A Tale of Two Cities
This is a story spanning more than seventy years. It unfolds between Shanghai and Hong Kong, while remaining closely tied to memories of the family’s hometown of Fenghua in Ningbo.
In the early 1950s, following the liberation of Shanghai, many people brought their skills and capital to Hong Kong in search of new opportunities. Among them was 26-year-old Ascot Chang, who had learnt the craft of Hongbang tailoring in Shanghai. With only ten US dollars, he came to Hong Kong to make a living. There, he settled and founded Ascot Chang, a bespoke menswear shop known for its reliable quality, laying the foundation for a family legacy that would continue through the generations.
In the late 1970s, as Ascot’s health began to fail, he asked his son Tony, who had just completed his university studies in the United States to return and help manage the business. Though Tony had known little about tailoring at the outset, he went on to devote more than four decades to the trade. Guided by his father’s exacting standards and commitment to craftsmanship, he followed closely in his footsteps.
In the 1990s, as reform and opening up brought new opportunities to the mainland, Tony returned to Shanghai, where his father had learnt the craft, to open the family’s first shop there and bring the business to a wider market. At the same time, he carried on his father’s commitment to giving back to his hometown by donating funds for a new school building at a village primary school in Fenghua, Ningbo, his father’s birthplace.
To bring the next generation closer to their roots, Tony arranged for his son Justin to teach English at a rural primary school in Fenghua during the summer. Through everyday contact with the local community, Justin came to appreciate more deeply what it means to return home. In recent years, Tony has also begun restoring the family graves, hoping to preserve a place where the family can gather when they return. In this way, the family’s bond reaches beyond Shanghai and Hong Kong, and continues in Fenghua as a lasting connection.
