Special Exhibition of Qing Dynasty Fujian-Taiwan Deeds of Sale (清代閩臺賣身契特展)

So, this is what contracts were like two hundred years ago!!!
Do you think "contracts" are only for modern people?
In fact, during the Qing Dynasty, matters concerning marriage, adoption, sales, and family relationships were already clearly written in black and white.

Special Exhibition of Qing Dynasty Fujian-Taiwan Deeds of Sale
Exhibition Period | February 7 – April 12, 2026 (Year 115)
Venue | Special Collection Room, Kinmen County Cultural Affairs Bureau
Opening Ceremony | February 7, 2026 (Sat) at 10:00 AM

Curated by Zhong Qi-kai and Zhong Ya-yin, this exhibition features over 80 selected deeds of sale and contract documents from Fujian and Taiwan, spanning about two hundred years from the mid-Qing Dynasty to modern times.
The content is beyond imagination—
From adoption, marriage contracts, fostering, and divorce, to "selling sons," "selling maidservants," and "widows remarrying,"
you will see a society without a modern legal code that relied heavily on contracts and witnesses (middlemen) to maintain order.
This batch of precious historical materials comes from the collection of the Zhong Qi-kai and Zhong Ya-yin families, meticulously collected and preserved for over thirty years by their father, Mr. Zhong Jin-shui. This is the first time they have been presented to the public in a large-scale exhibition format.

If you are interested in law, history, social systems,
or simply want to see "how people in the past actually lived their lives"—
this exhibition is well worth a slow look.
Let's step into the lives within the contracts together.