Little Knick-Knacks Score Big in Narrow Lane

Strolling slowly along Chi­feng Street, one comes across a simply appointed shop decorated in a white theme. Called Chi­feng 28, the shop offers on its first floor creations by the Japanese florist Takako Mine, along with a range of household goods. The five-story Chi­feng 28 combines with a neighboring barbershop and hardware store to lend the lane an unmistakably “everyday stuff” sort of feel.

Chi­feng 28 is one of four ­xiaoqi locations in the Chi­feng Street area, preceded chronologically in its establishment by the original ­xiaoqi shop, a restaurant, and an art gallery.

Since its first shop opened near the Zhong­shan MRT station in 2012, ­xiaoqi has expanded to a total of eight highly successful locations, including two in Tai­chung. The appeal to customers varies radically from one shop to the next. One of the locations is an art gallery, for example, while the primary feature at another is ume­shu liqueurs from Japan. Founder ­Jiang ­Mingyu explains her thinking: “I hope xiaoqi will provide people with things they need. But beyond that, I also want xiaoqi to help people develop their own personal style, and find beauty in life.”

With its unique tableware and teapots and the wafting aroma of tea, xiaoqi has a way of making life feel a lot more interesting.

Born in 1974, ­Jiang was sent to Japan at age 26 by TVBS television network to handle the network’s programming operations there. She ended up living there for 14 years.

During her time in Japan, ­Jiang lived and worked in a slow-paced part of Tokyo, in and around ­Ebisu and Dai­kan­yama. A woman of extremely few material wants, ­Jiang liked to spend her free time visiting local handicrafts exhibits, where she would revel in the creative spirit of the items on display.

During a trip back to Taiwan in 2011, she noticed an empty storefront while strolling along Chi­feng Street. Enamored of the neighborhood, she decided to rent the property and open a boutique, which she named “­xiaoqi” (“small implements”).

She wrapped up discussions with a designer in February 2012, and the shop opened for business three months later. Located right nearby were an artsy design studio and a coffee shop with a distinctly Japanese atmosphere.

Even while still working for TVBS in Japan, ­Jiang was already deeply involved in the arts community. In 2010 she helped the Japanese artist Ta­ka­shi Mu­ra­kami open two galleries in Taiwan—Kai­kai Kiki Gallery Tai­pei and Hi­dari Zin­garo Tai­pei—to provide venues in Taiwan for Japanese artists, and also to discover promising new artists in Taiwan.

That is why the first ­xiaoqi shop displays goods from Noda Horo and a dozen or more other Japanese brand names picked out by ­Jiang, guided by her keen sensibility for all things Japanese. “These things are fun and interesting,” says ­Jiang, adding, “I didn’t seek them out specifically, I just happened to notice them in the course of my daily activities.”

Having opened her shop without any prior experience in commerce, she has just had to rely on her imagination every step of the way. In the early days her best management consultants were the customers, says ­Jiang, who recalls that some customers were more familiar with Japanese brands than she was. Many of the goods at ­xiaoqi are sold there only because customers have mentioned them.

The ­xiaoqi restaurant, which opened in April 2013, also owes its existence to a customer’s suggestion. At that time, ­xiaoqi displayed a line of glasses produced by Sho­toku Glass of Japan. Each item, with its highly transparent glass accentuated by a simple decorative pattern, was a lot thinner than an ordinary glass. Customers worried that they would break too easily. No matter how the store personnel assured them to the contrary, people invariably went away unconvinced.

She responded by opening up a restaurant not far away from ­xiaoqi. The restaurant featured the same white color scheme, and the food was served on glassware sold at ­xiaoqi. Says ­Jiang: “By combining the food with the glassware, we gave customers a chance to see the products in actual use.”

With its unique tableware and teapots and the wafting aroma of tea, xiaoqi has a way of making life feel a lot more interesting.

For ­Jiang, getting ­xiaoqi up and running has been not so much a matter of starting a business, as a process of turning a dream into reality. The second of the ­xiaoqi locations she opened is the ­xiaoqi+g art gallery, which every year regularly invites artists and crafts makers from Japan to put on exhibits. To date more than ten Japanese artists, including Ma­koto Ka­go­shima, have shown their work at ­xiaoqi+g.

Two of the ­xiaoqi shops have been designed by Mao Chia-chun, former creative director of VVG Something and currently a residential interior designer. After first designing a shop in Tai­chung, he was then hired to do Chi­feng 28, which occupies a five-floor walkup. The first floor is home to Nettle Plants, run by Japanese florist Ta­kako Mine. On the second floor is the informal Tai­pei office of a Tokyo-based design firm named Roundabout. The third floor houses Studio m’, which specializes in ceramics, and the fourth floor is used as a space for classes.

Meanwhile, the original ­xiaoqi shop reopened just this past June as a bottle store for Japanese liqueurs. The new shop is the result of a tie-up between ­xiaoqi and Ume­shuya, which has been doing business in Osaka for 80 years. The new shop imports over 100 types of ume­shu and other Japanese fruit liqueurs from Ume­shuya. The idea for the shop came to ­Jiang during a trip to Osaka when she happened across Ume­shuya. She made a proposal to third-generation proprietor Hi­sao Ueda, who came to Taiwan and fell in love with the quiet lanes around Chi­feng Street. He readily gave the go-ahead, and in just three months since the shop’s opening, its entire initial stock has been bought up.

Over the past two years, ­xiaoqi has expanded in a short time to eight locations, each with a completely different theme. Very quickly, the family of shops has become quite well known. ­Jiang attributes the rapid success in part to the popularity of Japanese culture in the Taiwan market, and in part to the fact that ­xiaoqi only marks up its goods by 20–30%. The reason for the low markup, she says, is that she wants young people to have a chance to enjoy goods with a personal style.

The ­xiaoqi brand’s distinctly Japanese air has driven its rise to prominence in the Taiwan market. But from the very beginning, ­Jiang has wanted to meld the Japanese element with locally based inspirations to create uniquely Taiwanese household implements. With this in mind, she commissioned up-and-coming Taiwanese illustrator Vita Yang to create some compositions based on Taiwanese fruits, then provided the illustrations to a glass maker and instructed the latter to manufacture wine goblets that feature the various fruits as decorative elements.

An illustration lends an ordinary glass a note of extraordinary charm. Indeed, the series is now one of ­xiaoqi’s hottest-selling original creations. The stylish little knick-knacks sold under the ­xiaoqi brand are showing us in Taiwan that one can think big... by thinking small!