Emulating the U.S., Europe, and Japan used to be considered a symbol of progress here, and imported goods the height of fashion.

Now that people on Taiwan are more well-to-do, some of them have turned their sights back to China and begun groping for a way to make their country's 5,000-year-old culture come to life in today's world. That thought has caught on not only in the fashion-wear industry but also in the department store business, which in the past has always taken its lead from Japan.

According to the Taipei Department Store Association, there are a total of 24 department stores in the city of Taipei. The standard rule of thumb in the business being one department store for every 200,000 people, Taipei, with a population of 3 million, should be able to support only two thirds of them.

Driven by the fierce competition, department stores have generally turned to Japanese firms for technical or financial help in moving upmarket. The Pacific group, for example, teamed up with a Japanese chain in opening its big new Sogo department store, which proved an immediate hit as soon as it was opened more than a year ago, thanks to the courteous service of its sales personnel and its huge stock of Japanese goods.

More recently, the Shin Kong group, in cooperation with Mitsubishi, began two years of reconstruction on its Nanking West Road branch to turn it into a ten- to twelve-story department store. Anxious not to be left behind, some ten other stores brought in Japanese experts last year to help them redesign their sales areas.

The sole exception to the infatuation with Japan has been Sunrise department store, long noted as an industry leader, which has been trying to drum up a craze of its own, touting "Chinese creative culture" as its operating principle.

During the month-long period it was closed for redecoration, Sunrise took out newspaper ads under the headlines "China Has Disappeared" and "China Sets Out" reading, "China has vanished from the world creative domain, and China is absent from the international fashion stage . . . at this critical juncture, we are advocating the ideal of Chinese creative culture. . . ." The series not only earned first place in a national advertising contest but aroused the curiosity of consumers and industry insiders alike.

Would their "China campaign" really catch on? Was it just another sales gimmick? Or was there more to it after all? Could "China" really be used as a selling point in the fashion-fickle department store business?

"When we say China we mean it in a broad sense rather than the ordinary, run of-the-mill notion. To put it simply, any creation that contains Chinese ideas or is created by Chinese people is part of what we mean by Chinese creative culture," explains Hsu Li-ling, the company's general manager. The aim of the campaign, she says, is to encourage manufacturers to produce goods designed by Chinese people and to encourage consumers to value creativity in their lifestyles.

Mixed in with that concept is a personal concern of hers. "Department stores have more than twenty years of history on Taiwan," she says, "but they still aren't run in a way that relates to the Chinese people."

In creating a new corporate image, Sunrise not only overhauled its Taipei and Hsinchu stores from top to bottom but also began steeping its employees in Chinese culture, shipping them off for weekly classes at the National Palace Museum early last year, with further classes lined up this year as well. As for the renovation work, the bill for the Taipei store alone was an unprecedented NT$300 million (more than US$11 million), working out to a figure per square foot that was three or four times the standard rate in the business.

When the two stores reopened at the end of October, they naturally attracted crowds of the curious. The shoppers were in for something of a surprise though: there was not a carved pillar or a vermilion doorway in sight. "It's really like a modern museum," a Mrs. Ch'en said, "Where's the Chinese flavor?" Most shoppers were confused.

Ch'en Chien-yuan, a special assistant who worked on the renovation, explains that the design as a whole is fully modern in approach while the Chinese feel comes out only by carefully savoring the details.

"It's not an antique shop," Hsu Li-ling stresses, meaning the store has an image that relates to China without being completely retrogressive.

It also represents a bold breakthrough in space utilization, so much so that many shoppers get the feeling they've entered a Chinese maze. "I've been here three times so far and I still haven't found out where everything is," one longtime patron said.

Both merchandise and clientele have been upgraded as part of the renovation. Lowend lines like books and stationery have been eliminated in favor of pricey name-brand imports, while the targeted age group has been cranked up a notch from 30-40 to 35-45. As a result, many patrons of the past have felt a bit uncomfortable with the changes. But Hsu is getting ready to welcome new ones.

"If the people who spend more than NT$20 billion a year overseas on tourism only spent a bit more of it at home, the department store business would really take off," she says, indicating that prime clientele is what she's after. In addition, she also foresees a lot of potential in tourists.

"Spending by tourists at department stores in Taiwan counts for less than a tenth of the total," she says. "With tariffs constantly being lowered, all we need to do is plan well and Taipei can become an ideal shopping hub for tourists after Hong Kong runs up against 1997."

Department stores are commercial enterprises of course, but they are also an intimate part of daily life. If a store can raise its image by promoting Chinese culture and producing a positive effect on society, isn't that worth applauding too?

[Picture Caption]

Decorative frames lend Chinese flavor to a pair of dressing mirrors.

A glass screen with a cloud pattern gives shoppers a Chinese sensation.

(Left) Elegant old-fashioned chairs serve as department store furnishings. (Right) Arced lines are frequently used in Chinese-style design.

Even the tiles are meticulously arranged in gold dragon patterns.

Does a thoroughly contemporary mannikin with a bolt-upright hairstyle have anything classically Chinese about it?

A glass screen with a cloud pattern gives shoppers a Chinese sensation.

Elegant old-fashioned chairs serve as department store furnishings.

Arced lines are frequently used in Chinese-style design.

Even the tiles are meticulously arranged in gold dragon patterns.

Does a thoroughly contemporary mannikin with a bolt-upright hairstyle have anything classically Chinese about it?