{"id":5367,"date":"2026-02-27T20:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/?p=5367"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:16:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:16:56","slug":"commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"APR 1 – Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us for an engaging talk with Professor Lin Yu-ju titled “Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan” on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 3:30-5:00 p.m., at Tateuchi East Asia Library 2M Seminar Room.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This talk focuses on Wang Ruzhen \u738b\u6c5d\u798e (1880\u20131953), who came from a family of civil servants, and his business, the Jinyixing Firm \u91d1\u7fa9\u8208\u865f. It explores how Wang Ruzhen, operating from a relatively disadvantaged position, managed to build a successful business and achieve upward mobility during the regime shift from the Qing dynasty to Japanese colonial rule. The research draws on primary sources such as the Nagasaki Taiyi Firm\u2019s documents, household registration records, newspapers, an autobiography, and travel permits to analyze the development of the Jinyixing Firm\u2019s operations amid the shifting political and economic dynamics. Further exploring the transformation of Wang Ruzhen\u2019s status as a merchant, and how he adapted to the new era of modern business practices, ultimately demonstrating the commercial resilience of Taiwanese merchants under colonial rule.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lin Yu-ju \u6797\u7389\u8339 is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, and a Professor of History at the National Taipei University.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by the Tateuchi East Asia Library and the Taiwan Studies Program.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join us for an engaging talk with Professor Lin Yu-ju titled “Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan” on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 3:30-5:00 p.m., at Tateuchi East Asia Library 2M Seminar Room.\u00a0 This talk focuses on Wang Ruzhen \u738b\u6c5d\u798e (1880\u20131953), who came from a family of civil<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":5371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","region-east-asia","region-taiwan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAPR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"APR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Join us for an engaging talk with Professor Lin Yu-ju titled “Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan” on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 3:30-5:00 p.m., at Tateuchi East Asia Library 2M Seminar Room.\u00a0 This talk focuses on Wang Ruzhen \u738b\u6c5d\u798e (1880\u20131953), who came from a family of civil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Taiwan Studies Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-27T20:38:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-13T17:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tin Yu Pak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tin Yu Pak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/\",\"name\":\"APR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-27T20:38:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-13T17:16:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/b7ac3f69ddb950e9f7e11a9228ed37d6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"\\\"Matsu Nangan Heavenly Empress Palace\\\" by rvandermaar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"APR 1 – Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/\",\"name\":\"Taiwan Studies Program\",\"description\":\"Educating students and the public on Taiwan\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/b7ac3f69ddb950e9f7e11a9228ed37d6\",\"name\":\"Tin Yu Pak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b9736af9cac4dddbd519701faae7502?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b9736af9cac4dddbd519701faae7502?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tin Yu Pak\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/author\/tinpak\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"APR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"APR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program","og_description":"Join us for an engaging talk with Professor Lin Yu-ju titled “Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan” on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 3:30-5:00 p.m., at Tateuchi East Asia Library 2M Seminar Room.\u00a0 This talk focuses on Wang Ruzhen \u738b\u6c5d\u798e (1880\u20131953), who came from a family of civil","og_url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/","og_site_name":"Taiwan Studies Program","article_published_time":"2026-02-27T20:38:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-13T17:16:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tin Yu Pak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tin Yu Pak","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/","name":"APR 1 - Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan - Taiwan Studies Program","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-27T20:38:43+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-13T17:16:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/b7ac3f69ddb950e9f7e11a9228ed37d6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2026\/02\/32588775707_0ae954792c_b-750x527.jpg","width":1024,"height":720,"caption":"\"Matsu Nangan Heavenly Empress Palace\" by rvandermaar is licensed under CC BY 2.0."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2026\/02\/27\/commercial-resilience-between-the-cracks-of-empires-a-leading-seafood-merchant-in-southern-taiwan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"APR 1 – Commercial Resilience between the Cracks of Empires: A Leading Seafood Merchant in Southern Taiwan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/","name":"Taiwan Studies Program","description":"Educating students and the public on Taiwan","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/b7ac3f69ddb950e9f7e11a9228ed37d6","name":"Tin Yu Pak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b9736af9cac4dddbd519701faae7502?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b9736af9cac4dddbd519701faae7502?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tin Yu Pak"},"url":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/author\/tinpak\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5367"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5404,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5367\/revisions\/5404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}