Then & NowOnline shopping might be new, but Hongkongers have long bought from overseas

Hong Kong’s much-vaunted reputation as a shopping paradise has always been more tourism industry hyperbole than cold hard fact; a century ago, this was no different. Online shopping has largely superseded mail order catalogues in recent years, but the phenomenon of ordering certain goods unavailable here from overseas, in personal quantities, has a long local history.

As a glance at advertising hoardings around Hong Kong can attest, “Made in the United States” remains a sought-after imprimatur of perceived (if not always actual) quality and reliability for a vast array of consumer goods. Montgomery Ward and Co., established in Chicago in 1872, exported their entire stock worldwide by mail order, and Hong Kong’s then-tiny middle class were enthusiastic purchasers.

The telegraph – much like the modern internet – facilitated rush orders and the international transfer of funds to pay for them; within a few days of a purchase being confirmed, goods would be on their way from the Midwest, halving the delivery time of an order form and cheque sent by mail, which would itself have taken several weeks to arrive.

And what did Hong Kong shoppers send away for? Furniture and fittings that were otherwise unobtainable in the Far East (unless they were made to order locally, sometimes with curious results) or else available with only a limited product range.

Entire bathrooms could be ordered. In these years, an “American-style” bathroom, with hot and cold running water, gas-powered geysers, porcelain enamel baths and vitreous China sinks and toilets, were considered the absolute height of luxury; most bathrooms in the Far East offered little more than lidded commodes, Shanghai jars for bathing water, and bare concrete drains, which remained standard fittings in many places well into the 1940s. Most of Europe was little better off.