Exhibitor’s Stories

Mrs. Tang (Optical shop owner)

“Mickey Mouse” glasses | Woo Ping Optical

Mr. and Mrs. Tang are Overseas Chinese in Cambodia. In the 1970s, Mr. Tang ran a gold shop named “Woo Ping” (meaning Peace) after his first name “Ping”. Due to political instability and the worry of cash depreciation, many people traded gold and that made Mr. Tang’s gold shop a hit. With the outbreak of the Cambodian Civil War, the Tangs moved to Hong Kong and settled in Fortress Hill. The name “Woo Ping” became more meaningful during the chaos of war, so they kept the name “Woo Ping” and transformed the shop into an optical shop.

Woo Ping Optical has been in business for nearly 50 years. Exquisite styles from different eras can be found in the shop. It is a treasure hunt for fans of spectacles. Mrs. Tang is very proud of her f inds, and she would purchase in bulk from the closing-out sale of other optical shops despite her husband’s objection. The wide selection in the shop sparks Mrs. Tang’s creativity to design one-of-a-kind glasses. She once set amphiboles into a thousand pairs of glasses. She also combined two pairs of glasses together. There is a pair of glasses named “Mickey Mouse” in the shop. Two pairs of flippable lenses were added to make it a total of three pairs of lenses in one frame. The plain, tinted and mirror-coated lenses are all interchangeable, which looks very fun and playful.