Vinyl Spaces —A Musical Time Machine

Cathy Teng　/　photos Chuang Kung-ju　/　tr. by Geof Aberhart

June 2017

中文日本語

Manifesto Vinyl Club executive director Zooey Lee (right)

Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) gently places a record on the turntable, puts the needle down. As the music begins to flow forth, he flicks the switches to turn on the prison intercom, filling the lock-up with the soprano sounds of The Marriage of Figaro. For a moment, the men behind the bars stop, raise their heads, and listen to the heavenly serenade.

In this memorable scene from 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, not only were the prisoners moved by the incomparable singing, but in the words of Red (Morgan Freeman), as that music filled every corner of the prison, “It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”

Truly, music always gives us more through the sharing of it.

Vinyl Spaces -- A musical Time Machine

Donate vinyl, share the sound

Located in Zhubei City, Hsinchu County, Manifesto Vinyl Club is dedicated to the sharing of music. The founder of Manifesto is a successful entrepreneur whose father is a longtime vinyl lover, but was getting old and rarely had the chance to listen to the collection of thousands of records that sat idle in their home. Thinking this a shame, he told his father he had a friend that wanted to buy the collection, paying for them on behalf of his actually invented “friend” to help his father out while also starting to realize his own dream of giving a second wind to second-hand vinyl.

Vinyl records were the biggest music format of the 20th century, providing the soundtracks to untold numbers of youths. But in the face of the implacable march of technology, vinyl began to fall from favor, piling up and gathering dust in various homes until some people began thinking of trying an experiment in sharing vinyl.

Manifesto Vinyl Club executive director Zooey Lee joined the effort in its early days in 2015. Starting from scratch, she sought out a dozen or so experts in vinyl and began to understand how incredibly precious vinyl could be in the market, especially given how easily records are scratched and damaged. Collectors will generally not lightly even lend out records unless it’s to a like-minded friend, and this is a big part of why Manifesto hopes to share the sound of vinyl with more people.

Zooey Lee shares the story of one donor, Wang Qiongjuan, who stumbled across her late father’s vinyl collection while cleaning up the family home. The albums covered a vast array of genres, a far cry from the image she had had of her father, and bringing her a little closer to the man he really was. Later, she donated the records, often bringing her own children in and making listening to vinyl a family custom.

Manifesto Vinyl Club has a calm atmosphere that helps listeners relax and listen.

The classic sound of vinyl

In addition to sharing music, another mission of Manifesto is to introduce the younger generations to vinyl. Many of those who grew up in the age of digital and streaming music can find the delicate nature of vinyl difficult to understand, from carefully extracting the album from its sleeve, through placing it on the turntable and wiping the dust off, to moving the tone arm and putting the stylus down. With digital formats, all you need to do is press a button, but while simple, digital audio lacks the warmth, purity, and sense of being right there that vinyl can bring.

The club not only lends out albums, but also provides a dedicated listening room and high-quality sound systems, helping visitors get the full, warm vinyl experience. Their digital lab, meanwhile, offers conversions from vinyl to digital, helping preserve musical classics.

In its effort to share the joy of vinyl and pass on family memories, Manifesto Vinyl Club has expanded to three more locations, all in the Greater Taipei area. Each has its own style and customers, and the original location in Zhubei provides each with its own particular collection, giving the people of Greater Taipei some special hideaways in which to rest, relax, and take in the music.

Manifesto Vinyl Club has a calm atmosphere that helps listeners relax and listen.

Vinyl and an old home

In the hills of Meinong District, Kaohsiung, is a space rich in memory and dedicated to vinyl—Yellow and Black B&B. Yellow and Black’s host, Domongo Chung, was previously a photographer for CommonWealth Magazine. “We photographers tend to like contrasting visuals, and that kind of contrast can be found in the pairing of this old building with vinyl records,” he remarks. The yellow and black of the name refer to bananas and vinyl records, both of which have been big parts of Chung’s life—when he was young, his grandfather provided for the family by growing rice, bananas, and tobacco. In fact, the records found in Yellow and Black are mementos from his mother’s work at the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC).

With a laugh, Chung remarks that all of this is thanks to Eslite Bookstores’ efforts to “revitalize” the vinyl market. Several years ago, he was browsing one of the bookstores and happened upon a vinyl copy of Chyi Chin’s album Wolf, priced at NT$7,800. Later, he saw vinyl editions of albums by Teresa Teng selling online for more than NT$20,000 each. This got him thinking about his mother’s beloved collection of thousands of albums in the family’s old tobacco barn. And so he got his grandfather to pass along the 80-plus-year-old building and gave it a makeover, combining the vastly different elements of vinyl records and traditional Taiwanese architecture to create a new landmark for Meinong.

In 2013, Chung set to organizing the records therein. As he started, he says, he felt a gnawing apprehension—the whole place stank of termites, and briefly he worried about the state of the collection. Fortunately box after box of classics turned up in fine condition, including albums by Lo Ta-yu, Sarah Chen, Michelle Pan, Julie Sue, Tsai Chin, and Fong Fei-fei. And as luck would have it, the final box turned out to contain Teresa Teng albums.

Choose an album and head for the listening room to immerse yourself in the charming sound of vinyl.

A place called youth

International tourists come for the old building. The Taiwanese guests, meanwhile, come from all around the island to revisit their youths. Yellow and Black B&B boasts a comprehensive collection of over 5,000 vinyl albums from the golden age of Mandarin pop in Taiwan, 1970‡1990.

Chung himself is almost like a DJ, taking requests from his guests. A Mr. Huang, who has come down from Keelung, requests the song “Speaking as Before,” written by renowned author Sanmao and performed by Monique Lin; a middle-aged man asks for the first track on Side B of Sarah Chen’s Talk to You, Listen to You, “Speaking Without Words,” which reminds him of his first girlfriend.

The track “Forgotten Times,” from Tsai Chin’s debut album Leaving Home, is also a common request, having come back into vogue thanks to its appearance in Andy Lau’s 2002 film Infernal Affairs. Also popular are 90s classic albums like Lo Ta-yu’s Zhi Hu Zhe Ye, Tom Chang’s Miss You Everyday, Chyi Chin’s Wolf and Happy Heaven, and Michelle Pan’s Forever Blue Skies. For guests, Yellow and Black is a veritable treasure trove, full of the sounds of days gone by.

After being asked to recommend a particular gem from the collection, Chung proposes “The Earth’s Most Beautiful Time,” a song written by musical titan Lee Tai-hsiang for intellectually disabled children that was often put on by Chung’s mother. The song, with its beautiful melody coupled with the powerful singing voice of Lee and the crystal-clear voice of Christine Hsu, is one of Chung’s most important connections with his mother.

Sitting in the B&B’s vinyl room as “The Earth’s Most Beautiful Time” fills the air, Chung holds his two-year-old daughter as they dance. Since leaving his old job and returning to the family home, Chung has had more time to be with his family and watch his daughter grow, all accompanied by a vinyl soundtrack. The experience has shown him that the things that are most easily overlooked are also the most precious, teaching him to enjoy the little details in life.

Vinyl, which dominated so much of the last century, has always had its own pace and quality, a particular purity it imbues to the listening experience.

How long has it been since you really listened to some music? Why not give yourself the chance to find a vinyl space where you can slow down, open your ears, and truly let the music take you away?

Choose an album and head for the listening room to immerse yourself in the charming sound of vinyl.

Domongo Chung left his old job to head back to his hometown with his wife and daughter and lead a cozy life surrounded by vinyl records.

1000 Springs is a classic folk album by legendary Mandarin duo Tianshui Music.

The soundtrack to the film Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing was also Julie Sue’s debut album.

8½ is one of Lee Shou-chuan’s most important contributions to Mandarin music.

The Earth’s Most Beautiful Time, composed and performed by Lee Tai-hsiang.

Yellow and Black B&B has an extensive collection of classic Mandarin albums from the 1980s and 90s.

Traditional architecture and vinyl make for a striking contrast, and it is this pairing that makes Yellow and Black B&B a standout addition to Kaohsiung’s Meinong District.