|
By Go Bon Juan
Editor’s note: The Sixth Dr. Jose P. Rizal
Awards for Excellence awarding ceremony will be held at 7 p.m., June
14, at the Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center on Anda and Cabildo
streets, Intramuros, Manila.
During the first half of the 20th century, many
Chinese were into small retail trade or the so-called sari-sari
store (in Chinese, cai zi dian, tsai-a-tiam) that spread throughout
the country, even in remote areas.
The Chinese retail traders had reached even
isolated areas. Even the American governor general in the
Philippines, J. Ralston Hayden, had an encounter with a Chinese
sari-sari storeowner in Mindanao. The incident is documented in the
article “Chinese in the Islands,” which appeared in the
Fifteenth Anniversary Souvenir of Iloilo Chinese Chamber of Commerce
(1961).
The article says: “In 1931, Vice Governor
General J. Ralston Hayden traveled by river boat, horseback and on
foot across Mindanao from Cotabato to Davao over a route now
traversed by a modern road. The center of the island trail, which in
places had to be hacked open by bolos, wound through virgin forest
inhabited by primitive people. In the heart of this wild country was
found a small tienda—just a counter, dozen shelves and a place to
sleep. The proprietor, a Chinese, was absent, but Hayden and his
party met him on the trail. [He was] returning from Davao with two
Manobo cargadores [cargo bearers] who carried on their backs his
slender stock on trade.”
This story pictures vividly how the pioneer
Chinese started their business in remote places in the Philippines.
Doing business in far-flung areas was a big challenge back then,
probably beyond the imagination of modern-day people, even among
young Chinese. Who dares to go into this kind of business now? Who
can bear with this kind of hardship? But that is how our forefathers
started their businesses.
Based on statistics, there were 12,087 Chinese
sari-sari stores in the country in 1948, including 334 in Cotabato
and 491 in Davao.
|
