Qiu Tian Ci and His Shop, Jin-Tong-Cheng

• Main Authors: Yu-Mei Zou, 鄒玉玫
• Other Authors: zhi-zhang lai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77364878967235192876

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 台灣文化研究所 === 95 === Tainan is the earliest place that started developing in Taiwan. As the saying goes, Tainan was the number one city, followed by Lukang and then Bangka (Today Wanhua), which accurately depicts the important role that Tainan has played in Taiwan history. This research initiates from studying the accounts of Qiu Tian Ci and his family, exploring the development of a big family under certain historical and geographic circumstances in hope to have a better understanding to the previous and forgotten folk history. The research methodology used in this dissertation is the interview techniques in terms of the field research. The database comes from the narrations of Qiu’s family members. The purpose of this research is to reconstruct the Qiu’s family history by means of basic historical research methods, and by drawing out the collective memories of every individual in the family. Jin-Tong-Cheng was the shop’s name that Qiu Tian Ci used during the period of Japanese Occupation. Qiu Tian Ci was born in 1888, in Qing governing period. He opened Jin-Tong-Cheng at the age of 20, selling Japanese groceries. Respected and supported by the same craft, he was elected as the president of Japanese grocery board of trade three times in succession. In the 7th year of the reign of Showa(1932), Japanese set up Suehirocho, an area combining shops and dwelling houses all together, and gained an immediate success. Bearing Japanese successful example in mind, Qiu Tian Ci established his own shopping moll by opening 20 shops in a row on Xi-Men Road, creating the prime of his business career. However, unfortunately, due to World War Two, American started to bomb Tainan city, Qiu Tian Ci led his family to the countryside to take refuge. His shops were ruined by a big fire. After Kuomintang took over Taiwan, Qiu Tian Ci decided to rebuild his shops. In his 64-year life, Qiu Tian Ci had totally spent 11 years building and reconstructing his shops on Xi-Men Road. His effort is not in vain. The shops he set up have brought his descendants lots of rental income, and the name of his shop, Jin-Tong-Cheng, has also become the logo of his family.