Political relations between Taiwan and China are in decline, but culturally the two are forging closer links with Chinese books following the success of its television dramas and pop music in Taiwan.
The Shanghai Bookstore opened in Taipei last month selling Chinese books, which until two years ago were banned in Taiwan, and moved 10,000 copies in the first 10 days, surprising even its owners.
"The sales figures beat our expectations. They are about twice our forecast," said Elias X.K. Tang, manager of the bookstore owned by Linking Publishing Co, a subsidiary of the United Daily News Group.
"It is hoped that our bookstore will emerge as an exchange platform for publishers from the two sides," Tang said.
The bookstore is seen as a watershed development in cross-strait publishing exchanges at a time when Taiwan is engaged in a bitter war of words over Beijing's enactment of its "Anti-Secession" Law aimed at blocking any Taiwanese moves towards independence.
Despite the up-and-down relations, economic links have been growing, with Taiwanese companies having poured US$80 billion into China since 1987. Last month also saw the first direct flights between Taiwan and China.
The two cultures have been mingling too. In recent years Chinese pop stars such as Wang Fei have built up a huge fan base on the island, while television dramas such as Yungzhen Dynasty and Kangxi Empire air on Taiwanese television.
But literature has faced bigger obstacles.
The main problem is due to a difference in the Chinese characters used on either side of the Strait, the story of which mirrors the troubled relations of the two sides.
In the 1950s the communist government in Beijing rewrote its national lexicon, creating a system of simplified characters to replace traditional Chinese characters, which it deemed too complicated.
In response Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government labelled its own system -- also used in Hong Kong and Macau -- as "standard" characters and banned books published in simplified Chinese, although some remained available on the black market.
The ban was conditionally lifted in July 2003 and Taiwan's sales of books printed in simplified Chinese characters are expected to total NT$500 million (US$16.23 million) this year.
The Shanghai Bookstore, located near Tapei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper, is the biggest bookstore in Taiwan selling publications from China.
Among its customers are Taiwanese businessmen seeking information about China's legal system, as well as official economic statistics.
Books about Chinese culture, cuisine, art, history and travel guides are also being snapped up, Tang said.
"I want to buy some books about Shanghai so I can get a picture of that city in advance," said one shopper surnamed Liu, who is about to be posted to Shanghai by her company.
Increasing travel by Taiwanese to China is helping drive the books boom. In 1987 Taiwan lifted a ban on visits to China for family reunions and Tang cited China's official figures estimating that at least 300,000 Taiwanese businesspeople have stayed in Shanghai, and, including their dependents, the number swells to around 1 million.
Another key factor, Tang said, was that just like the other China-made products, Chinese books are relatively cheap.
Soong Chang-shih, a 70 year-old retired professor, said China-printed books cost about one quarter the price of those printed in Taiwan.
"They are really, really cheap although their quality is sometimes not that good," Soong said, pointing to a set of eight books he purchased, including several historical tomes.
An expert on China affairs, Soong said "ideology was wrapped in some of their books."
But despite his cautious attitude toward reading China-printed books, Soong said "cross-strait exchanges are a trend nobody can stop."
Shanghai Bookstore staff are similarly bullish.
Now that books being sold have covered China's 568 major publishers, Tang said: "One day the bookstore might become a new cultural landmark of the city, even attracting Chinese tourists visiting Taipei."
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