The Dunhua Eslite branch is to shut up shop at the end of this month. During a news conference held on the afternoon of April 23, Mercy Wu, chairwoman of Eslite Spectrum Corp, spoke candidly about the bookstore founded by her father Robert Wu, and about how it stirred up emotions inside her still. She also spoke of her decision, made in this very store, not to study overseas, and instead to stay in Taiwan to run the store with her father. When speaking about the special place the bookstore had in her heart, she compared it to the rose in the Little Prince.
On the difficulties of running a bookstore, in addition to the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Wu acknowledged that many bookstores had been hit with a 40 percent drop in business, but that this had not dented her resolve to keep a store open 24 hours. For Wu, 24-hour opening was a promise that the bookstore had made to the area, and the Xinyi branch would remain open for 24 hours, even if it was not actually making money. She added that this would not change, whatever happens.
Also, Wu said that the Dunhua S. Rd bookstore, apart from being the store her father had run, was also the store that she found, when she was a girl, that teachers would go to buy books, and she remembered this filling her with pride. She also remembered being more than a little shocked when she later discovered that she still had to pay for the books she wanted to buy, even if her own father owned the store.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Liberty Times照片：自由時報記者張慧雯
She also said that, after she graduated, she had originally planned to study overseas, and that her father had agreed, even encouraging her to travel around after she had completed her studies to get a bit of experience and expand her horizons. When the two of them were reading books and having a coffee in the store one day, she suddenly asked her father about how the store was doing, and how he felt about her joining him in running it. This set her on a different path, and she joined Eslite, setting father and daughter on the road to running the company as a team.
Wu said that the Dunhua S. Rd Eslite branch had too many memories of her father and, to her, just like the Little Prince and the rose, they had planted and nurtured it themselves, and even listened to it boast of its own beauty. As far as the Little Prince was concerned, the rose was something utterly unique, and completely irreplaceable. In the same way, the Dunhua S. Rd branch was unique, and had a place in her heart that could never be occupied by any other bookstore.
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
敦南誠品即將於本月底謝幕，誠品生活董事長吳旻潔四月二十三日下午親自召開記者會，面對這家由父親吳清友開的書店，她坦言「近鄉情怯」，更是在這裡決定「不出國留學、和父親一起經營誠品」。對於這間特別的書店，她也以小王子故事中那朵玫瑰來比喻：「是心中別具意義的書店」。
面對書店經營的艱困，再加上武漢肺炎疫情肆虐，吳旻潔坦承許多書店營業額都掉了四成，但這並不影響誠品對於經營二十四小時書店的決心，她認為，二十四小時書店是誠品對這片土地的承諾，即便書店不賺錢，但二十四小時書店還是要在信義店繼續營運、絕不因任何理由間斷。
而敦南書店對吳旻潔來說，除了是父親經營的書店外，她也說小時候發現老師們都在誠品看書買書，心中覺得非常驕傲，但後來發現「就算是爸爸開的書店，買書也是要付錢」，讓她大吃一驚。
此外，吳旻潔也說，畢業後原本想出國念書，爸爸也同意，還鼓勵她出國後要多旅遊、增廣見識，但就在敦南誠品一起看書、喝咖啡時，她突然問了吳清友「書店現在經營得怎麼樣？那我進誠品你覺得怎麼樣？」就這麼一個轉折，讓她一腳踏進誠品，父女倆一同走上經營書店之道。
對吳旻潔來說，敦南誠品有太多和父親的回憶，在她心中，如同小王子書中的那朵玫瑰，他親自栽種、親自照顧、傾聽玫瑰的吹噓，對小王子來說，這朵玫瑰是世界上獨一無二的。敦南誠品，也是吳旻潔心中獨一無二的，擁有其它書店無可取代的地位。
(自由時報)
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