After finishing at Tamsui Elementary School in 1911, he was admitted to the mechanics department at what is now the Taipei Junior College of Technology. At the time this was no small feat for an ethnic Chinese. In 1917, his excellent academic record got him a job as a technician in the Industry and Commerce Department of the Japanese Governor General's Office, where he started to research beggars and provide them with assistance.
幼時，他進入淡水公學校就讀（今日淡水國小），一九一一年畢業，考入甚少有台人就讀的台北州工業學校機械科（台北工專前身），一九一七年以優異的成績畢業，隨即進入日本總督府工商課，擔任技士職務，並在此期間開始從事乞丐調查、救濟工作。