The popular wall coverings were initially conceived to insulate rooms during the long, cold winters, and, on account of its humid climate, Hong Kong almost didn’t catch on.

The absence of extradition agreements between Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China and Taiwan have made them safe havens for the corrupt and the criminal.

First stored in stoneware jars, carbonated drinks became available to the masses with the manufacturing boom of glass bottles – and Hong Kong became a key exporter of popular pops across the region

Appealingly commodified by the heritage marketing industry, imperial culture, whether British or Japanese, is eulogised by those who did not live through it.

Writer Bella Woolf Southorn, whose brother married Virginia Woolf, found fulfilment in more intellectual activities than those demanded from formal functions

By the mid-19th century, glass – once a novelty and a status symbol – had become ubiquitous in the city, effectively killing demand for the product previously used for window-glazing purposes

A must-have for newcomers to Hong Kong, customised dinner plates found their way from China, to Europe, and even the Virginia plantation of one George Washington

Indian-born Moss, who died recently in Manila aged 83, called Hong Kong home for more than four decades but the best years of his life were spent in Malaya

Philippine-Hong Kong relations run deep, with the British colony having been a safe haven for revolutionaries, illicit funds and designer shoe brands

A complete ban on fireworks was lifted in 1975 to allow government-organised displays but, in complete disregard of the law, colourful firecrackers have been lighting up the New Territories skies every Lunar New Year, as authorities look the other way

Recent viral video of school assault puts spotlight back onto the perennial problem; failure to address the issue is down to city’s culture of condoning, encouraging and cultivating passive-aggressive behaviour.

Discernible by their language and dress, Southeast Asian-born and Californian expatriate Chinese ‘uncles’ were often the butt of jokes

Much of our foundational understanding of local and regional customs and connections has come from enthusiasts, rather than those who occupy scholarly positions of authority

As history has shown again and again and again – from Russia and Iran to the Philippines and Japan – a national downturn is just a matter of time.

Missionaries introduced embroidery to the Chiu Chow, helping a poverty-stricken region and endowing the diaspora with a distinct profession

The city’s education chief says China never lost sovereignty over Hong Kong. English essayist George Orwell wrote of sinking ‘to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men’. Hong Kong has reached that point.

Like Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, who pretended to be a milkmaid on her fake farm on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, the affluent in Hong Kong are sheltered from the harsh realities of life

Wartime relics reclaimed from Hong Kong’s long-ago battlefields could hold vital evidence that would allow those whose remains were never accounted for to be given proper burial.

Fuel-gathering villagers stripped the countryside of trees before planting programmes and the proliferation of immigrant species transformed the land

Long before Crazy Rich Asians there was sex symbol Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor in the silent movie era who had hordes of women — mainly white – swooning over him.

Best known for his biography of Queen Mary, the 20th-century Anglo-Irish writer didn’t mince his words after a brief stay in the city

From the humble copywriter to brand managers, advertisers have mastered the art of the meaningless marketing cliché

The renaming of the ‘Canton Delta’ as the ‘Greater Bay Area’ mirrors economic shifts sweeping across the region

A surge in attacks by feral pigs that have strayed into the city is a sign that the government must rein in the porcine population before someone gets seriously hurt.

Politicians were quick to condemn uniformed troops from the People’s Liberation Army’s Hong Kong garrison helping with the post-Typhoon Mangkhut clean-up, but why not see them for what they are – a valuable but underused resource?

Feared for its ability to bring bad luck, the harmless broom – often the source of unflattering nicknames – is kept at arm’s length during Lunar New Year. Find out why

Across Hong Kong, often at the sites of former police and military facilities, mango trees grow. Though it’s rarely acknowledged now, they owe their existence to Sikhs and Punjabis who filled the ranks of both services.

Original express train from Tsim Sha Tsui to the centre of the Chinese city took just 90 minutes, when it started in 1937, before all links were cut with the Communist assumption of power

The Nansen passport – named after a Norwegian Nobel laureate – allowed those left stateless after the first world war to escape, including famous names such as Marc Chagall, Anna Pavlova and Aristotle Onassis

As Hong Kong’s assembly sector flourished, workers sometimes shared the load with family members, including children, to increase production