When Hsueh Yun-feng (薛雲峰), a journalist and Hakka scholar was commissioned by the Taipei City Government's Committee for Hakka Affairs to make a study of Taipei's soybean milk stores, he found that more than 70 percent of Taipei's soybean milk stores are run by Hakka people. Of these, 90 percent are from Miaoli's Hsihu village, Chiu's hometown.
"The more stores I visited, the more Hakka people I found. And then, most of the stores trace their roots back to Chiu Feng-tsai," said Hsueh.
"In a way, Chiu has led another immigration of Hakka people through his soybean milk stores," Hsueh added.
Lee Mei-chu (李美珠), who runs a branch of Ssu Hai on Taipei's Chinshan S. Road, remembers well how she learn the skills of making soybean milk.
"I learned from my cousin. My cousin learned from Mr. Chiu's brother's son-in-law. And this son-in-law of course learned from Mr. Chiu's brother, and Chiu's brother naturally learned from Chiu..." said Lee.
According to Lee, among all her schoolmates in Hsihu Junior High School, there were at least 100 who came to Taipei to learn how to run a soybean milk business.
A way out of poverty
Starting up a soybean milk store is not costly, according to Hsueh. The cooking equipment (oven, grinder, fridge and wok) costs less than NT$40,0000. "And the whole process takes less than six months to master," said Chiu.
With this low entry barrier, soybean milk stores have proliferated, but part of the reason for the profusion of Ssu Hai stores is Chiu's own generosity.
In the past 34 years, not a penny has charged hands whenever one of Chiu's relatives and friends have opened a Ssu Hai branch.
"Everybody makes money, so everyone's happy," said Chiu, explaining his "free franchise" policy.
But what happens when their business is better than your store? "It's okay. That's their good fortune," said Chiu calmly.
For Hakka cultural researcher Hsueh, "everybody makes money" reflects a typical Hakka attitude -- sharing good fortune with your own people.
"Hakka people have a migratory nature. And the development of Ssu Hai is a Hakka-style diaspora," said Hsueh. But this has also constrained the store's growth as a Macdonald's-like chain.
"I've never thought of business that way. At the beginning I just wanted to help people. And now, I just run this store to kill time," Chiu said, in his small store on Hoping E. Road. This also explains why, after training over 2,000 pupils, Chiu's own establishment is still a humble one.
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