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Wong Hon Yee
Wong Hon Yee
Former manager of Engineering Department, Ampex Ferrotec Limited
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1947 Age at Interview: 63 Education: Master Occupation: Engineer Theme: Industry Growing up in an ordinary family. Study in The University of Hong Kong majoring electrical engine...Wong Hon Yee was born in Hong Kong in 1947. His ancestors were from Zhongshan. Being a native from Hong Kong, he regretted not having enough knowledge of his home county. His parents had three children, and Wong was the middle one. In his childhood, he lived with his grand-mother, parents and brothers. When he was a child, he had to do housework which he considered a learning experience. The Wongs lived in one of the wooden cubicles in a flat in Sheung Wan. Wong studied in Ling Kwong Primary School. Afterwards, his family moved to Kowloon, and he studied in Yau Ma Tei Y.M.C.A. Secondary School. In Form 4 he transferred to La Salle College where he continued to study in Form 6 after the School Certificate Examination. In 1966 he entered The University of Hong Kong, enrolling in the engineering programme because he liked mathematics and science. In 1969 he graduated. The first year in university was the common year where engineering students were required to study three kinds of engineering subjects: Electrical Engineering (including Electronics), Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering. In the mid and the late 1960s, space science was very popular, and Wong wanted to pursue it. Originally he planned to specialize in mechanical engineering in Year 2. However, before long, he found the subject area boring as he was required to learn mechanical drawing which was complicated, so he chose electrical engineering instead. There were two parts in the curriculum: electronics and electricity. In the subject of Electronics, students had to study vacuum tube and hi-fi, and transistor was very popular at that time. Wong was more interested in Electronics, and he assembled transistor radios with his school friends in Year 3. It was his plan to enter the electronics-related industry after graduation.
Title Growing up in an ordinary family. Study in The University of Hong Kong majoring electrical engineering Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 9m15s 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-WHY-SEG-001 Unforgettable experience during the first year of work: Making up this deficiency of professional...Having graduated from university, Wong applied for a job in electronics factories. He was accepted by the Hong Kong branches of both Motorola and Ampex Ferrotec. As Ampex manufactured core memory and Wong was enthusiastic in computers, he decided to work in Ampex as an engineer. At that time, the technology of magnetic core was used for manufacturing core memory, and Wong had not studied anything related to digital circuit when he was in university. Students of Engineering Department of The University of Hong Kong were required to study a 3-year programme which aimed at providing them with fundamental knowledge. In the subject of Electronics, they mainly studied the technologies of speakers and transistor, not including new technologies such as digital circuit. In order to make up this deficiency, Wong borrowed books on Boolean Algebra from the library of The University of Hong Kong. He stressed that one had to learn continuously as not all the knowledge acquired in school would be useful in his work. In reminiscence, Wong thought that he was destined to be involved in electronics industry as transistor was launched when he was born, and integrated circuit had just been introduced when he graduated from university. He talked about the unforgettable experience during the first year of work. On the Eve of the Chinese New Year, he worked overnight with his boss in Ampex, testing equipment for the US headquarters so the results could be sent to USA on New Year Day. To Wong, working overtime was a responsibility. He advised the youths not to mind doing extra work but to follow the example set by people of the last generation.
Title Unforgettable experience during the first year of work: Making up this deficiency of professional knowledge, Destined to be involved in electronics industry Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 7m45s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Assignment of Copyright in the Contents of Oral History Interviews by Interviewee: Wong Hon Yee, Ref. No. HKMP-AC-049 Accession No. LKF-WHY-SEG-002 After working in Ampex for a year, Wong Hon Yee went to USA to do further studies on the term that his position would be retained but no salary would be paid. He studied in the Master’s programme in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of University of California Berkeley, which gave him more opportunities to attain computer knowledge. His long-time school friend was there to do doctoral studies and was determined to enter the academia in future. Influenced by this friend, Wong went to the same university. Going to USA to study was Wong’s turning point in life. It was his first time to leave Hong Kong and travel on a plane. When he first arrived in USA, everything to him was interesting, and he considered this overseas study a learning experience. In USA, for the first time, Wong took the courses on Fortran and Assembly Language. At that time, computers in USA were of elementary level only. The super computer used in UC Berkeley had a memory of only 64K and 132K. At that time Wong had to punch cards for writing programs. He did his homework by entering the contents into the IBM punch card which would then be connected to the computer laboratory. It took as long as half day to wait for the whole process to finish. Sometimes only a small mistake was judged by the computer as a fatal error, and he had to enter data and line up again so as to wait for the computer to reboot, wasting a lot of time. As a result, he realized that one should try his best to be scrupulous and perfect in doing his work.
Having worked in Ampex for a year, Wong had a saving for studies in USA for half year only, so he still needed his family’s help financially. In order to lessen his parents’ burden, in summer, Wong worked at the computer division’s system testing department in Ampex’s Los Angeles branch. He studied in UC Berkeley for four quarters totalling one year and three months. He would like to venture in the industrial sector and thought that a Master’s degree was good enough for that. Moreover, as his family was in Hong Kong, he did not continue to pursue doctoral studies. After graduation, he travelled in Europe for a month before going back to Hong Kong. Realizing the great difference in university system between Hong Kong and USA, he preferred the US mode in which students have freedom to choose their subjects. Moreover, students there have more access to different subject areas, and the US universities are not as exam-oriented as the ones in Hong Kong. In the 1970s, electronics industry in USA was far more advanced than that in Hong Kong. The number of subjects offered by EECS of UC Berkeley was more than that offered in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the US universities had a closer relationship with the industry. For instance, experts from IBM would give lectures in universities. At that time, technologies on manufacturing and management were imported from USA to electronics industry. However, in the 1980s, the technologies learned were transferred from Hong Kong to the mainland.
Title Studying in USA was his turning point in life Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 18m10s 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-WHY-SEG-003 Wong Hon Yee started to work at the Hong Kong branch of Ampex in 1969. In September 1970, he went to USA to further his studies. In early 1972, he returned to Ampex to take on the position of Instrumentation Section Manager of Engineering Department. He was responsible for designing test equipment for manufacturing and testing, including software and hardware, with focus especially on the latter. Ampex had branches all over the world for manufacturing or sales. Only those in USA and Hong Kong had engineering departments. The headquarters were in charge of audio-video products while the Hong Kong branch was first specialized in computer products and later included audio-video products such as electronic switching system and Betacam. At that time electronics industry in Hong Kong mainly manufactured consumer products. Ampex was specialized in industrial products and so had a relatively high demand on technology. It manufactured memory system for foreign companies, for example, compatible memory for Data General Corporation in USA. The engineering department in the Hong Kong branch had four sections for each of these products: magnetic core memory, stack memory, drafting and instrumentation. Among these, magnetic core memory was the major product of Ampex.
In 1974, Wong Hon Yee took charge of the whole engineering department because of his boss’ departure. The engineering department had to report to the US headquarters. At first the headquarters did not have enough confidence in this department and assigned only simple design projects to it. Later on, technology transfer between USA and Hong Kong was good; the Hong Kong branch could then meet the needs of the headquarters, and so was assigned the work of designing computer memory system. During those years Wong got hold of the latest design technology and acquired knowledge on engineering management by reading US journals on electronics industry. A few years after Wong had gone back to Ampex, the engineering department in Hong Kong was able to negotiate product design with their clients. The US engineering department was responsible for their local clients, whereas the Hong Kong counterpart dealt with the rest of the clients most of whom were from Europe and Japan, for example, Philips, General Electric, Siemens and Fuji. The Hong Kong branch had such high level of technology that they were considered Shaolin Monastery of the industry, training a lot of professionals in the field. Most of the engineers of the engineering department were male in their early twenties and mostly Hong Kong graduates (mainly from The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong); only a few had studied in North America. Wong was a member of the first generation of electronic engineers to be trained in Hong Kong. When he entered the University of Hong Kong in 1966, it was the only university in Hong Kong that had engineering department. In that year, sixty students were admitted; a little more than twenty of them graduated with specialization in electronics. One of his fellow schoolmates was Tam Chung Ting, who entered the university in 1965 and worked in Motorola after graduation. Nowadays the engineering departments in Hong Kong’s universities are as good as those in the rest of the world – there is not much difference among graduates trained in Hong Kong or overseas.
Title Taking charge of Engineering Department of Ampex in the 1970s Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 16m47s 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-WHY-SEG-004 Wong Hon Yee was mainly responsible for designing memory system during his early years in Ampex and later assisted in developing the hard-disk business. Rodime Company in Scotland was able to manufacture Winchester Drive with a capacity as high as 27MB – being second to none in the industry at that time. The Ampex headquarters bought the technology license from Rodime and sent Wong to Scotland to learn the technology of manufacturing and testing. After that Wong set up a production line for hard disc in Ampex, which was the first of its kind in the Far East. Hard-disk production was a new scope in Ampex, and the products had to be assembled in a dust-free room. Wong was satisfied with the result of foreign technology transfer. He thought that he was fortunate to learn high technologies such as magnetic core memory and hard disk. When the Hong Kong branch had gained more confidence from the headquarters, it was assigned to also manufacture products of the AV division. At that time the cassette tapes and video tapes of Ampex were worldwide famous. The headquarters had bought the license of Sony Betacam, and Wong had been sent to Japan to learn the video technology. Wong admitted that he had been involved in technology transfer many years ago and was grateful to the headquarters for their trust and the training offered to him. Wong left Ampex in 1992. He had worked as head of the engineering department for many years during which time he had trained a number of staff. Wong believed that the talents in Hong Kong, who were capable of doing research in high technology, would not be less competitive than that of other countries. He thought that the only thing that was lacking in Hong Kong was a breeding ground. In recent years, the electronics companies in the mainland have imported foreign technology, which has also helped nurturing new talents.
Title A forerunner of technology transfer in electronics industry Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 11m57s 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-WHY-SEG-005 US electronics firms was able to transfer their technology when they set up a dvisiion in Hong Ko...There were around 100 staff in Ampex’s engineering department in the early years, and it was considered a large scale. Motorola also had an engineering department. At first the Ampex headquarters assigned testing product parts and designing testing instruments to the Hong Kong engineering department which, when encountering problems, would consult the engineers of the headquarters or dealt with the problems itself. The products designed by Ampex’s Hong Kong branch had obtained several awards, including three times of the Governor’s Award, which was considered the highest honour. No other companies in the industry have ever made such achievement. Wong thought that whenever an international company set up a division in Hong Kong, it could achieve technology transfer, successful examples being Ampex and Motorola. It was the same as what the Hong Kong factories could do today to elevate the technology level of electronics industry in the Pearl River Delta. Under the US system, the Hong Kong staff involuntarily enhanced themselves, such as learning the concept of engineering documentation to deal with changes of product design and adopting the system of standard part list to unify product specifications. The US companies’ investment in Hong Kong could help to improve the technology of consumer electronic products. The awareness in technology protection in US companies was not high – they only protected sensitive advanced technology. What was more, Ampex had even once designed the memory system of the US army F16 fighter airplane. In the 1970s, US companies set up factories in Hong Kong; at the same time they provided a good chance for the technological people to create their own business which were up to international standard. Examples of these businesses include V-Tech which specialized in manufacturing educational toys, Elec & Etlek which specialized in manufacturing circuit boards, as well as SAE Magnetics Ltd. specializing in manufacturing magnetic heads.
Title US electronics firms was able to transfer their technology when they set up a dvisiion in Hong Kong(1) Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 16m35s 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-WHY-SEG-006 US electronics firms was able to transfer their technology when they set up a dvisiion in Hong Ko...The business of the Japanese electronics factories in Hong Kong was mainly manufacturing, rarely would they get involved in technology development. In the early 1970s, large US companies included Ampex, Motorola and Fairchild; a smaller one was Lockheed; National Semi-Conductor came a little later; while IBM was mainly involved in sales and purchasing in Hong Kong. These US companies manufactured different products and their scope of technology were also different. However, in general, the standard was high, an example of which was Dragon ball chips designed by Motorola. Motorola manufactured electronic components in its early stage and later developed telecommunication products. Wong approved the achievements made by the staff of various departments in Ampex, commending the workers who could render the design ideas of the engineering department in the products. Their products were not mass-produced consumer products, and their requirement on the workers’ skills was high. For instance, the workers for armament production had to be sent to the US headquarters for training. They had training on the skills of welding according to the standard of NASA.
To Wong Hon Yee, Chinese people were able to do research and development in high technology because Chinese technological staff were enthusiastic to learn new knowledge. In addition, they knew how to grasp every opportunity to learn and always imposed high demand on themselves. For instance, the founders of V-Tech and Varitronix were elites of the electronics industry. Ampex had once established a factory in Mexico mainly because of the cost and productivity there. However, it was later closed down for personnel reason, and a branch was established in Hong Kong instead. Wong was proud of it but advised his counterparts to keep on striving for advancement. As for his career, he recalled his early years in Ampex handling businesses such as memory system, hard disk and audio-video products, which was followed by his employment in Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) dealing mainly with telecommunication. He found his job in City University a fruitful one because he could get involved in different scopes of technology.
Title US electronics firms was able to transfer their technology when they set up a dvisiion in Hong Kong(2). Ability of Chinese people to do high-tech research and development Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 16m18s 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-WHY-SEG-007 Wong Hon Yee thought that in the early days, most engineers in Hong Kong liked their own field so they did not work merely for financial reason. Those who switched to engaging in politics were individual cases; the rest mostly stayed in the industrial field, and so were the engineers who started their own business – they just spent more time in management. He had five schoolmates who graduated with him and joined Ampex too. These six were called “Six Little Fortune”, and one of them later set up his own business while another one became a merchant. “Six Little Fortune” had worked in Ampex for a few up to more than ten years. As for the rest of the fellow graduates, their careers were diversified – some had worked as engineer in electricity or telecommunication companies whereas some were employed by the government or the banks. Reminiscing about his few decades of career, Wong admitted that engineer was a suitable job position for him and he was satisfied with his personal career path. He thought it was a pity for him not to be able to have much contact with people because of his job in the technical field though he could more easily judge the right and wrong. However, he knew that in the real world things were not “either one or zero” like a binary system. Therefore, he appreciated researches of social science and compared the differences between natural science and social science.
Title Career development of local engineers working in US firms Date 17/11/2010 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-WHY-SEG-008 Leaving Ampex for ventures in academia. Joining Industrial and Business Development Office ofCity...In the early 1990s, Ampex was purchased by a consortium. Its authority imposed reforms to the company. Instead of keeping the pragmatic tradition of developing products, operation of the company would then be based on the idea of investment and profit. Feeling that it would be hard for Ampex to continue their operation, he decided to leave for other ventures. In 1992, after leaving Ampex, Wong began to work in the electronics service department at HKPC, designing products such as Chinese pagers for Hong Kong companies. Now the responsibility of design and development at HKPC has been taken over by Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute. Wong has been a consultant for Innovation and Technology Commission, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, electronics departments of City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as well as Vocational Training Council.
In the 1980s, reforms were imposed in Hong Kong’s tertiary education. As a result, Research Grant Council (RGC) was set up to provide research grants for university lecturers and to increase the number of degree programmes in universities. Therefore, many lecturers who came back from overseas were employed, raising the level of researches in Hong Kong universities. Some of the new teachers had been involved in industrial fields, resulting in stronger ties between the industry and the academia. For instance, Hong Kong Polytechnic University hired Joshua Wong, who came back from USA, as Head of Electronics Department. In 1994, invited by Prof. Cheng Yiu Chung, President of City University of Hong Kong, Wong started to work at the university’s Industrial and Business Development Office. He is satisfied with his present job because he can serve as a bridge between the academia and the industrial sector. Wong has been working in City University for many years being responsible mainly for setting up technology start-up companies for academics and providing them with consultancy service. At present, his focus is on technology licensing. Since Wong Hon Yee had been working in Ampex for a long time, he realized the difference in management culture between an enterprise and a university. His friend had once asked him to be a partner in running a business. Being a technology person, not a businessman, and knowing that the technology level of his friend’s company was not high, he thought that there would not be much for him to contribute to that company and so he did not do it.
Title Leaving Ampex for ventures in academia. Joining Industrial and Business Development Office ofCity University of Hong Kong Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 18m20s 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-WHY-SEG-009 Nowadays the three kinds of production used by electronics companies in Hong Kong are OEM, ODM and OBM, whose development path is OEM→ODM→OBM. Wong thought that the OEM mode of business, which was manufacturing for overseas clients, was no longer popular and had mostly been moved to the mainland. On the other hand, the ODM mode provided a one-stop service of design and manufacturing, with less demand in market expansion than that of OBM. As for OBM, which manufactured products of its own brand, required more investment in sales and marketing before launching the products. In the early 1970s, the technical staff of electronics industry was mainly provided by foreign companies, and there were not many companies which also did the design work. The engineers employed by the companies in Hong Kong had many responsibilities but not enough training, so they found their work very tough. On the other hand, US companies were encouraged by their government to set up factories and provide more technical support for the engineers in Hong Kong. During those years, the few high-technology companies were represented by Wong’s, Fong’s, Luks and Sonca. The former two were specialized in single-side PCB while the latter two were specialized in television and torch respectively. Later emerged a company which manufactured double-side PCB – Elec Etlek. After the 1970s, training of electronics talents became more intensified in The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Vocational Training Council. While Wong was working as consultant at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the number of graduates of degrees and diplomas was in the 1:1 ratio according to the rule in order to meet the demand in workforce in the society.
Title Development of Hong Kong’s electronics industry (1): OEM, ODM and OBM operations Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 9m40s 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-WHY-SEG-010 The development of electronics industry in Hong Kong can be divided into three stages: OEM in the 1970s, ODM in the 1980s and 1990s, and OBM after 2000. The change from OEM to ODM was determined by the market demand – the more competition there was in the OEM business, the more compelling the change was for added value. However, the change to ODM required employment of more technical staff. Wong approved of the government’s measure of promoting the electronics industry including establishment of Science and Technology Parks and Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute. There was an Incubation Programme in Science and Technology Parks nurturing a number of technology companies. As for setting up Tai Po Industrial Estate and Yuen Long Industrial Estate, he thought that these estates’ main function was providing space, but technical support was insufficient.
Title Development of Hong Kong’s electronics industry (2): OEM, ODM and OBM operations Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 6m5s 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-WHY-SEG-011 Wong Hon Yee thought that it would be appropriate for Hong Kong’s electronics industry to be positioned at the mid-technology level as it would lack competitiveness if being positioned at the low-technology level. On the other hand, it was not good enough to be positioned at the high-technology level. After all, there was not enough infra-structure in Hong Kong. Using Japanese vehicles and electronic pets as examples, he explained the meaning of mid-technology level, emphasizing that development of electronic products could not depend solely on technology. Instead, creative ideas should complement the existing technology in the process of manufacturing. Moreover, these advantages in development and manufacturing should be considered its competitiveness. Wong stressed that being innovative was the advantage of Hong Kong people, and the future development strategy of Hong Kong’s electronics industry should be innovation plus technology. Successful cases were Ninja Turtles and cotton candy machine. Now Hong Kong’s technology is at a mature stage, but we lack market opportunities. Therefore, the efforts of Trade Development Council and company owners as well as promotion of creative ideas such as competitions held in schools are essential. Wong thought that electronic products could fall into two categories: one was given birth by technology, for example, mobile phone; another was created by innovation, for example, electronic pets. The mid-range products had more potential in the mainland’s market, for example, the mobile phone produced by Hua Sheng. To Hong Kong companies, this was a good example to show that there was no need to insist on pursuing high technology.
Title Future of Hong Kong’s electronics industry: Mid-technology strategy Date 17/11/2010 Subject Industry Duration 20m6s 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-WHY-SEG-012