The last remaining book rental store in Changhua County’s Lukang Township (鹿港) has closed down, as its business struggled against the rise of the Internet and smartphones.
Couple Chao Chuan-fu (趙全復) and Huang Shu-hui (黃淑惠), who run the Golden Joy Book Rental Store, said they are clearing out more than 100,000 comic books and novels, as they bid farewell to their store.
Taiwan’s book rental industry has a history of more than 100 years, with records dating back to 1907 during the Japanese colonial era.
Photo: Liu Hsiao-hsin, Taipei Times
It became widespread after the 1960s, fueling the popularity of martial arts and romance novels.
The introduction of Japanese manga brought the industry to new heights in the mid-1980s, and it peaked around 2000 with more than 4,000 companies in Taiwan.
However, it started to decline in 2010 due to the increasing popularity of the Internet and smartphones.
By 2023, there were only 312 book rental stores in Taiwan.
Like records and CDs, it seems as though physical books are slowly fading into the past.
In the 1990s, there were three book rental stores in Lukang Township, Huang said.
Back then, students and other customers filled the store every day, she said, adding that the store was open year-round and either she or her husband always had to manage it, which meant they could never travel together.
Their store has been the only book rental shop in Lukang for the past 10 years, and their business did not improve despite the loss of competition, Huang said.
Subsidies from the Ministry of Culture kept them afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the subsidies ended it became hard to pay rent, she said.
They decided to close their business and retire, clearing out more than 100,000 books, she said.
Outside of Lukang in neighboring Changhua City, there is one book rental shop, Shuhsiangko (書香閣), which has been open for 36 years.
The couple that runs the store, Chen Chih-feng (陳誌逢) and Hsu Kuei-ying (徐桂英), said they have been able to maintain the business because they own the property and do not need to worry about rent.
Students no longer frequent the shop, and their customers are mostly middle-aged, the couple said.
They now run the business for their own well-being and enjoy seeing long-time customers return with their children, they said.
In the past, book rental stores often opened near high schools and colleges, because the main customer base was young students, said Huang (黃), who used to run a book rental store in Changhua City.
When he first entered the industry, his monthly profit was about NT$100,000, Huang said.
As young people became increasingly drawn to smartphones and electronic games, book rental stores lost business and he had to close his store, he said.
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