When we asked shopkeepers operating Chinese-medicine shops about this, they told us that most of the people who used to apprentice in these traditionally Hakka businesses were from poor families that couldn't provide them with the opportunity to pursue a formal education. Their families would therefore send them to the shops at age 12 or 13 to be apprentices and do odd jobs.
三、讀書識字話客家我們曾訪問新馬客家傳統行業中藥材店，業者表示，過去在藥材店當學徒，叫「學師子」，多是沒有機會唸書的家貧子弟，十二、十三歲就送到中藥店去當學徒打雜。