Recapping the MACPH Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series “A Hundred Years of Fung Cheong Shun Co. and the History of School Uniforms in Hong Kong” on 15 February 2025

Mr. Fong Tin Chuen was invited by the MACPH to deliver a lecture entitled “A Hundred Years of Fung Cheong Shun Co. and the History of School Uniforms in Hong Kong” on 15 February 2025. As the third-generation heir of Fung Cheong Shun Co., the speaker, with his unique family historical materials, traced the stories of his grandfather, Fang Yangqiu, and his father, Fang Yeguang (more commonly known as Fang Kuanlie), revealing lesser-known aspects of the two beyond their careers at Fung Cheong Shun Co. According to the speaker, Fang Yangqiu played various roles throughout his life, known not only as the heir of the Fang Cheong Dyeing Factory in Haifeng County, which was later relocated to Hong Kong and renamed Fung Cheong Shun Dyeing Factory, but also as a river conservancy commissioner, philanthropist, and Buddhist. Similarly, Fung Cheung Shun is by no means the sole career of Fang Yeguang (Fang Kuanlie). In 1963, he once devoted himself to journalism in Macau until 1966, when he finally returned to Hong Kong to continue operating Fung Cheung Shun, during which time he was more devoted to the literary circle of Hong Kong, he himself being a celebrated writer of Classical Chinese poems.

The second part of the lecture focused on some significant transformations in Fung Cheong Shun Co. and Hong Kong school uniforms. For example, the major operation of Fung Cheong Shun Co. shifted from cloth distribution to school uniform business as a response to the arrival of entrepreneurs from Zhejiang and Jiangsu during the CCP-KMT civil war and after the establishment of the PRC in 1949. The speaker also presented popular styles of school uniforms in different eras: from the “Sun Yat-sen suit” of the 1930s to later styles such as the cheongsam, worker’s uniform, styles with reduced fabric during the water rationing period, sailor suits of the 1970s, and the red and blue checkered styles of the 1980s and 1990s. This lecture evoked resonance among audiences from different generations.

 

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World History Seminar (2024-25)

Organizer: Centre for Comparative and Public History, Department of History, CUHK
Enquiry: 3943 8541

 

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MACPH Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series

Organizers: Department of History; M.A. Programme in Comparative and Public History; The Alumni Association of Master of Arts in Comparative and Public History
Enquiry: 3943 8659

 

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Public Lectures on History and Business in China 2024-25

Public Lectures on History and Business in China 2024-25 will be held in March 2025. Professor Elisabeth KÖLL, William Payden Collegiate Chair; Department Chair and Professor of Department of History, University of Notre Dame, has been invited as the guest speaker to deliver two public lectures.

Lectures will be conducted in English.

Admission is free; reservation is required. To reserve a seat, please
– Register online at www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/2025_HBC  
– Call at 3943 8541

For more information, please visit www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/2025_HBC/ or www.hkpl.gov.hk

Organisers: Department of History, CUHK; Centre for Comparative and Public History, Department of History, CUHK; M.A. Programme in Comparative and Public History, Department of History, CUHK; Hong Kong Public Libraries, Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Sponsor: Eminence History Department Fund, CUHK

 

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For teachers and students who have information to share with the Department, please email your articles in both Chinese and English to chanfiona@cuhk.edu.hk by 4:00pm every Monday.