Yue Hwa Chinese Products

Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium is a family-run business that has been offering Chinese products in Hong Kong for over 50-years.

The brand of Yue Hwa Chinese Products [Photo: baidu.com]

With the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China coming up, the chairman of Yue Hwa is promoting his corporation's role in linking China to the world through Chinese products.

Overseas Chinese have played very important roles in different historical periods in China.

Yu Kwok Chun is an Indonesian overseas Chinese. His fathers created Yue Hwa Chinese Products.

Yu moved to Hong Kong when he was little, moved away to study, then later returned to take over the family business.

The family business that Yu has inherited dates back well into Hong Kong's colonial period.

Today, Yue Hwa owns a department store, a Travel Essentials concept store and over a dozen specialty stores in Hong Kong.

Despite the rise of the mainland into the global marketplace, Yu Kwok Chun says Hong Kong remains a very important junction for Chinese businesses.

"Now we see many overseas Chinese introducing medium-sized and small enterprises from the Chinese mainland into overseas market; they also bring overseas enterprises into the Chinese mainland, and then merge with larger firms there; so the cooperation is on many different levels," Yu said.

Founded in 1959, Yue Hwa Chinese Products specializes in Chinese goods, anywhere from Chinese tea and herbal medicine, to handicrafts and specialties from various Chinese provinces and cities.

It is a family-run business, and has maintained its strong Chinese identity through the years.

Yu Kwok Chen says he hopes to capitalize on this, using Chinese culture as the backbone of his business strategy.

He says a combination of culture and marketing is not just about economic benefits, saying that its also a way to help spread Chinese culture to the rest of the world.

"The qipao, the traditional Chinese dress for a woman, is unique, so we've set up shows to allow local designers to display their designs at our mall. Other national costumes, either from Singapore, Hong Kong, or Southeast Asia, are not only traditional, but are also sometimes blended with Chinese and local culture," Yu noted, "It is a mixed match. I'm happy to see a growing number of foreign brands have recently adopted the qipao style into their designs; it shows that Chinese elements have their own unique advantages."

Beyond promoting culture, Yu Kwok Chen says Chinese-produced products also need to be high quality.

He says high-quality needs to be the standard for everything produced in China.

"We have to guarantee consumers' rights and interests. We double check our products when we receive them from our producers. We test their quality in Hong Kong one more time, until they satisfy Hong Kong's demands and standards. In Hong Kong, there is a lot that has been done through the years to meet the criteria of international standards. A retailer or a company that wants to maintain its brand needs to be responsible for any products that are unsatisfactory," Yu added.

Yu Kwok Chen says he believes as the "Belt and Road" intative develops, more and more overseas Chinese business owners will set up in Hong Kong to take advantage of a city which still blends Chinese and foreign cultures.