Figure

Time: 12/25/2013    Place : Takaobooks Bookstore

Q:  Please introduce us Takaobooks.

A: Here were bamboo groves in the past. The road was narrow and surrounded by fields. In order to broaden the roads, the government purchased some lands. Jan family built buildings on the rest of the land. They are the representatives of building  after the war in Kaohsiung. There was also a papaya orchard.

Q: What’s the plan of the store?
A:  The book store is at the first floor.  The dinning space is at the second floor.  The classroom and show room is at the third floor and the basement.

Q:  Can you tell us the history of the bookstore?

A:  There were five members opening a book store for sharing in Kaohsiung.  The backgrounds of them are designer, movie maker and someone supporting social activities.

Q:  What’s independent publisher?

A:  Independent publisher is a middle large publisher. It’s not the one on the trend.  What are mainstream books?  Such as economic books, novels and so on.  The independent book store usually approaches to the books that are hard to be approached, such as Taiwanese teaching books, Hakka scripts and so on. Some even come from sophisticated book store in Kaohsiung, such as historical book talking about local history, sexual concept book talking about homosexual and so on.

Q:  What’s the main activity on the third floor?

A: The most common activity is movie.  We invite a lot of people and groups to share the documentary.  The issue can be nuclear power, social welfare and so on.  There is a meeting for sharing movie on Saturday.  After the movie, we ask audiences to release their opinions.  Through opinion gathering, we can share with more people.

Q:  What are facilities for broadcasting?
A:  In order to maintain the construction, we only use a white screen and projector.

Q:  Can you introduce the construction of the house?
The houses here are different from those in Hamasen and Chijin. The house there were constructed by bricks, woods, granite, and stones. The materials were picked locally.  You can find more tall buildings over the love river. The houses in Yenchen district are smaller but deep.  The houses near Chung Jang Rd are mostly complex buildings.  The first floor is for business use.  The second floor is for living.  The tall building appeared after 1991.  The bookstore is constructed by its house owner.  It’s contracted in L shape.  It’s Japanese style.  Due to the fast development of economy in Kaohsiung, this kind of houses disappeared.