textiles had spinning and fabrics divisions. Its spinning division had moved to industrial area at Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan. Its fabrics factory has moved to the ground floor of Kong Nam Industrial Building in Tsuen Wan. When the Hong Kong government reclaimed land in Tsuen Wan that provided land supply for spinners to build their factories. Cheng said during a period of industrialization, spinners would be considered as major manufacturers at that time. Governors of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose and Sir David Wilson, had paid visits to the factory of Central Textiles. In the early days the company provided quarters for its workers, which were in tenement buildings just opposite the current Tsuen Wan Town Hall. The company bought part of the building's fourth floor and the whole of fifth floor, converted the space into 38 units as free quarters for 200 to 300 workers. It also provided shuttle buses to Tuen Mun and Kwun Tong to pick up workers who did not live in the provided quarters. The company had a three-shift system. Those who took the night shift were mainly male workers.

In the earlier days clients' demand on quality was not that high. Central Textiles adopted a mass production system which required a lot of labors. The mobility of textile workers was high. Workers would change their jobs between different factories, and they also took up extra shift outside their normal working hours. In view of shortage of labour, Central Textiles hired refugees from Bangladesh and Vietnam to do non-technical tasks. Nowadays it also hires technical workers and even professionals from mainland China. At the end of 1970s, Cheng Chi Ping attended German exhibitions regularly to learn more about new machines in other countries. To become more automatic, the companies bought expensive machines from overseas, or make improvement on existing machines, to automate the production process so as to avoid human errors and to improve the quality of its products. For instance the company bought some new machines from Switzerland but at the same time improved the setting so as to mass produce denim fabrics.

Products became more diversified for Central Textiles. In the early 1990s, when the company started to produce elastic yarns, other manufacturers even sent “spies” to its factory trying to copy the technique. “Spies” were sometimes spotted in the company's mainland factories. In recent years Hong Kong Polytechnic University has many specilised development projects for the enhancement of spinning technique for Central Textiles. From the 2000s the company started to market its products to the fashion brands. And from 2005 onwards it participated regularly at fashion exhibitions in France, to sell its fabrics there. Apart from the fashion houses, the company also submit tender to government departments to sell its special function fabrics.

Looking back at Central Textiles' almost half a century of development, Cheng Chi Ping said the most prosperous was when the company was producing elastic yarns, as only Central Textiles was able to produce that at that time and they could not cope with the demand. In recent years, local textile industry has become a sunset industry. Central Textiles was only able to barely survive. Since production cost in the mainland was low, it has been hard for Hong Kong's industrialists to compete. In view of the deterioration of business environment, local spinners had to retreat from Hong Kong in order to lower their production costs.

Title	Development of Central Textiles' production after 1970s (2): factory relocation, workers' welfare, automation and product developoment
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	23m8s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-006

After the 1970s, Taiwan and Korea started to develop their spinning industries which posed competition to Hong Kong's spinners. The land where the spinners sat became more valuable which also attracted the owners to sell their land for profits. Spinning is a capital intensive industry. Most of the spinners need to have their own factories, which need dust and air-conditioning facilities. This makes it a costly exercise if the factory needs to move from one location to another. Central Textiles' factory in Zhanjiang only measured to 20,000 spindles, which worried Cheng as he was afraid it cannot withstand the competition from other mainland spinners in the long run.

Title	The decline of Hong Kong textile industry
Date	16/09/2010
Subject	Industry
Duration	7m42s
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.	AY-CPP-SEG-007