Fujian Customs: The Origin Of Taiwan Footwear Industry In Fuzhou

Downtown Fuzhou Nan Hou Street is a thousand year old street that still flows the ancient flavor. Many people can not imagine that this old street has a cutting edge with the footwear industry in Taiwan.

"The early stage of Taiwan shoe industry is spread from Fuzhou to Taiwan." Xie Guoxing, academician and historian of Taiwan Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with Fuzhou News Agency reporter in 10. Taiwan scholars, including Xie Guoxing, who participated in the seminar on "three lanes, Seven Lanes and Taiwan", visited Fuzhou's South back street and looked forward to finding the older generation of Fuzhou shoe makers.

A hundred years ago, as the most bustling block in old Fuzhou, there was a lot of handicraft in Nan Hou Street. leather shoes Make a master. Later, some Fuzhou leather shoes masters went to Taiwan to make a living, and spread the leather shoes production craft to Taiwan. Xie Guoxing found a historical data in 1917. There were 112 mainland shoe makers who came to Taiwan, including 50 in Fuzhou.

Xie Guoxing said, "this is a very interesting side of cross-strait exchanges". Tainan was located in Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty, and later remained the main city of Taiwan. Therefore, shoemaking technology was developed, and the technology was mainly inherited from the "Fuzhou Gang" leather shoes master, and later developed into Taichung. Traditional system at that time footwear industry Basically, it is made by hand, usually in front of the street house, and behind the floor is the manual workshop commonly known as "Aboriginal field".

The "Fuzhou Gang" master took the beginning of the development of Taiwan footwear industry. The "beauty leather shoes" set up in Taichung City in 1934 is still operating.

Xie Guoxing said, "all American leather shoes" entrepreneurs are Cai Moutian and Cai Mouquan brothers. At that time there was no leather shoes shop in the water. They invited the master of Fuzhou to work in the shop and taught skills. Cai Mouquan and another brother Cai Tsai were studying in the shop. Cai learned to smoke, first opened in Taipei, and became a famous leather shoe master in the middle and southern part of Taiwan in the 70s of last century.

The 20 years from the middle of last 60s to the middle of 80s were the heyday of the export of rubber shoes in Taiwan. At that time, both leather shoes and sports shoes depended on the skills and techniques of traditional leather shoes masters. At that time, the Taiwan sports shoe factory, which was deeply influenced by the "Fuzhou Gang" leather shoes master, made a great momentum, including the Qing Lu Group in Tainan, the Zhongjie shoe industry in Taichung, and the Jinchang group in the northern part of Taiwan.

According to Xie Guoxing, Su Qinglu, the boss of the Qing Lu Group, is a standard learner in Tainan's leather shoes "Chai Tsai Chang", the standard Fuzhou apprentice apprentice, and Liu Xinguo, the owner of Zhongjie shoes, went to Tainan to learn to make leather shoes from Fuzhou master's office. Jinchang was formerly known as the "Fujian Taiwan quilt shoes factory", which is located in Xinbei City, and He Ruiqin, the founder of He Ruiqin, learned shoe making technology from her grandfather in Fuzhou.

In the 80s of last century, the most important two manufacturers of working shoes and casual shoes in Taiwan, the "Fujian and Taiwan" created by He Ruiqin and the "general purpose" created by Cai Mouquan, all belong to the inheritance and development of Fuzhou master's technology system.

In 1986, the total number of shoes exported to Taiwan reached the peak, a total of 841 million pairs. After that, due to the impact of the appreciation of the Taiwan dollar and the increase of land and labor costs, the scenery was gradually lost. In the late 80s of last century, Taiwan's main shoe companies, such as Fujian, Taiwan, general motors, Qing Lu, Baocheng, Fengtai, nine Xing and Yong en international, set up factories in mainland China. Among them, Qing Lu invested in factories in Fuzhou in 1989. Fuzhou Economic Development Zone, Fuzhou Lianjiang Aojiang investment area, Fuzhou Fuxing Investment Zone and Fuzhou Gushan investment zone all have factories in Qing Lu. In 2011, Qing Lu lived in fifth of Fujian's top 500 enterprises.

For the development of Qing Lu in Fuzhou, Xie Guoxing likened it to "draw a circle across the Straits". He said that after the modern footwear industry in Taiwan moved to the mainland, the factory area, staff and output expanded ten times. Currently, it is still the most important foundry production partner of the world's major brand sports shoes, casual leather shoes and work shoes.

Xie Guoxing said that the fundamental technology of Taiwan footwear industry is the inheritance and development of the technology handed down by Fuzhou shoe makers. "This special marriage is also an important chapter in the history of relations between the two sides."