The story of the “textile oxen”

The 1980s saw the full economic glory of Taiwan. There were industry success stories everywhere. The legend of the Bihua Street textile oxen was made by a group of hardworking people who left their homes to seek fortune.

When the textile industry was growing fast in the 1970s and 1980s, textile shops lined Bihua Street with an unprecedented density. Rolls of textile were quite heavy and difficult to carry. Thus shop owners called themselves “textile oxen”, meaning the work was as exhausting as that of a working ox.