Peninsula reporter Zhang Wenyan
Among the representative figures of the Yexian Gang, the famous Qingdao richest man Liu Zishan is known to everyone, and his legendary experience is similar to Fu Bingzhao, except that he later accumulated strong assets, in addition to the myth of "Liu Bancheng" in the real estate, he also led the financial world.
We have told a lot about the legend of Liu Zishan, and the representative figure of the Yexian Gang that we launched this time is Liu Xisan, who did not win by wealth, but the old brand he founded stood out and still has a place on Zhongshan Road.
The long-established brand is a feature of traditional Chinese business, with a long history and generations of inheritance. Asking about the secret history of the growth of the old brand is to interpret the code of Qingdao's commercial development. There are a number of long-established brands on Zhongshan Road in Qingdao, including Qianzhuang, department stores, tea leaves, sauce gardens, etc. I believe that many Qingdao people can casually say a few: Rui Fengxiang, Chun helou, Hendry, Wan Yuanyong, etc., some of these old brands have disappeared, some still exist, Sheng Xifu is one of them.
Liu Xisan (1896~1982) was a fellow villager of Liu Zishan, a native of Wantou Village, Shahe Town, Ye County (now Laizhou City), whose ancestors made a living as farmers. He first worked in a foreign hotel in Qingdao, because an American businessman who often came to the hotel saw that Liu Xisan was smart and flexible, and he was diligent and diligent, so he invited him to work in the United States. Qingqing & Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between Americans and Chinese to distribute American goods, as well as Chinese goods to the United States. Liu Xisan was assigned to the purchasing department and was tasked with acquiring straw hat braids.
After a period of tempering, Liu Xisan found that the production of straw hat braids was simple, and the supply was sufficient, so why did the money let foreigners earn it? So he and his cousin hit it off, and in 1911, he rented a frontage house in Guijia Hutong, Tianyi Street, Tianjin, and named it Shengju Fu Maozhuang.
At this time, Liu Xisan opened a shop part-time, and the business was quite OK. In 1925, after the death of his cousin, Liu Xisan completely resigned from the position of foreign firm, completely took over the hat village, and changed the address, changing the name of the store to Sheng Xifu. The word "Sheng" is taken from the meaning of Prosperity, "Tin" is taken from one of Liu Xisan's names, and "Fu" is a word in Liu Xisan's nickname "Laifu".
Liu Xisan is very business-minded, and he also registered a trademark with the Tianjin Department: under the three characters of Sheng Xifu, a ring is formed with grass standing, and the three hats in the middle are in the shape of "pin", followed by the four words of "three hats trademark", from top to bottom, it is exactly "xi san". The name of the factory and the trademark are exactly the name of Xi San, which means that the Sheng Xifu founded by Xi San and the "three hats" brand hats manufactured by Xi San are prosperous, and his name will always have the same fate as the hat zhuang.
Since the single hat industry straw hat braid business did not improve, Liu Xisan decided to change. At that time, the hard flat top hat made in Japan was popular, and Liu Xisan immediately decided to improve the process. "He heard that the Qingdao technician Zhou Shaoxi had a masterpiece of bleaching, so he personally went to the door to extend the recruitment of Zhou to Tianjin with a high salary" ("Liu Xisan and Sheng Xifu Hat Zhuang"), and found an advanced machine, such as a tiger to add wings, and immediately won the market with a flat-topped straw hat with a high price. In 1926, he settled the account and received a net profit of more than 100,000 yuan (silver coins).
However, a fire in 1927 burned out Sheng Xifu's assets, and Liu Xisan persevered and argued with reason, and finally received 100,000 yuan (silver coins) in compensation from the insurance company. Subsequently, he made a comeback and rebuilt Sheng Xifu, and this spirit touched many people, and Sheng Xifu's fame also increased greatly.
In order not to smash the brand, Sheng Xifu would rather rework and scrap it, and not allow inferior products to leave the factory. Therefore, at the International Exposition held in the Philippines in 1929, Sheng Xifu's straw braids and straw hats won the first prize, which was the crown of the straw hat industry in East Asia.
Therefore, the first sentence in the old Qingdao's shunkou slip "wearing Sheng Xifu on the head, stepping on the new Shengtai, wearing modest Xiangyi, and wearing Hendry in the hand" is About Sheng Xifu. At that time, hats were not only functional, but also symbols of different statuses: straw hats in summer, felt hats in winter, duck-tongue hats of foreign schools, and top hats with status, which made Sheng Xifu's "top business" very prosperous.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Sheng Xifu has formed a management system that radiates the whole country, in addition to the Tianjin main store and branch, it has also set up semicolons in Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, and has agency offices in Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia.
In 1948, Liu Xisan went to Taiwan to do business, and died of illness in 1982. To this day, the story of Sheng Xifu and Sheng Xifu still exists.