Hong Names

Yvette Ho Madany  is a Shanghainese who loves her city’s history, architecture and unexplored corners. Her book, Shanghai Story Walks, is a delightful series of rambles through the former French Concession and the International Settlement and very nice for either the Shanghailander looking for a weekend’s route or the more discerning tourist. Yvette sparked of a conversation among a few old Shanghai trivia and history buffs about the old Hong names, the Chinese names foreign companies were known by originally back in the Qing Dynasty but that last for a long time (till ’49) and were often to be found on buildings, roads and ships even. Hong names were once pretty universal and pretty well known but we know of no single source that lists them all for the researcher so we’ve pooled together a few in the hope that you, dear reader, can contribute others and that we can pull a decent list together. Some are in Mandarin and other in Cantonese – where I know both I’ve given them.

So here’s what we’ve got:

Bao Long – EAC (meaning “Magnificent treasure”)

Chaou Foong (or Chaofoong) – Jenner Hogg & Co.

Da Bei – Great Northern Telegraph (meaning “Great North”)

Ewo – Jardine Matheson (meaning “Happy Harmony”, the name was taken from the earlier Ewo hong run by the famous comprador Howqua)

Jie Cheng – Jebson & Co. (meaning “Rewarding Success”)

Jin Kee – Gibb, Livingstone & Co.

Kungping – Probst Hanbury & Co.

Sun Cheong (alternatively Sun Cheong or Shen Chang) – General Electric (meaning “Caution and Prosperity”)

Taikoo (or Da Gu) – Butterfield & Swire (chosen by John Swire himself and meaning “Great and Ancient”)

Any contributions to the list most welcome….either stick them on the comments or email me (paul@accessasia.co.uk)