Sym Choon & Co Ltd in Rundle Street

Sym Choon' & Co Ltd was a Chinese family business based in Rundle Street, Adelaide, started by John Sym Choon and his wife, So Yung Moon, who migrated from China to South Australia in the 1890s. John Sym Choon sold fresh fruit and vegetables door to door when he arrived in South Australia. Later he raised enough money to establish a business in 1905 selling imported goods from China, including tea, fireworks and handcrafts. John and So Yung had four children, George, Dorothy, Gladys and Gordon, who were born in Adelaide. 

As the Sym Choon family’s Rundle Street business prospered, they bought further shops along the street in the early 1920s, each owned by one of the brothers and sisters. While Dorothy only rented her shop, the other three ran their own businesses from their shops. The family's original store, under the name of Sym Choon and Company, continued to be run by George.  

Gordon set up his own business further along the road called Gordon S. Choon Nuts Ltd, which mainly sold fireworks and peanuts, but also sold items such as matches, syrup, pickled food (which he pickled himself), paper bags, other nuts, paper cups and ice cream cones. His fireworks were imported both from the Standard Fireworks Company in England, and from the largest fireworks manufacturing company in Hong Kong. The Sym Choons held a virtual monopoly on the sale of fireworks in Adelaide and supplied most of South Australia as well. Dorothy and Gladys established their own shop importing luxury oriental goods, which Gladys ran on her own after Dorothy married Leslie Young (Poy Hing) in 1930 and moved to Sydney. After 1936, Gordon took over the family business and ran it until the 1970s.

Sym Choon & Co colour

Image Courtesy of: History Trust of South Australia