Fri, Feb 27, 2015 page4

• Taipei’s used book stores find a niche

  ‘PURCHASING MEMORIES’: Running a successful used-book store requires experience, market knowledge and an eye for hidden treasures, but ‘Wen-Luo-Ting’ is thriving

  • By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
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  Even as many ordinary book stores struggle, an underground network of used and antique book stores has managed to thrive in Taipei’s narrow alleyways and crowded basements.

  Primarily concentrated in the area between National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University, the capital’s used book district is referred to as Wen-Luo-Ting (溫羅汀) in Chinese, referring to the three roads that serve as its arteries: Wenzhou Street, Roosevelt Road and Tingzhou Road.

  Even as Taiwanese publishing houses have been undercut by cheap subsidized books from China and bookstores have struggled in the face of online competition, there remains a niche market for well-managed used-book stores that can move up the value chain, said Chang Chang-yiu (張昌印), owner of Ya-She Used Books (雅舍二手書店) on Roosevelt Road.

  “As we say in the used-book industry: There will always be people who buy new books,” Chang said. “Regardless of whether you purchase books with traditional characters [from Taiwan] or simplified characters [from China], they will all end up here in the end.”

  The experience, market knowledge and keen eye for hidden treasures required to turn a profit sets used-book stores apart from “simpler” book stores marketing new books, he said.

  “Operating a used-book store is profitable because it’s difficult — requiring a lot of information that most people don’t have,” he said. “Operating a new-book store is easy — you sell whatever’s popular and the books come with the price written on the back — but old books are extremely complicated and diverse.”

  The unique dynamics of antique books — the industry’s most profitable niche — have helped shield it from Internet competition, he added.

  “Sometimes you can use the Internet to get rid of low-quality books, but for relatively valuable books, we have to be ‘face-to-face’ because there’s a need to preserve trust,” he said.

  Chang said his store was one of the first to move to the Wen-Luo-Ting district after the third major shakeup of Taipei’s used book industry began, in about 2000. While city’s used book industry was originally concentrated along Guling Street (牯嶺街), the city government by the 1980s had forced the roadside vendors to set up shop in the basement of Guanghua Market (光華商場). Many of the stores in today’s Wen-Luo-Ting district can be traced to these crowded underground stalls.

  “The environment in the -Guanghua Market used to be awful — dirt, stench and dust everywhere,” said Janice Tsai (蔡能寶), owner of Whose Books (胡思二手書店), which is also located on Roosevelt Road. “It was also extremely crowded because the old folks didn’t like to organize their books and insisted on holding on to everything until it sold — so sometimes books that had been there for 30 years went all the way up to ceiling.”

  She said that after helping out at her family’s book stall when she was young, she dreamed of opening a different kind of book store. The narrow alley-side staircase into Whose Books opens up into a spacious two-story establishment, including a small cafe boasting a view of Taipei 101 directly above the main entrance gate to National Taiwan University.

  While most used book stores focus on Chinese-language literature, history and philosophy, Whose Books still bears the signs of its roots in Tianmu — Taipei’s “Little America,” known for its high concentration of foreign residents. Originally located right next to Taipei American School, the store still features a rich selection of foreign-language books, including French, German, Russian, Japanese and Korean sections, in addition to two rows of English books.

  The book store moved to Wen-Luo-Ting for the same reason drawing other book sellers — the heavy foot traffic brought by the surrounding business district, along with the high concentration of students and academics.

  While students and academics are a key market for used books, some of “craziest” customers are ordinary people who purchase books for their sentimental value, Camille Wu (吳雅慧) of Jiu Xiang Ju (舊香居) said.

  “Many people come to purchase books they read when they were young,” she said. “They’re not just purchasing books; they’re purchasing memories.”
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