The Story Of Ah Qiu

There are two fishhead steamboat places along Jalan Sultan, one at the junction with North Bridge Road and another at the junction with Victoria Street. Both have the name of "Nan Hua Chang" on their signboards, but the former has the words "Ah Qiu" added behind its name (in brackets).

"Are they the same?" queried my bewildered sister.

"No," I answered.

"Are they different branches?"

"Not really," I said as I heard you chuckling. So I began to tell sis the story of Ah Qiu.

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The original Nan Hua Chang fishhead steamboat was started by Ah Qiu and his wife at Sims Avenue near Aljunied MRT station. We are not sure if the recipe of the flavourful soup was Ah Qiu's or his wife, but it was very popular. On an average night, patrons wait for about 45 minutes before they are served.

Unfortunately, Ah Qiu and his wife ended their marriage. Ah Qiu gave up Nan Hua Chang at Sims Avenue to his wife and attempted to start a new branch. He found a partner who was willing to support him financially and started another Nan Hua Chang at the junction of Jalan Sultan and Victoria Street.

Soon, the same flavourful soup at the new branch started attracting attention and business flourished.

Ah Qiu's partner decided to expand the business and opened another Nan Hua Chang branch at Jalan Besar. However, he did it without Ah Qiu's knowledge, likely without offering Ah Qiu a share in the new branch.

Ah Qiu was furious. But what was he to do? He was financially too weak to end the partnership. Yet, how could he continue to work with such a partner?

It seemed too much of a coincidence, but just when Ah Qiu was pondering about the future of his business, he struck the lottery. Now he was financially abled and he decided to break the partnership to start his own branch of Nan Hua Chang diagonally opposite to his partner's branch to challenge his partner.

Thus the Nan Hua Chang at the junction of Jalan Sultan and North Bridge Road came into existence. Ah Qiu added his own name to the now famous brand of "Nan Hua Chang" so as to differentiate it from the other branches.

With such direct competition, Ah Qiu's ex-partner soon gave up the branch at Jalan Besar.

And so it is today that there are three branches of Nan Hua Chang in Singapore, the original one at Sims Avenue and two later branches along Jalan Sultan.