Located in the underbelly of one of Taipei's busiest highway bridges, Kuanghwa Market (
Shoppers in this cramped rabbit warren-like market are greeted by a floor peppered with the remnants of chewed gum, filthy walls and air thick with the lingering odor of stale sweat.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
But then the tens of thousands of people who flock to the indoor market on any given weekend aren't there for the decor. They also aren't there for the ambiance. There is, after all, little solace and even less enjoyment in being pushed, shoved and elbowed by hundreds of shoppers all of whom are either walking in opposite directions or coming to sudden standstills in a corridor that measures less than 1.5m in width.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Perhaps out of necessity, most of the shoppers take the gridlock in stride. It's all part of the experience of shopping at Kuanghwa Market.
You get what you get
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I think the crowds and pushing and shoving are some of the things that makes the market unique," explains Big Huang (
It's not only teenagers like Huang who believe the constant melee is one of the market's endearing characteristics. Ko Rui-tai (
"You only have to look at how many people visit the new underground shopping mall built near the train station to see how odd the situation there is," says Ko. "The corridors are wide, the paint work fresh and the stores well lit and with plenty of space for shoppers to browse. Here it's the complete opposite, but we still see more people coming here to shop on weekends than that new mall could ever hope to see. Secretly, I think people in Taiwan like bumping into other people while they shop."
So despite, or maybe because of the large crowds and cramped environment, the market has become one of the most popular and frequented markets in Taipei since it opened in 1973.
"The market has always been a popular feature of the city. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the numbers of people coming here really grew to the numbers that we have today," Ko said. "I guess the reason the place has become so popular has a lot to do with the way in which the market has grown over the years."
Currently, shoppers at the market can find everything from computer software to VCD hardcore pornography, the latest Nike sneakers and even Rambo knives. When it first opened, however, the market specialized in more cerebral pastimes.
A book lover's hideout
Opened as part of a city government plan to rid the sidewalks of street-side vendors, the maze of stores that sit entombed under the Kuanghwa Bridge (
The basement level boasted more than 20 small bookstores trading in comic books, periodicals, legal tomes and adult literature, among other genres. The ground floor, meanwhile, was filled with antique stores stocked with treasures from bygone and not-so-bygone days.
"At the time, collecting secondhand books was almost as popular a pastime as toying with home computers is today," Ko said. "The antiques stores did a good trade, but it was the secondhand bookstores that were popular with the majority of the patrons."
By the early 1980s, however, antiques were no longer the fashionable items they once had been. Stores trading in secondhand books continued to do a steady business, but the numbers of antiques sellers dwindled to a handful.
By 1983 the market's ground floor antiques shops had been edged out by electronics stores selling the latest in stereo equipment. At the same time, the number of secondhand bookstores in the basement continued to grow.
"The early 1980s was an interesting time at the market. The ground floor became an electronics market and the material sold by many of the bookstores changed to suit the times," Ko said.
"The age of the people who came here changed. Instead of elderly people coming to browse antiques, young people began coming to purchase the newest stereo system. To cash in on the trend, a lot of the bookstores began to specialize in cartoon books, which they figured were more suited to the market's younger clientele."
Moving into the computer age
For nearly 10 years the electronics stores at Kuanghwa Market were the city's leading retailers of electronic gadgetry and stereo equipment.
While the stores continued to do a roaring trade throughout the 1980s, the market's reputation became somewhat sullied.
Counterfeit electronic products and bootleg video and audio cassettes began to appear on store shelves in large numbers. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, a trip to Kuanghwa Market became synonymous with the purchase of cheap, shady goods.
Needless to say, the market's tarnished image upset the legitimate sellers and the shop owners' committee. Since then, Ko and the committee have been busy trying to bolster the market's image. Spot raids by the police, numerous closed-circuit TV cameras and an office where unhappy customers can air their complaints have resulted in a marked drop in sales of pirated and faulty goods.
"About 10 years ago, the market was plagued with traders selling illegal software, videos and so on, but thankfully the numbers have dropped quite dramatically since then," Ko said.
"The police now do spot checks on the market and anybody caught selling such goods will be prosecuted and run the chances of losing their store in the market, which means that it's really not worth it for a shop owner to bother selling counterfeit goods."
The crackdown on pirated goods sold by storekeepers might have proven successful, but the market now has a new problem. Unscrupulous traders in pirated software have recently taken to setting up shop on the sidewalk adjacent to the market out of sight of the security cameras and the roaming security guards.
As the price of PCs dropped in the mid-1990s the market was once again transformed. Electronic goods slowly went the way of the antiques shops 10 year earlier and by the late 1990s, the market had become one huge computer emporium.
Unlike the previous change in direction experienced by the market, the advent of the computer age marked the end of the line for many of the once popular secondhand bookstores. Mostly what one finds now in the basement bookstores are back issues of Playboy and Japanese comic books.
"There's just no market in classic novels or weighty books of merit here anymore. I guess it all changed when computer stores opened upstairs and the age of visitors dropped radically," said bookstore owner Lee You-ming (
"Until 10 years ago the basement was where you'd find elderly gentlemen sitting, reading magazines and chatting. Now I don't think the elderly would dare to come in here. And if they did, I don't think they'd like what they'd see."
Relocation?
The bottom has clearly fallen out of the secondhand book market and it probably won't be long before the roof comes down on Kuanghwa Market entirely, as Taipei City Government is considering plans to demolish the Kuanghwa Bridge.
The Taipei City Market Administration Department (
According to a spokesperson for the department, no date has yet been set for the demolition of the road bridge, nor has a plan been finalized vis-a-vis the relocation of stores to Hwashang.
"I don't expect anything to happen for at least three years," Ko said of the relocation. "It will be nice to move to a newer and cleaner location, but as the government has yet to come to any decision about when and where we will be moving to, I'm certainly not holding my breath in anticipation of moving into the proposed underground shopping mall. After all, the market has prospered in these conditions for 30 years, and I think everyone is used to it, shoppers included."
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