The late Stanley Tse Kwai-tsun, founder of See Woo, a pioneering Asian grocer in London’s Chinatown, has been commemorated with a green plaque in the famed district. The British capital’s green plaques, launched by the borough of Westminster in 1991, are used to commemorate the “diverse cultural heritage” of the area and highlight buildings “associated with people of renown who have made lasting contributions to society”. Blue plaques represent figures who have lived or worked in the buildings on which they are displayed.
“[The plaque] is a testament to what a truly remarkable businessman and an early adopter my father was. He predicted opportunities and saw what needed to change,” says Lucy Yuk-king Mitchell, Tse’s daughter and the former managing director of See Woo. “Not many people know this, but my father was the first person to import bak choy to the UK.
” The story of See Woo began long before Mitchell was born. The Tse family ran a small grocery store of the same name in Yuen Long, in Hong Kong’s New Territories; the name was chosen by Tse’s uncles, who set up the store. After his father died, his mother and her sister-in-law ran the business.
Meanwhile, Tse left Hong Kong for the UK in 1961 – he was only 17 at the time – following his older brother Issy to find work and support his family. Their brother Tony would follow a few years later. Like many Hong Kong migrants to Britain at the time, Tse ended up working for a number of Chinese re.