| Eslite
Bookstores and Taiwan's Aesthetic Revolution
Selected by Time
magazine as a must-see for visitors, Eslite Bookstores are one of the
modern fairy tales of Taiwan's retail industry. It's a chain that was
never just about selling books; it was about shaping lifestyles. Over
the last two decades, it's become a nexus between culture and commercialism
and inspired a whole cultural industry to develop around it.
Typical Taiwanese bookshops are steeped in fluorescent lighting and places
to purchase a book and promptly leave. From the beginning, Eslite set
out to change that. With elegant wooden bookshelves and warm lighting,
its stores present a look of urban chic. When the chain turned its Dunhua
Rd. headquarters into a 24-hour operation in 1999, it also became a stylish
spot to spend a Saturday night. In the wee hours, the store is now a popular
destination for the under-thirty crowd.
The Eslite model may be familiar to Westerners, as it compares to chains
like Barnes and Nobel or Borders in the US. But never before had a bookstore
also served as a cultural institution in Taiwan. Eslite introduced a smorgasbord
of foreign language books and magazines, began inviting scholars and critics
to run reading clubs and forums and even published its own magazine.
The brainchild behind the Eslite brand is company chairman Robert Wu,
a businessman who made (and still makes) his fortune selling kitchen equipment
to hotels and hospitals. As a result of a high-stress lifestyle, he suffered
a heart attack in his late thirties, which inspired him to turn his life
around. An avid reader of arts and humanities literature, Wu wanted to
share his love of the printed word with others. In 1989, he opened the
first Eslite in the basement of a Taipei office building.
In just 17 years, the Eslite name has grown to 57 branches, including
its own music stores and emporiums for children. But it doesn't stop there.
Wu has hinted at plans to expand Eslite to China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
His book empire has enriched the quality of life for the Taiwanese, now
it's time to spread that wealth to the rest of the Chinese world.
For
more information on Eslite Bookstores, go to http://www.eslitebooks.com.
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