Book launch: The Old Reliable Firm, Good Workmanship Guaranteed
Come join Dr Sophie Couchman and the Leong and Lim families at the Museum of Chinese Australian History on Thursday 30 January 2025 for the launch of The Old Reliable Firm, Good Workmanship Guaranteed: A story of family, migration and entrepreneurship .
In the closing decades of the 19th century, Joseph Kee Tey Lim and George Yip Wing Leong journeyed from their home villages in Kwangtung to seek their fortunes in Australia. Kee Tey built a successful career as a cabinetmaker in Melbourne, while George Yip Wing made his money in retail and mining speculation in Queensland, and then as a banana merchant in Melbourne.
Both men relocated their families to the cosmopolitan British colony of Hongkong in the early 20th century. Hongkong provided rich opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs with English-language skills and knowledge of British business methods. Kee Tey became a building contractor in Kowloon, and George Yip Wing worked for The Chosen Company department store on Des Voeux Road Central, Hongkong. In the 1940s, the two families’ prosperity was fractured by the Japanese occupation of Hongkong. Many family members returned to Australia. It was in Melbourne that the Lim and Leong families were joined together when Hongkong-born Jean Mary Lim married Heungshan-born Richard Thomas Wai Cheong Leong in 1944.
The Old Reliable Firm explores the complexity of Chinese Australian identities and experiences through these two family histories, highlighting the ways that Kwangtung, Australia and Hongkong shaped their lives, loves and businesses.
