A double-necked glass infant feeding bottle from the 1960s, from Cheng Po-hung;s collections, is displayed at the Hong Kong Book Fair in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. (KAPILA BANDARA / CHINA DAILY)
Household and personal objects from days gone by, mingling with consumer items that have transitioned into museum pieces, mirror the social conditions of a particular period in Hong Kong’s history, and cajole us to picture the characters who used them and imagine their tales, their lives, and livelihoods.
These may be an assortment of items such as vacuum flasks, restaurant menus, packaging for su ping (Chinese wedding cakes), biscuit tins used to store money, and Two Girls Florida water, made by cosmetics pioneer Kwong Sang Hong. Also present are mahjong tiles, boat-shaped charcoal irons, radio sets, signboards advertising trades such as that of dentists and pawnshops, plus old advertisements in newspapers.
The Hong Kong Book Fair has the theme “History and City Literature” this year
When they emerge from obscurity to significance, they become instructive as well as persuasive. Their juxtaposition sets off dialogue.
Author and collector Cheng Po-hung is fascinated by items from old Hong Kong that tell stories.
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At a display at the Hong Kong Book Fair, where “History and City Literature” is the theme this year, Cheng points to a rice ration card given to residents.
“It was for residents to buy rice. Then, the retail price was higher than the market price. It was later canceled. Every week, one person would get to buy 10 catties (5 kilograms) of rice. There were shortages of commodities like rice, sugar and oil.”
It was issued in December 1953, a date stamp on its side indicates.
A rice ration card, from Cheng Po-hung's collections, is displayed at the Hong Kong Book Fair in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. (KAPILA BANDARA / CHINA DAILY)
Published records from that period note that “the government remained the principal or only importer of rice, sugar, frozen meat, and coal for local consumption”.
And before July 1953, only “people who had been a resident in the city before April 1, 1948, could obtain ration cards, which enabled them to purchase, from approved ration shops, the cheap rice imported by the government. The rationing system was extended to the whole population during the second half of the year”.
During that time, water was available for only 16 hours a day.
Cheng then points to a pair of old vacuum flasks, common in homes in the 1930s.
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“Hot water bottles were used by Hong Kong people because it was not easy to get hot water in those days,” Cheng said. “Not every home could boil water so easily. People had to buy hot water. Hot water was needed by families with babies.”
He said these flasks are rare now, although available.
One vacuum flask bears the brand name Gold Coin, while the other is branded Crystal and it bears the producer name Luda Glassware Manufacturers.
“These were about HK$4 to HK$5 each”, Cheng said.
In 1953, five factories made vacuum flasks, according to government records.
Vacuum flasks, from Cheng Po-hung’s collections, are displayed at the Hong Kong Book Fair in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. (KAPILA BANDARA / CHINA DAILY)
Cheng also shows a banana-shaped, double-necked, glass infant feeding bottle from the 1960s, with its worn-out rubber lid and teat at either end — a reminder of family and community.
Cheng has loaned it for display at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
He is among five writers of history featured at the book fair. The others are Professor Joseph Tin Sun-pao, Professor Lui Tai-lok, Professor Elizabeth Sinn Yuk-yee, and Ye Lingfeng. Tin’s studies are mainly about the history of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Macao, as well as China trade paintings.
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Cheng in an honorary adviser of the Hong Kong Museum of History, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, and Hong Kong Association of Collectors.
Among titles he has authored are A Century of Kowloon Roads and Streets, A Century of New Territories, Hong Kong Currency in Pictures, Hong Kong Stamps in Pictures, and Early Prostitution in Hong Kong. He has added two new titles: A Century of Chinese Cuisines, and A Century of Entertainment of Chinese in Hong Kong.