Ma Ying Piu

Ma Ying-piu (; 21 December 1860 – 15 July 1944) was a Hong Kong retailer and businessman. He founded the Sincere Department Store in 1900, the first Chinese-owned department store in China and is widely regarded as the "father of Chinese department stores".

Early ventures and business career Ma was born in Heungshan (known in Mandarin as Zhongshan) of the Guangdong Province on 21 December 1860. Following his father's footsteps, who had emigrated to Australia two decades before, Ma went to New South Wales at the age of 19 to work in a gold mine. He was also involved in the cultivation of bananas and the fruit trade, which was dominated by Chinese at the time. In 1892, Ma founded the fruit trading firm Wing Sang Company with other Christian Chinese from his village.

A Sincere Department Store in Central, Hong Kong, circa 1941. Ma returned to Hong Kong in 1894 and set up a store. Impressed by the Western model of department stores, Ma opened the Sincere Department Store with other wealthy investors on 8 January 1900 at 172 Queen's Road Central, which became the first Chinese-owned department store in Hong Kong. He also became the first Chinese director of Lingnan College in Canton, to which he made major donations. He supported the anti-Japanese boycott of 1908 in which he spurned Japanese products and replaced them with locally made products. He also helped set up the East Canton Red Cross Society to relieve men wounded in the Wuchang Uprising.

Ma and his wife were vocal critics of the mui tsai system, a form of child slavery prevalent in colonial Hong Kong. Mrs. Ma was also the founding member of the YWCA Hong Kong chapter.

Family He married Fok Hing-tong (1872–1957), second daughter of Fok Ching-shang, the Vicar of St. Stephen's Anglican Church. Fok Hing-tong accompanied Ma to Australia and helped out his business. She also doubled as a saleswoman on occasion. She co-founded the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Hong Kong and became its chairwoman (1920–23) and director (1920–28, 1948–57). Under her leadership, the YWCA strongly supported the anti-mui tsai movement in the 1920s. The couple had 13 children, of which the fourth son, Ma Man-fai, was a social activist.