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Chan, S.K.
Chan, S.K.
Chairman, Yangtzekiang Garment Limited
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1926 Age at Interview: 85 Education: Junior Secondary Occupation: Industrialist Theme: Industry S.K. Chan was born in Guangzhou in 1926. His family ran Datong Company and traded in yard goods such as rust-coloured summer silk. He studied at a private primary school in Chencun, Shunde. The wealthy Chans hired teachers to teach their children at home. Chencun was one of the four most famous towns in Guangdong. It was renowned for its high yield in rice and potato crops as well as its yarn and silk fabric industry. In 1937, prior to the Japanese invasion of China, S.K. Chan's father passed away and his 20-year-old elder brother took over the family's business. Yarn goods were then purchased from Shanghai and exported to places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. As Shanghai fell into enemy's hands, goods were bought from Japan instead. In 1938, Guangzhou fell and S.K. Chan and his elder brother took refuge in Hong Kong by way of Macau. His elder brother did business in Hong Kong while S.K. Chan studied at Chi Heng Secondary School, which was situated at where what is called Wood Road today. The Japanese army invaded Hong Kong in 1941. S.K. Chan, who was about to graduate from junior secondary school, was forced to drop out and take refuge in Macau with his family, bringing an end to his studies. Right after peace was restored in September 1945, he returned to Hong Kong and went into trade again with his elder brother. In 1949, S.K. Chan's wife's brother set up Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. The name Yangtzekiang came from S.K. Chan, who was then still working at Datong Company, a fabric supplier for garment manufacturers including Yangtzekiang. Before long, S.K. Chan' s wife's brother failed to run the factory properly. S.K. Chan took over the management of the factory and hence transformed himself from a draper into a garment manufacturer.
Title Family and Education Background. Establishment of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m45s 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-CSK-SEG-001 Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs was founded in 1949 and its factory was located in Cheung Sha Wan, near to the Hong Kong Spinners . The factory had 50 to 60 staff members when founded. Paid with 2 to 3 dollars a day, a seamstress worked 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. A supervisor (also called ‘dispatcher’ or ‘captain’) was paid 20 dollars a month and was provided with meals and accommodation. The factory manager only got 150 dollars a month. S.K. Chan sighed that the wages in those years were very low. Procedures such as fell seaming and pocket stitching were done by seamstresses while collar sewing were performed by skilled male sewers. That was an old practice of the trade. S.K. Chan had taken quality very seriously since he operated the company. He required precision in procedures like ironing and was very strict with the ironers. He once overheard a worker groan that Yangtzekiang was such a tiny factory that its full size could not even compare to that of an ironing department of some larger factories like Kwong Hing Tai Garments Factory Co., Ltd and Kwong Loong Tai Garments Fty., and so they should not take their work too seriously. Since then, S.K. Chan had determined to make progress in order to overtake Kwong Hing Tai and Kwong Loong Tai in production size.In the early 1950s, South East Asia was Yangtzekiang’s major market. Their shirts that carried the label DOCTOR were sold well in Singapore and Thailand. The fabrics used by Yangtzekiang were mainly imported from Japan then. Yangtzekiang also set up cloth shops in Singapore and Thailand. These shops run by the family acted as sales agents for Yangtzekiang products. Local salesmen were hired to promote their products. Since Yangtzekiang went public in 1970, the Chan family had sold out part of the company’s shares, but still held a significant share of the company. In the late 1950s, Yangtzekiang successfully tapped into the US and European markets. A German company became their first client, and the DOCTOR brand had receded as their secondary business since then. Yangtzekiang relied on foreign trading companies such as Melchers in taking orders. Clients submitted samples to the factory, and the factory produced finished goods accordingly. Yangtzekiang subsequently tapped into the British market via Dodwell Trading Company. Littlewood became one of their major clients. In the early 1960s, Yangtzekiang opened an outlet in the USA, a pioneer in the Hong Kong garment industry. Workers of Yangtzekiang possessed sewing skills well above international standard, but product quality was subjected to company decisions, for example, at times when shipping schedule was tight, the company had to compromise product quality to meeting deadline.In the early 1960s, Yangtzekiang expanded rapidly by setting up operations s in other districts such as Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po and Mongkok. The production lines at Mongkok Road were the main force. In 1965, Yangtzekiang moved to the current address at 22 Tai Yau Street, San Po Kong. The site was put on public bidding at a reserve price of 6 dollars per square foot. Yangtzekiang tendered the site with a price of 60 dollars and an additional building charge of 20 dollars per square foot. The labour force in the Tai Yau Street factory once reached 3000 in number. Now only 70 to 80 workers remained as most production lines have been shifted to other places.
Title Development of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs in 1950s and 1960s: Factory, Labour, Product, Market Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 17m25s 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-CSK-SEG-002 Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs first made shirts, and then produced trousers and outer garments. In the early 1960s, Yangtzekiang developed suits business, the first of its kind in the local garment manufacturing industry. In those years, suits were usually tailor made but not produced by garment manufacturers. Amidst the Asian garment manufacturers, South Korea took an early step to produce suits for exporting to the USA. In order to expand his business, S.K. Chan hired a skilled master from the USA and set up production lines for suits. The master came from a US garment factory and was paid 700 dollars per day by Yangtzekiang, earning over 20 thousand dollars a month. In contrast, S.K. Chan was just receiving a monthly salary of over 1000 dollars as a managing director. In addition to the American master, Yangtzekiang also had local tailors as consultants. The making of suits differed from that of shirts and trousers in the procedures of collar tailoring and buttonhole opening. Yangtzekiang opened a suits department in its Mong Kok Road factory. Machines specifically used for making suits were bought. Sewists were re-trained. A suits outlet was set up in Entertainment Building in Central and salespersons were hired to promote the suits. Meanwhile, S.K. Chan was developing the US market. He adopted his salespersons’ suggestion and opened an outlet in the USA, becoming one of the first Hong Kong manufacturers selling garments in the USA. Thanks to the success of their outlets in the 1960s, Yangtzekiang created their own brand Michel René, and then went all out to acquire famous fashion brands in the USA and Europe, creating a flourishing retail business.
Title Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs developed production lines for suits and explored American market Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m44s 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-CSK-SEG-003 Hong Kong's garment manufacturing industry reached its peak in the 1970s and 1980s. In that period, S.K. Chan worked with Lam Kan-shing in Hong Kong Garment Manufacturers Union, where he had held office of Vice-president and President successively for over a decade. In 1980, Yangtzekiang invested in a cotton mill in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Quite a number of senior government officials of Hong Kong and China paid visits to the mill. The mill comprised of departments of spinning, weaving and sewing . They produced fine yarns that were mainly supplied to other factories. There were 800 thousand spindles in Hong Kong when its spinning industry was in full bloom. Today, the Wuxi cotton mill already had 500 thousand spindles.In the mid and late 1980s, the USA tightened her quota restrictions on Hong Kong's garments. Yangtzekiang once set up factories in places like Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia and Sri Lanka in order to evade quota restrictions imposed by the USA. In 1990, Yangtzekiang acquired the Hong Kong Knitters Limited, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong Spinners, and started making knitted garments. Before that Yangtzekiang made only woven garments and had to outsource their knitted garments. A few months after the acquisition, Yangtzekiang moved the production lines owned by the Hong Kong Knitters Limited to Panyu, Guangdong. At that moment, mainland China managed to acquire import quotas of garments from the USA, which attracted S.K. Chan to move his garment production to the mainland. Prior to its acquisition by Yangtzekiang, Hong Kong Knitters Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Knitters, had already adopted one-stop production by weaving, dyeing and manufacturing garments at the same time. Its products were mainly for export and its clients included big brandnames like Burberry. Now a lot of Yangtzekiang's clients are companies with famous brandnames such as Nike, Hugo Boss and Marc Jacobs. But S.K. Chan sighed that businesses are in a plight now due to the rise in production cost.
Title Production relocation of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs in 1980s and 1990s Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m52s 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-CSK-SEG-004 Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs, in their full bloom, employed 3000 workers in Hong Kong. Their factory site covered 20, 22 and 24 Tai Yau Street, San Po Kong. The site at 22 Tai Yau Street was bought first, followed by the blocks on its two sides. One of the blocks was bought from Chen Ding Hwa for 6 million dollars and was also a garment manufacturing plant. Apart from garment manufacturing, Yangtzekiang also set up a printing house in Tai Yau Street for the printing of banking bills and cheques. There were only 3 factories of the same kind in Hong Kong.In the heyday of the garment manufacturing industry, Yangtzekiang was running many factories both in and outside Hong Kong, and scarcely outsourced their orders. In those years, it was popular to outsource their orders among large Hong Kong garment manufacturers, especially during peak season. The manufacturers mapped out plans based on individual needs and the capacity of the contractors. Some outsourced only certain of their procedures. Sometimes the large manufacturers trimmed their fabrics before transferring them to the contractor. Upon collection of the finished goods, they had to iron them again for the sake of quality. Nowadays, Yangtzekiang’s factories on the mainland normally practise outsourcing. Many contractor factories in Dongguan and Panyu take orders from Yangtzekiang. Yangtzekiang has now two subordinate companies, namely, YGM Trading Limited and Yangtzekiang Garment Limited. The former focuses on retail and branding businesses, while the latter produces garments. S.K. Chan worried that the constantly rising labour cost on the mainland would devastate the garment manufacturing industry, and many Hong Kong-owned factories’ time was drawing near. The social security for mainland workers increases each year by 15% and has now amounted to 700 dollars. It is expected to be over a thousand dollars next year. The labour cost also includes provision fund and housing. S.K. Chan thought that the situation was getting more and more difficult for the garment manufacturing industry.
Title Development of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs from its heyday to recent years Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m38s 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-CSK-SEG-005 Labour characteristics of early Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Overseas Processing Arrangement modes ...Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs employed a larger number of skilled workers in their early years. One worker could complete all the procedures involved in making a whole piece of garment. It was more demanding on sewing skills. In their bloom, Yangtzekiang employed 3000 workers and practised branched production. The work was divided up based on the type of garments and the sewing workflow. This demanded less on workers’ skills while facilitating their training by the factory. In recent years, the workflow has tended to break down into more delicate tasks. A ‘single-piece’ approach was practised. Each worker was only responsible for one single easy task.In 1967, a strike broke out in an artificial flower factory diagonal to the Yangtzekiang plant in San Po Kong. Both real and fake bombs were all over the streets, and the outside of the Yangtzekiang plant was no exception. However, Yangtzekiang was not affected by the 1967 Leftist Riot, during which their workers had worked as usual and production had not been halted. S.K. Chan thought that strikes were uncommon in his company because the workers then were mild-tempered and the influence exerted on them by workers unions were limited. Since sites were set up in South East Asia, local productions started to shrink. This trend accelerated when sites were moved to the mainland. Today, Yangtzekiang still keeps small-scale production lines in Hong Kong. Garments sewn on the mainland were received and processed by the Hong Kong site such that they will be eligible for carrying the name ‘Made in Hong Kong’ when exported, which satisfies clients’ demand on the place of origin. This production mode is called Overseas Processing Arrangement, OPA. Currently most Yangtzekiang sites are located on the mainland, but S.K. Chan thought that the red light was on for his productions due to the surge in production cost. He confessed that this was the worse of the time in his 62 years in this trade.
Title Labour characteristics of early Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Overseas Processing Arrangement modes in recent years Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 7m21s 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-CSK-SEG-006 Since its early years, Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs has been taking OEM orders, which still remains the mainstream business of the company. Its major clientele comprises of such US and European brands as Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs and Nike. In the early 1960s, Yangtzekiang already had its own retail outlet in Hong Kong, which was named Yangtzekiang Outlet. Self-designed suits of the American style were sold. A significant number of the customers were university professors. The retail outlet was in the vicinity of Entertainment Building, Wyndham Street. The rent of the store was 700 dollars per month. It has now risen to 700 to 800 thousand dollars, which is, S.K. Chan lamented, a drastic change from the past. In the old day, Yangtzekiang hired an American tailor to design suits and presented the market with ready-made products. The company broke the custom of having tailor-made suits and pioneered in Hong Kong’s garment manufacturing industry. In 1973, S.K. Chan’ daughter joined the company. Yangtzekiang took in other brands and acted as an agent for the jeans and shirts of the Wrangler brand, which was an American fashion brand. Wrangler showed sound brand effect, mentioned S.K. Chan, an unbranded shirt sold only a little more than 10 dollars but it got marked up to more than 30 dollars when sewn with the Wrangler label. The company made and sold Wrangler garments on its own, and promoted them with immense advertisements. It had Tai Yau Department Store on Nathan Road as its key sales office.Yangtzekiang mainly made shirts, trousers and suits and produced fewer jeans in its early years. Knitted products were then introduced and were outsourced to contractor factories. It was not until the acquisition of Hong Kong Knitters Limited had the company self-produced knitted shirts. Yangtzekiang’s primary products were of the middle to high class. In 1977, in view of the fast sale in the suits store, the company created the Michel Rene brand that carried a pronounced French style to meet local customers’ fancy to foreign things. This even greatly impressed veteran Ann Tse Kai of the textile industry. The Michel Rene brand has been handled by S.K. Chan’s daughter since its birth. In recent years, Yangtzekiang has put great efforts into the branding business by successively acquiring old European fashion brands such as GuyLaroche, Ashworth and Aquascutum. GuyLaroche was a nearly 200-year-old French brand for women garments. Yangtzekiang set up an office in France to seek out brand representatives. In 2001, Yangtzekiang acquired Aquascutum, a brand that yields the best in the meantime for Yangtzekiang. As for Wrangler, its products were sold at quite low prices and Yangtzekiang eventually gave on the dealership for this brand. In the early 1990s, Yangtzekiang shut down its factories in South East Asia one after another, and turned to the trading of mainly low-class garments. The turnover of sales has now exceeded that of manufacturing.
Title Diversified enterprising methods of Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs: OEM, Brand, Retailing and Trade Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 17m53s 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-CSK-SEG-007 In its early years, Yangtzekiang made DOCTOR branded shirts in large quantities to be exported to South East Asian countries, where representative offices were set up by itself for product promotion. The company subsequently took orders from Germany via Merchers Trading Co. Soon after that cooperation with German representatives was developed. S.K. Chan traveled to different places in Germany to promote his products himself. Yangtzekiang already took part in fashion shows held in England and Germany in the early years, setting up booths in the exhibition theatres to display the major types of garments produced by the company. Since its founding, Yangtzekiang has been relying on OEM orders as its prime business. Its clientele over the decades has included Marks & Spenser, Littlewood and Nike. Littlewood had been Yangtzekiang’s biggest OEM client in the 1970s, standing for one third of Yangtzekiang’s turnover volume. Yangtzekiang was Littlewood’s sole agent in Asia. Littlewood was even larger than Tesco in those days. Yangtzekiang had offices in the USA and Europe. Salespersons were hired to take OEM orders. Its clients were allowed to choose the products from the catalogues provided by the company.
Title Product and Market of early Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs. Operation of OEM Model and OEM Customers Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 9m54s 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-CSK-SEG-008 S.K. Chan founded Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs in 1949. Although his younger brother was the head of sales in the company, Yangtzekiang showed little tint of a family corporation. A few years after its founding, the company already hired professional factory managing director and even foreign talents. S.K. Chan gave his children freedom to choose their own paths instead of having them be his successors. He allowed them to pick their favourite disciplines in university. They did not necessarily study industrial or engineering subjects. His elder son and second son did psychology and accounting respectively. Currently, S.K. Chan’s second son and daughter are in charge of trade and retails in Yangtzekiang, but the second and third generations lack interest in the matters concerning factories, especially in the midst of the plight the business is in. However, S.K. Chan still crosses the border onto the mainland to inspect his factories weekly. Among his second-generation kinsfolk, nephew Chan Wing Kee is the one that is more involved in the running of the factories. Yet S.K. Chan did not nurture him on purpose. He also let him walk his own way. Chan Wing Kee went to Macau to manage a plant soon after joining Yangtzekiang.
Title Succession Model of 2nd Generation YGM Management Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 4m35s 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-CSK-SEG-009 Review on Personal Career: staying in industry, fighting for textile quotas, supporting the legis...SK Chan regarded himself as an industrialist of action who ruminated on his company’s development all the time. Unlike his counterparts who turned to real estates, he had been staying in the manufacturing industry over the decades, during which more or less profit was made every year. He admitted that he was not a risk taker and he dared not invest in real estates. The riskiest move he made was setting up an office in Britain in the old days. He was contented with the status quo. Having no worries over his daily necessities, he still had the capacity of helping the society by constantly sponsoring tertiary education on the mainland. His offspring were all grown up and working for good reason. SK Chan's nice personality brought him long-lasting friendships with people from different social classes in Hong Kong. He was recognized by people from different fields in Hong Kong, and was awarded with different honours such as Gold Bauhinia Star and Great Bauhinia Medal. In retrospect of his decades long career, he was most proud of two things:
1.) In the 1970s, SK Chan was a consultant of the Textile Advisory Board. Alongside Lam Kan-shing and other manufacturers, he fought for quotas on exported textile products on behalf of the industry by bargaining with the government, and managed to win half the quotas for garment manufacturers. This helped the garment manufacturing industry to survive and develop. SK Chan held the view that the Textile Advisory Board was a facilitator in conveying manufacturers’ views to the government and giving suggestions to the government during diplomatic negotiations. Looking back at the quota distribution negotiations held in the old days, he did not think that he had contributed as much as Lam Kan-shing had. Lam Kan-shing was President of Hong Kong Garment Manufacturers Union. As Vice President, SK Chan had always regarded Lam Kan-shing as his ‘master’. Lam Kan-shing did not have a large factory, but he was devoted to serving the industry and to the affairs of Hong Kong Garment Manufacturers Union. In an evening prior to his resignation from the post as president, Lam Kan-shing visited SK Chan in private, requesting him to take over the post. SK Chan was moved by him and accepted his request. Lam Kan-shing was also once a member of the Clothing Industry Training Authority. He proposed to invest the Training Authority’s funds in HSBC shares. SK Chan deemed this a correct decision as it consolidated the Authority’s revenue.
2.) In the early 1980s, SH Chan joined the Labour Advisory Board. In a dispute over the legislation on Long Service Payment, either the representative of employers or the representative of employees was willing to give in. SK Chan and Szeto Wah were respectively a representative of employers and employees. Both party held their own ground. SK Chan smashed out of the groove by directly banqueting Szeto Wah and other representatives. Discussions resumed in an easy and friendly atmosphere. Less than two months later, the two parties reached detailed arrangements about Long Service Payment. Szeto Wah even commended that that was a milestone in the development of labour relationships. SK Chan had held office in the Committee for 16 years. Few years ago, Stephen Ip, Chan Yuen Han, Chen Cheng Jen and others even invited for his comeback in his 80s. SK Chan is still in a sound relationship with personalities of the labour sector such as Lau Chin Shek and Cheng Yiu Tong.
Title Review on Personal Career: staying in industry, fighting for textile quotas, supporting the legislation of Long Service Payment Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 19m4s 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-CSK-SEG-010 Review on History of Hong Kong Garment History: Origins and Developments in Post-WWII period, Iss...Hong Kong' s garment manufacturing industry started off soon after the war ended. In those days, there were abundant skilled sewers in Hong Kong. Manufacturers put great emphasis on credit and quality. There were also sound financial, communication and transportation systems in support. Meanwhile, industries in the neighbouring Asian countries had not yet started and thus had not become Hong Kong’s rivals yet. All of the above were factors for the rise of the garment manufacturing industry. In the 1950s, garments made in Hong Kong were mainly exported to British colonies in Africa. They were subsequently exported to Britain, the USA and Germany directly, marking the bloom of the garment manufacturing industry. In the early 1970s, the USA imposed the quota system on Hong Kong-made garments. At first, the Hong Kong Government then distributed all the quotas among the foreign trading companies, which threw Chinese manufacturers into a plight. SK Chan, then Chairman of the Garment Manufacturing Group under Federation of Hong Kong Industries, alongside other representatives of the industry including Chow Chung Kai and Lam Kan-shing, individually tried to persuade government officials and legislative councilors with every reason. The final outcome was the even distribution of quotas between foreign trading companies and Chinese manufacturers. SK Chan’s meetings with the upper management of Federation of Hong Kong Industries were normally conducted in English, as most attendants were Western businessmen. This was a big problem for the Chinese manufacturers. SK Chan then demanded that the meetings be conducted in Cantonese, and succeeded in winning the Western businessmen over to the demand of the Chinese manufacturers. Now SK Chan was still taking delight in talking about this. The garment manufacturers, having gained half the quotas, distributed the quotas among themselves according to production volume. They were also eligible to re-sell quotas to those manufacturers who had received no quota at all. SK Chan thought that with half the quotas on hand, the manufacturers’ bargaining power was lifted, and foreign trading companies could no longer offer sky-high prices. Local garment manufacturing factories thus had larger space for survival, facilitating the boom of Hong Kong’s garment manufacturing industry.The late 1970s was the heyday of Hong Kong’s garment manufacturing industry. Workers employed by garment manufacturers accounted for 40% of the labour force in the manufacturing industry. The gross export value of locally made garments amounted to 40% of that of all products made in Hong Kong. As the USA imposed the quota system, quite a number of Hong Kong manufacturers moved their factories to countries in South East Asia and South Asia, taking advantage of the absence of quota restrictions over there. However, Hong Kong manufacturers had always to adapt to the different policies and cultures existing in other countries when running their factories. The 1980s was a period in which local wages surged and the mainland opened her door for foreign investments. Many Hong Kong manufacturers moved their factories to the mainland, resulting in a gradual shrinkage of local garment production, which now has almost vanished. In recent years, the conditions for factory operation have been worsening. The government there has enacted the minimum wage law. Workers who received lower wages had to be given a pay rise. Seeing pay rises given to lower-paid worker, skilled workers naturally demanded the same treatment from the factory. As a result, labour cost has surged. SK Chan lamented that wage problems devastated the Hong Kong manufacturers. What’s more, SK Chan always complied with the law when running his factories on the mainland. Foreign companies with big brand names put great emphasis on human rights, and would send inspectors to the factories from time to time. YGM Manufacturing paid its workers for any overtime work performed as required by law, unlike some of its mainland counterparts who embezzled wages. The cost of running factories on the mainland for Hong Kong manufacturers kept rising every year, and foreign clients might not accept any increase in price, and so SK Chan thought that Hong Kong manufacturers’ future on the mainland was dim.
Title Review on History of Hong Kong Garment History: Origins and Developments in Post-WWII period, Issues of US-European Textile Quota, Downfall after production relocation to China Date 18/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 22m15s 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-CSK-SEG-011 Small-scale garment manufacturing factories were scarce in pre-war Hong Kong. Those hiring more than 30 workers were already regarded as big factories. Garments were mainly for supplied to the local market. In pre-war period, western-style shirts were unpopular among Chinese. They were used to go to a tailor who made Tang suits. Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry sprang up in the early post-war years. Shirts were the major product. Famous labels included Leaf and Crocodile. The garment manufacturing factories gathered up in the streets around Castle Peak Road in Cheung Sha Wan as both workers and cloth factories were abundant there. In the 1950s, the bigger companies included Kwong Hing Tai, Kwong Lung Tai and Crocodile. In the late 1950s, local garments were mainly supplied to British colonies in Africa. Hong Kong companies exported their goods via foreign trading companies. They then expanded into the US and European markets, and exports were ever growing in scale. S.K. Chan founded Yangtzekiang Garment Mfrs in 1949. He rented a site on Castle Peak Road to produce mainly shirts. He even established the DOCTOR brand. More expensive products made of cotton were exported to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, while cheaper goods made of chemical fiber were exported to Africa.
Title The rise of Hong Kong Garment Industry in Post-WWII Period (1): Brands of ships, Markets of Export Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m 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-CSK-SEG-012 The rise of Hong Kong Garment Industry in Post-WWII Period (2): Key Manufacturers, Mainstream Pro...In the early post-war period, major garment manufacturing companies in Hong Kong included Lai Sun Garment, TAL, Lo’s Mee Kwong Garment, Bossini, Johnson Garment, Wing Tai Garment, Kwong Hing Tai and Kwong Loong Tai. Johnson Garment was run by the Wangs family. Its primarily business involved electrical machinery but it also made garments. Wing Tai was run by the Chengs family, whose business has changed to real estate. In those years, people like Kenneth Fang, Lam Kan-shing and Lim Por Yen were veterans in the garment manufacturing industry. A budding young talent was Charles Yeung. SK Chan regarded Kwong Hing Tai and Kwong Loong Tai as model factories, which were run by the Tse brothers. They established a single-block factory at Castle Peak Road around 1951. In its early years, YGM Manufacturing made cheap shirts to be exported to British colonies in Africa via an Indian trading company, but it lasted for only few years. After that, mid-range and high-end garments became its mainstream products. In the early 1950s, Kwong Hing Tai and Kwong Loong Tai made raincoats which monopolized the market. YGM dabbled in raincoat for a short period time but then gave up on it due to technical problems. YGM had always been making trousers. In the 1970s, denim jeans flourished and the company acting as an agent for Wrangler, an American brand. But due to different production equipment required by the production of the two kinds of garments, YGM did not go into massive production of jeans. It focused on just the trading of jeans. Now YGM produces pants including trousers, casual pants and sweatpants.
Title The rise of Hong Kong Garment Industry in Post-WWII Period (2): Key Manufacturers, Mainstream Products Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 10m27s 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-CSK-SEG-013 SK Chan thought that the garment industry in post-war times falls in four stages: (1) Export to British colonies. (2) Export to Europe and the USA. (3) Setting up factories in undeveloped Asian countries. (4) Setting up factories on the mainland. In the 1950s, Hong Kong products were mainly exported to nations of the Commonwealth (Britain, Southeast Asia and Africa), and the majority of them were cheap garments. In the 1960s, Hong Kong garments began their journey to Europe and the USA, of which the USA were the biggest market. Those garments exported to the USA were more varied in terms of types and grades. The gross export value for the USA also far exceeded that for the Commonwealth. The bloom of the garment manufacturing industry set in.In the 1970s, the US government imposed quota restrictions on emerging exporters such as Hong Kong for the sake of her local industries. At the beginning such restrictions applied only to garments made of cotton, later it extended to polyester and chemical fabrics. When the Hong Kong government was in negotiations with the US government about the quota on polyester garments, SK Chan was a consultant of the Textile Advisory Board. He and another dozen local garment manufacturers, who were members of the Board, attended meetings in the USA alongside some high officials of the then Hong Kong government such as Jack Cater. Only the government officials could attend the meetings. SK Chan and other manufacturers waited for news in a hotel. The officials informed them of the results of the meeting of the day, and then sought their opinions. In that year, the Japanese representatives surrendered to the US government. With the situation taking a sudden turn to the worse, the officials of the then Hong Kong government woke up all the manufacturers at the dead hour of 4 am to convene an emergency meeting. It turned out at last the Hong Kong party submitted themselves to the quota arrangements of the USA. After the implementation of the US quotas, Hong Kong manufacturers set up factories in Southeast and South Asian countries unrestricted by quota, taking advantage of the ample yet cheap labours and lands there at the same time. For instance, YGM had factories in Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia and Bangladesh. SK Chan thought that the government had provided little support to Hong Kong manufacturers setting up factories outside Hong Kong. For the most part, the companies sent their own men out for on-site inspection. After an appropriate site was located, the management would be stationed.
Title The Four Stages of Development of Post-War Hong Kong Garment Industry Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 13m14s 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-CSK-SEG-014 In the early 1990s, YGM started relocating its production to the Mainland by setting up factories in Panyu and Dongguan one after another. YGM cut down local production lines every year and closed the factories overseas. It only kept the plants in Bangladesh and Burma. The USA lifted her preferential treatment on import quotas from countries such as Cambodia and Burma in the late 1980s. At the same time, Mainland China was undergoing economic reforms, offering wages lower than many of her Asian counterparts. Besides, for S.K. Chan, Mainland workers were more perseverant and smart, so he decided to shift his factories over there. As a matter of fact, many garment manufacturers doubled their labour force after shifting their factories to China. As local production shrank, Hong Kong transformed herself into a remote-controlled, sales-focused hub. Now, 20 years after the manufacturing relocation, the investment conditions are no longer the same as it used to.As S.K. Chan lamented, wages were constantly on the rise due to the 15% yearly increment stipulated by the government's newly enacted minimum wage legislation. Employers are deluged with pay rise demands from well-paid workers, given that their workmates who were receiving lower wages had benefited from the enactment of this legislation. Workers' social security to be contributed by employers also increased every year, with the current contribution amounting to about 10 thousand Renminbi per year per worker. S.K. Chan reckoned that the Mainland government no longer wanted Hong Kong businessmen to run low-tech factories in the Pearl River Delta, and the labour-intensive garment manufacturing had become an unpopular industry in the region. What's more, despite the surge in production costs, overseas buyers did not agree to raise the price of their orders accordingly. As garment manufacturing was not a high-tech industry, many Asian countries were able to produce garments and competed keenly with Hong Kong. He thought that the Hong Kong manufacturers on the Mainland were facing the toughest situation ever, and now were struggling for survival.
Title Prospects and Difficulties of Hong Kong Garment Industry after production relocation to China Date 25/05/2011 Subject Industry Duration 8m41s 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-CSK-SEG-015