Depth report

　　

The founder of eslite, Mr. Wu Qingyou, passed away in July. Eslite, which he founded in 1989, is one of the most important cultural institutions in Taiwan and the Chinese world, but their struggle in culture and commerce also reflects the changes in Taiwanese culture in the past three decades.

    The first Eslite Bookstore is located in the ring of Ren'ai Road in Taipei City. It is the most quintessential place in the city. It is not only an important commercial town, but also full of greenery. This represents the positioning of Eslite: a progressive urban cultural elite, not only with a taste of life, but also with liberal arts knowledge, just like the New Yorker in the Woody Allen movie.

    The bookstore's books are mainly art, literature, and thoughts, while the store is elegant classical music instead of ordinary light music. In addition to books, Eslite also sells high-end products, such as Western classic craftsmanship brands such as British porcelain Wedgewood, high-end crystal brands, French fabric brands, French high-end gourmet brands, etc., as well as a high-end Tea House. They hope that the newly emerging middle class in Taiwan in the 1980s can be exposed to the new aesthetics of life.

    However, when Eslite was born, it was precisely when Taiwanese society had just lifted the law. It was in a period of paradigm shift from the old to the new. The energies and thoughts that had been suppressed for a long time were liberated, impacting existing politics, society and culture. Music, theater, and art have revolutionized one by one, and local awareness, environmental ecology, and gender identity have become hot new topics. People yearn for new imagination and new thinking.

    Eslite quickly grasped the atmosphere of the times, adjusted the original high-level bourgeois posture, and echoed these emerging trends in book selection and activities. For example, the first activity of Eslite Art Space was to invite curator Lu Rongzhi to plan "Women's Art Week", inviting 18 female artists to exhibit or give lectures. In September 1995, when the first Eslite in Renai Road Circle was about to end, a non-closing all-night party was held. The invitation included Chen Mingzhang and Lei Guangxia to sing, as well as experimental dramas, flat dramas and dances. They became the bearers and initiators of the Taiwanese culture that changed drastically in the 1990s.

    After the second branch, they let go of the aristocratic sense of the earliest Ren'ai store, and because of Wu Qingyou's architectural background, they knew many new architects, so they allowed different branches to develop different spatial aesthetics.

    From 1989 to 2000, eslite opened a total of 39 stores, especially from 1996 to 2000, it was actively expanding, opening five to six stores each year, and in 2000 it opened eleven new stores. At the beginning of the new century, Eslite has gone from being an elite with an alternative attitude to becoming the most influential bookstore channel in Taiwan. (In 1999, Eslite Dunnan Store became a 24-hour bookstore, the first in the world.)

    But Eslite is actually a long-term loss-making business, and Mr. Wu Qingyou is willing to grit his teeth and support the bookstore's ideals, which is really rare. But of course they are also constantly adjusting their strategies. For example, in 1996, Eslite set up a retail division to be responsible for exquisite products, food, coffee and so on. In 2004, Eslite finally started to make a profit. That was the same year when Wu Minjie, the daughter of Wu Qingyou, joined Eslite and took over in a few years.

    In 2009, they distinguished "Eslite" from "Eslite Life". The former is positioned as a provider of cultural content, including bookstores, exhibitions, and art galleries, while the latter is a platform for the creative economy, including multiple channels, Lifestyle brands, restaurants and hotels. This is a reasonable strategy, but what does the "Eslite" brand mean from now on?

    For Wu Minjie, “In the future, the way that eslite sees itself will no longer be self-positioning as a'bookstore', but instead will focus on the'cultural and creative industry' as the main axis, strengthen brand management, and develop from multiple perspectives.” This may be the case. Clearly stated the positioning of Eslite.

    Many people will criticize Eslite in the past few years for being more and more "mall" than "bookstore", but because book profits are really low, especially in the face of discount wars in online bookstores, such a business strategy is understandable . However, the key is not the size of the bookstore and shopping mall, but what is the plan and vision for the bookstore? Do they expect the bookstore to have a sharp dialogue with the times as it did in the early days? Do you expect yourself to be an important cultural and knowledge production base, as it was in the early days? Or is the Eslite brand just a huge and gorgeous cultural and creative platform or brand?

    Eslite’s real problem is not to become too commercial-after all, they are a commercial company, but when they become huge (perhaps because of the need to enter the Chinese market), their thinking and attitudes become increasingly conservative and lose With the earlier spirit and avant-garde, this may be the more core value of a cultural brand.

    However, Eslite’s story actually reflects the changes in Taiwan’s culture over the past three decades: born out of the uproar and turmoil of thought after the lifting of martial law, they made bookstores an important platform for thought; consumerism and commerce after the mid-1990s Logic has become the spirit of Taiwan's time and runs through all fields; two thousand years later, the word "cultural and creative" has become a curse that restricts Taiwan's culture, and Eslite also uses this as its main thinking.

    Cultural undertakings have never been easy. Eslite's persistence and struggles are an important part of Taiwan's story, and the current challenges of Eslite are the common challenges of the culture of our time.

Box: Wu Qingyou, the boss of Eslite

    Born in a small fishing village in Tainan in 1950, he was born with congenital heart disease. When he was young, his family was poor. After graduating from Taipei Polytechnic Institute, he worked as a middle school teacher and worked in a leather bag factory. Later, he joined a company specializing in catering and kitchen equipment sales and became a successful businessman. In his thirties, he earned money in real estate business. The first pot of gold. In the late 1980s, after experiencing the ups and downs of the business world and undergoing a severe thoracotomy, in order to express his goodwill to the society, he determined to build a bookstore with the utmost respect and put the original beautiful and simple books in Luxurious space no less than a five-star hotel. He chose expensive store designs and decorations to complement those great but still simple books. In 1989, the first Eslite Bookstore opened in Taipei City. In 1999, a 24-hour non-closing business model was created. However, it was not until 2012 that the bookstore really turned losses into profits.