歐洲在十九世紀後半期，發展出了百貨公司，其核心在於合理主義與符號消費，在一體化的空間中演出壯觀的消費文化與都市機能。而臺灣則在日治時期由日本人引入了由其轉譯後的百貨公司文化，並強調文化教養與品味。而同時，上海也形塑了自身的百貨公司文化，在一體化的空間中加入了遊樂場與戲院的功能空間。戰後，臺灣在戰時經濟體制下，僅有購物形式的小型百貨行，一直到1960年代才再度出現了大型百貨公司，這些百貨公司多由「上海商人」創辦，開啟了1960至1970年代中，臺灣的上海系百貨公司的時代：西方百貨公司的概念由中國上海式站在檯面上詮釋，日治時期的日本百貨公司文化隱沒，但卻未曾消失。

Department stores first appeared in Europe in the late 19th century. At the core of such stores was rationalism and symbolic consumption, which demonstrated spectacular consumer culture and urban functions in an integrated space. In Taiwan, during the Japanese colonial period, rule, the Japanese brought in the western-style department store culture, which emphasized cultural education and taste. In the meantime, a unique department store culture was also developing in Shanghai, adding playground and theaters to the integrated space. After the Second World War broke out, under the wartime economic system in Taiwan, only a small number of the so-called ‘department stores’ remained open shopping. It was not until the 1960s that large department stores appeared again. Shanghai businessmen founded most of these department stores, and they started the era of Shanghai-style department stores in the 1960s to the mid-1970s in Taiwan: the concept of Western department stores as interpreted by the Chinese Shanghai style stood in the foreground, while the Japanese department store culture from the Japanese colonial period subsided but never disappeared.