The price of popularity
In 2001, Wang and a friend opened the well-known simplified-Chinese specialty shop Askfor near the Taipower Building on Roosevelt Road. Two years later, he left Askfor to open Lines of Flight on his own.
Wang is a businessman with his own reserves of capital and a sense for management. Unlike most independent bookstores, which are always looking for the lowest rent, Lines of Flight rents its two-story storefront for NT$150,000 a month --a major outlay by industry standards.
"A high rent shows high popularity," Wang laughs. The most expensive spot along this stretch of Hsinsheng Road is occupied by Eslite Bookstore's NTU branch, which faces the campus' main gate. Lines of Flight is only a few hundred meters from the gate, so it too competes to attract the university's professors and students. The rent may be high, but it is worth it for the strategic position it puts the store in.
As current government policy only allows importation of college-level academic books, the selection at Lines of Flight is heavy on literature, history, philosophy, and art. The store also sells budget-priced CDs and DVDs of classical music, Chinese theater productions, and art films.
Members' choice
Wang says that since the mainland market is so large, there are translators for a wide variety of languages and contemporary Western thought is introduced fairly quickly. All sorts of books are published on even the most obscure of academic subjects and the most rarefied of the fine arts. "Books on classical Chinese music like Kun Opera or the Chinese zither are hard to find in Taiwan, so we sell a lot of them here," Wang says.
The simplified Chinese books are inexpensive compared to their traditional-character counterparts--comparable titles are cheaper by at least one third, and this is the main reason for their rising popularity in Taiwan. However, says Wang, most stock is not returnable, so there is greater risk. Purchasing has to be especially accurate.
A clean, well-lit space
To keep up with readers' tastes, Lines of Flight has a membership program. A platinum card gets its holder a discount, and regular customers are encouraged to sign up. Wang says with a laugh, "By analyzing the information from members, we can now quickly figure out what kinds of books readers like. Also, we've got a professional buyer stationed in Beijing who keeps an eye on the mainland's publishing world and digs up good books for us."
Lines of Flight's open, well-lit space and welcoming environment are also reasons for its success. Wang, who loves to browse bookstores himself, says, "I hate bookstores with no place to sit." To allow readers to sit and peruse books at their leisure, the store has on its first floor a long table on which tea and paper cups are set out. Customers are free to help themselves.
A frequent customer named Chiang, a history graduate student at NTU, notes that the restrooms are also bright and clean so readers can spend all day in the shop without worry--a nice touch, she thinks.
With business going so well, Wang opened another branch in Taichung in May in the former location of the bookstore Tunghai Book Studio.
Market still small
Simplified Chinese books and bookstores have been doing well in recent years, but according to the Government Information Office's 2006 Publication Annual, imports in 2005 were in the NT$4-500 million range--that's around 3 million books, or only 1.5-2% of Taiwan's book market. Wang, who knows the Greater China region publishing market well, believes that other than intellectuals, most people just cannot get accustomed to reading books written in simplified Chinese characters: "It's been ten years since Hong Kong was handed back over to China, but most people there are still more used to reading books in traditional, full-form characters."
Though there is only a small market for books in simplified characters and it is unlikely that they could become the mainstream, writers and translators from China have been steadily gaining ground in Taiwan. If the Taiwanese publishing industry remains in a state of inertia, neither developing local literary historians and writers nor focusing on translating academic works, there might be trouble ahead!
