Industrial Development in Shau Kei Wan
筲箕灣工業發展
During the 19-20th century, both local and foreign corporations set up their factories in Shau Kei Wan due to the low land cost. Many of their factories were located in this area, such as Fung Keong Rubber Manufactory and Chun Hing Bakery, Biscuit & Confectionery Manufactory. It showed that Shau Kei Wan was not merely a fishing town but also a region for manufacturing and quarrying.
In the late 1960s, Governor Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell announced the clearing of squatter huts due to serious pirating and security issues and revamped the region which is now known as Main Street East in Shau Kei Wan. The street contained stores that mainly served fishermen such as fishing tackle shops, gold shops and shops for selling paper offerings because of the demographics at that time.
Junk builders, Shau Kei Wan, 1946
製帆船工人, 地點是筲箕灣, 攝於 1946 年。
Because of the multiple reclamations between the 1910s and 1990s, damages to boats due to Typhoon Wanda in 1962, the ban on trawling, and industrial transformation, some boat people no longer live on the sea or earn a living through fishing, leading to the decline of the shipbuilding industry in Shau Kei Wan.
19-20世紀，筲箕灣低廉的地價吸引大量企業在此設廠，區內工廠林立，如馮強樹膠廠、振興糖果餅乾麵包製造廠等，使該區成為漁業、工商業、打石業共同發展的區域。
水上人的生活與筲箕灣的建設環環相扣。開埠初期該區海盜為患，1960年代末，港督麥當奴下令清拆寮屋以改善安全和衛生問題，改建為現今的東大街，昔日店舖主要服務漁民，如漁具店、金舖、紙紮舖等。
1910-1990年代多次的填海工程、颱風溫黛吹毀船隻、禁止拖網捕魚及產業轉型等因素，令水上人開始「上岸」並對船隻需求減少，筲箕灣造船業亦因此逐漸式微。