21. November 2022

Before the electrification of China starting in 1882 and the introduction of battery-powered torches in the 1910s, oil lamps were the predominant means of illumination. They were cheap to manufacture & became popular promotional merchandise - most famously exemplified by the Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY).

18. October 2021

Crane Stores, Shoers & Hatters (鶴鳴鞋帽商店) was founded by the father of Jefferson Young, who soon after the opening of the first Shanghai store in 1936 took over the family business. The firm swiftly expanded to several locations in Shanghai and subsequently in Nanjing and Hong Kong. By 1950 it had 13 stores nationwide. Jefferson Young moved to Hong Kong in 1951 where he continued to manage the local Crane subsidiary. In 1952, Crane expanded to Singapore, soon after to Penang and...

05. September 2021

Brunner, Mond & Co /卜內門洋行 was one of the large British trading houses ("Hongs"), having setup their operations in Shanghai as early as 1890. In 1922 the company erected its own building on 133 Szechuen Rd., designed by Stewardson & Spence. In December 1926 Imperial Chemical Industries (I.C.I.) was founded from the merger of four companies: Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company, and British Dyestuffs Corporation. For much of its history it was the largest...

29. April 2021

Jardine Matheson aka "EWO" Building completed on the Bund in 1922. As one of the first foreign businesses to set up branches in Shanghai in early 1843 it established The EWO Brewery Ltd. in 1935. Jardine was not only the oldest but also the largest "Hong" or Yanghang (洋行) - foreign owned trading houses concerned with trade with China, which later became huge diversified conglomerates. The name EWO stems from the Cantonese pronunciation of Jardines Chinese "Hong name" 怡和洋行, meaning...