“Asian Review 032” ― Taiwan part9
Lifestyle proposing commercial facility ― Eslite Bookstore (Vol.1)
Let’s come back to Taipei now. On the site of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, there is the “Songshan Cultural and Creative Building”. It was also designed by Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects, a facility that enhance Taiwan’s creative industry through joint investment by Taipei City and the private enterprise “Fubon Group”.
Now, in Taiwan, “Literary Youth” movement is prevailing. This conception is applied to literary oriented young man and if she were female they call her a “Literary Girl”. The origin of this phenomena is said to come from an app for smartphones called “Literary Camera” with the function of simple modification of the images and adding a “Literary” phrase to the images. It might be something like “Instagram”, I suppose.
It is said that the preferable lifestyle of “Literary Youth” is:
・ to like minor music and movies;
・ to put black frame glasses on:
・ to be skinny and wear skinny pants; and
・ to cherish his own world.
From this, nouns such as “Literary Youthlike” or “Literary Way of Life” were also born and this movement seems to have been penetrating the Taiwanese young people widely for a long time. You can find “45 Characteristics of Literary Youth” on Taiwan’s curation sites, and one of them is “ to like Eslite Bookstore and often goes there”.
In the “Songshan Cultural and Creative Building”, other than creative offices, “Eslite Spectrum Song Yan Branch” occupies the basement, to the 3rd floor above ground, and “Eslite Hotel” operated by Eslite Group is using the east wing from the 3rd floor to 13th floor.
Eslite Bookstore is well known as the biggest bookstore chain. They are also known as the lifestyle proposing bookstore, and I have heard that they display various goods together with books just like the T-Site Daikanyama or Tsutaya Kaden in Futako Tamagawa, which had attracted my attention. In the “Eslite Spectrum Song Yan Branch”, they sell bicycles, accessories and miscellaneous goods, but because I am already familiar with the Tsutaya bookstore, I could not feel any innovative scent nor largeness of the floor. They are surely making efforts in the display of products somehow differently from normal, but still, I felt that something is missing. Anyway, it is certain that “Eslite” is a pioneer who developed a business style called “lifestyle proposing” commercial facility, which is different from the normal bookstore in Taiwan where department store culture is alive. For example, on the first floor of the basement, there is a bakery of Mr. Wu who won the world’s best bakery contest, and many people were waiting in a queue from early in the morning.
“Eslite Hotel” also contains spaces that stimulates the sense of visitors. 5,000 books will welcome you in the lobby which is an element for creating a noble atmosphere. The passage of the movie theater located in the basement second floor is an extremely stylish space with black ceiling like the starry sky, red floor and walls with exposed concrete.
