Page One Bookstore 叶一堂, Beijing

This is the second post on two very different bookstores in Beijing which I(Chris) visited before the pandemic.

Page One is a bookstore chain and publisher founded in Singapore in 1983 by Mark Tan (陈家强), with locations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand, and in China (early 2010’s).

This Page One bookstore in Beijing was located in the historically commercial area of Qianmen 前門 (Zhengyangmen (正阳门) and Dashilan 大栅栏, just south of Tiananmen Square.  It is now a very touristy area filled with people, souvenir stores and chain restaurants – all housed in faked old Chinese buildings.

The bookstore is situated on a side street, away from the horde. The interior cannot be more different from the chaos on the street. It is a quieter, dimly-lit, cavernous space filled with books wall to wall.

Unlike typical bookstores, it did not feel claustrophobic despite the number of volumes on display.  The minimalist approach to decoration helped to maintain a calm, almost contemplative ambiance.

The overall brightness in-store was dark but the merchandises were all adequately lit and highlighted, inviting one to browse.

Like all modern bookstores, they sell toys and dolls. I guess that is one way to lure kids into a bookstore.

On each floor, several architecturally-attractive substructures were erected to create a small area separate from the main floor.

.Some of the spaces are isolating and intimate, allowing the shopper some private time with their books.

Some are display platforms while another is for enjoying a coffee.

The cafe was operated by Kyoto Ogawa Coffee, names of the origins of the beans were in English.

The upper floors resemble a more traditional bookstore with a wood-color tone on one floor, except there were books displayed in the ceiling. Interesting but not practical for consumers.

The surprise for any first-time visitor is the dramatically-framed view of the south-facing facade of Archery Tower 箭楼, one of several buildings that constitute Qiamen 前門 or Zhengyangmen 正阳门 which once guarded the southern entry into the Imperial inner City

The Archery Tower is positioned on the central north-south axis of Beijing aligned with the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Tiananmen Square, the Tiananmen Gate itself, and the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, the city’s Drum and Bell Towers and the entrance to the Olympic Green in the far north.

Another floor of the bookstore concentrating on the arts and literature has a plain white theme.

Photography section

Page One began as a small shop stocking handpicked art and design books in Singapore, accumulated a loyal following over the years and evolved into a brand.  We believe there are other Page One bookstores in Beijing, in Guomao – the China World Trade Center 中国国际贸易中心 and in Sanlitun 三里屯. 

However, the shops outside China have been closed in Singapore in 2011, Taiwan in 2015 and Hong Kong in November 2016. We can imagine the competition Page One was facing with Taiwan’s Eslite Bookstore in the same markets. See our post on Eslite Spectrum in Hong Kong. 

We cannot see the Taiwanese Eslite opening a bookstore in China, let alone in Beijing. Page One is safe for now but it had to subject itself to self-censorship – books that criticize the Chinese communist party were not stocked.

This post is written in 2021, we are not sure if this bookstore in Beijing is still operating after the pandemic. I am quite sure the Wangfujing Bookstore (featured in an earlier post) is still around.

If you have not read our earlier post on the other Beijing bookstore, click here.  What a contrast !

Wangfujing Bookstore 王府井书店, Beijing

The following two posts are about two very different bookstores in Beijing, both visited before the pandemic.

The first is Wanfujing Bookstore, situated at the beginning of Wangfujing Dajie (王府井大街), in Dongcheng district 東城區 of central Beijing.

I (Chris) was on a business trip and I dragged a very patient colleague along to this bookstore.  I hope you also enjoy this indulgence of mine.

Let’s start with some music made by guzheng 古箏, an instrument sold in this store.

The bookstore is one of the city’s biggest and most comprehensive bookstores, occupying an entire building.

Five above-ground floors are dedicated to books and cultural products. The entrance featured a counter for stamp collectors and a table of books on Xi Jinping thoughts and communist party teachings.

Floor 1 sells books on social science and philosophy; politics, law, and history; business and management; finance and securities; travel and geography –  “一层经营：社科哲学、政法历史、经济管理、财政金融、旅游地理”.

A more literal translation of the sign below says “test preparation books for lawyers”.

A selection of biographies of famous world leaders -e.g.,  Obama, Hilary, Macron, Angela, Thatcher, Justin, Lee Kuan Yew 李光耀, Moon Jae-In 文在寅 and Gandhi.

Floor 2: foreign languages, primary and secondary education text books – “二层经营：外语、初等教育、中等教育、汉语、教理科普”  Floor 3:  children’s books – “三层经营：少儿读物”

Chinese classics (e.g., 吶喊) and translated classics (e.g., Little Prince, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (20,000 leagues under the seas).

My favorite is Floor 4: chinese and foreign literature, arts and pictorials, music and theatre; imported originals –  “四层经营：中国文学、外国文学、美术画册、音乐戏剧、进口原版”

I cannot resist snapping a picture of this section on floor 4 with books on aesthetics – “assthetic”.

According to the bookstore’s web page, the bookstore played a big role in educating Beijing’s citizens about the spirit of Olympics movement, in preparation for the 2008 Summer Games.  Many hilarious or embarrassing translation gaffes and mistakes were corrected or removed during this time.  This is a new one but a lot less obvious.

Calligraphy brushes, and volumes of famous calligraphic works and stone inscription rubbings.

The floors of the bookstore that stocked cultural products other than books reminded me of a Chinese government-owned department store (Yue Wah 裕華國貨) near where I lived in Hong Kong.

Western art supplies

There is a separate gallery for scrolls and paintings.  This floor also sells small electronics and music.

First time I saw so many guzheng on sale. Hope you tried the Spotify link above.

Floor 5:  medical and biology; living and health- “五层经营：医学生物、生活保健”

Drinking tea is good for your health.

There are several shelves full of books on Kungfu (or more literally Wuxia) – this section focusing on Wing Chun style. The selection here must be the richest and unique in the world.

The top floor provides a multi-functional space cultural exchange activities, such as lectures. The bookstore was founded on the same year that Peoples’ Republic of China was established – February 10, 1949. I think it is owned or at least supported by the government.

I do not remember what this model was for.

Superior fine books are displayed behind glass (English translation says “recommended books” which is not accurate).

It moved to the current address in 1950, expanded and renovated in 1970 and 2000. In 1994, Wangfujin Dajie was designated as a commercial street and the whole area was rebuilt with modern shops while many streets are pedestrianized.

The basement floor has a food court that was closed.

I bought several books on art and travel within China. Really wished I had more time.

 

Our trips 2019, part 1

Dear Readers, Happy 2020 !

We have moved here about a decade ago, and started this blog just before our departure from New York. So this blog is 10 years old ! We took a break from updating the blog earlier this year because of other projects.  But we are committed to keep this going as long as possible, even if the posts are less frequent and regular.

It is a tradition on this blog to take a look back at some of the places we visited last year. We traveled quite a bit in 2019, possibly more than 2018, at least in terms of capitals visited. Chris had been to Berlin, Vienna, Bratislava, Bern, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo.

In reverse chronological order:

Basel – Christmas markets – originally we wanted to visit Strasbourg but the French train strike …

St Alban-Tor, Basel, Switzerland

Chateau Grandson, near Yverdon Les Bains – on the shore of Lac Neuchatel, Switzerland

The Zytglogge, Bern, Switzerland

Brandenburger Tor Berlin, Germany

Berliner Fernsehturm & Alexanderplatz, Germany

Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany

Bauhaus museum, Weimar, Germany

Leipizig University, Germany

Leipzig opera house, Germany

Imperial Palace 皇居 from Otemachi Building 大手町ビル, Tokyo

Yurakucho 有楽町 near Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Samseong dong 삼성동 near Coex, Seoul, South Korea

Samseong dong, Seoul, South Korea

Qian Men 前门 near Zhengyang Gate 正阳门 Beijing, China

The Place 世贸天阶, Beijing, China

Photos from the first half of 2019 will be in our next post.

 

 

Our trips 2018, part 2

Dear Readers,

It has been a tradition on this blog to take a look back at some of the places we visited last year. In Part 1, we posted photos of places we visited in the second half of 2018. Here are the places we visited in the first half.

Click on the links, where provided to read more about the places of interest. There are usually a series of related posts per location, you can discover them easily in the calendar at the bottom of the post.

In reverse chronological order:

Entrance to Harbor of Lindau, on the shore of Lake Constance in the summer

Red carpet area in St Gallen, Switzerland

Champions League Final in Kiev, Ukraine

Real Madrid scored against Liverpool and went on to win the title 3-1 –  Marcelo, Bale (2 goals – 64′ and 83′), Benzema (1 goal at 51′), Modric and Ronaldo

The Lavra, Kiev (Kyiv), Ukraine

Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz, Munich

Late night Ginza, Tokyo, in April

Zhengyang Gate, Qianmen, Beijing – 正阳门箭楼

Wanchai, Hong Kong in April

WYK, Hong Kong

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Dead sea resort, Jordan

Petra, Jordan

Oslo, Norway where we spent the beginning of the new year

Nobel Peace Center, Oslo

Let’s see where we will go in 2019.

Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing

After a stroll through the 798 Art Zone with NKL (see previous post), he took me to the Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (中央美術學院; CAFA) in Beijing. CAFA is an art academy managed by the Ministry of Education of China. It is considered one of the most selective schools in the country.

The CAFA Art Museum, designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki (磯崎 新), is located at the northeast corner of CAFA campus. The Museum opened in October 2008, for the University’s 90th anniversary.  So this year is the University’s centenary anniversary.

The school drew media attention during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which the students protested by creating a large statue, called the Goddess of Democracy.

NKL took me to see the special exhibit on the works by Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻; 1895 – 1953) who is the first president of CAFA and a painter.

Self portrait oil painting 1924

He was well known for his traditional Chinese ink drawings of horses.

Traditional caligraphy. I am no connoisseur. No masterpiece here.

He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes – a show of his high proficiency in an essential Western art technique. These oil paintings are so strange as we are all used to seeing Western faces, green eyes and blonde hair.

In 1919, Xu studied overseas in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he studied oil painting and drawing. Notice he signed this drawing in French: Péon 1924.

Xu constantly pushed the boundaries of visual art with new techniques and international aesthetics, in bid to reinvent Chinese art.

Charcoal.

1940 portrait made in Singapore

Between 1939 and 1941, he held solo exhibitions in Singapore, India and Malaya (Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh) to help raise funds for the war relief effort in China.

There were quite a lot of people on that day since it was raining outside.

There was a mock up of his study. He was a pioneer and a patriot.

It is really an interesting show about a painter that played an important role in the development of Chinese modern art.

798 Art Zone, Beijing

While I was in Beijing, I met my high-school friend NKL who is in the art business there, and he took me to see the famous 798 Art Zone or 798 Art District (798艺术区).

By the way, I am not sure if the pile of bicycles in front of the 798 sign is art or a sign of excess of the sharing economy (people not returning the bikes that were shared via services like Uber).

It was a ugly rainy day and many of the galleries and eateries were not open. The consolation was that there were fewer people. The pictures are not pretty but you will get an idea of the place.

751 D-Park

Wikipedia has a lot of information on the history of the zone. So I will use their information in much of what is to come below.  The official web site is at http://www.798district.com/en/.

751 Ace Cafe

The 798 Art Zone is located in the Dashanzi (大山子) area, Chaoyang District, to the northeast of central Beijing. It is the site of state-owned decommissioned military factories including Factory 798, which originally produced electronics. The zone comprises a complex of 50-year-old factory buildings boasting a unique East German Bauhaus-influenced style (Dessau Design Institute). Factory #798 is only one of several structures inside a complex formerly known as the 718 Joint Factory.

Construction started in April 1954 and the factories started production in 1957. The factory quickly established a reputation for itself as one of the best in China. The Joint Factory produced a wide variety of military and civilian equipment. Civilian production included acoustic equipment such as all the loudspeakers on Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue. After 10 years of operation, Joint Factory 718 was split into more manageable sub-Factories 706, 707, 751, 761, 797 and 798, following the Chinese government’s method of naming military factories starting with the number 7.

718 Art Ahead

The plans for the factory buildings, where form follows function, called for large indoor spaces designed to let the maximum amount of natural light into the workplace.

Arch-supported sections of the ceiling would curve upwards then fall diagonally along the high slanted banks or windows; this pattern would be repeated several times in the larger rooms, giving the roof its characteristic sawtooth-like appearance.

In 1995, Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), looking for cheap workshop space away from downtown, set up in the now defunct Factory 706. In 2001, American Robert Bernell moved his Timezone 8 Art Books bookshop, gallery and publishing office into a former factory canteen; he was the first foreigner to move in. Later that year, Tabata Yukihito from Japan’s Tokyo Gallery set up Beijing Tokyo Art Projects (BTAP, 北京东京艺术工程) inside a 400-m² division of Factory 798’s main area. BTAP’s 2002 opening exhibition “Beijing Afloat” (curator: Feng Boyi), drew a crowd of over 1,000 people and marked the beginning of popular attention in the area.

In 2002, designer artist Huang Rui (黄锐) and hutong photographer Xu Yong (徐勇) set up the 798 Space gallery (时态空间) next to BTAP. With its cavernous 1200-m² floor and multiple-arched ceilings at the center of Factory 798, it was and still is the symbolic center of the whole district.

Beginning in 2002, artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art centers, artists’ studios, design companies, restaurants, and bars.

Insight Bookshop

Giant mural of the zone in isometric view

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, UCCA (尤伦斯当代艺术中心) is an independent institution of contemporary art, founded in 2007 by Belgian philantropist, Guy Ullens, out of a commitment to bring Chinese contemporary art into global dialogue.

In June 2017, a group of China-based investors came together to restructure UCCA, separating its commercial and non-profit functions, ensuring its long- term presence in the 798 Art District, and securing its future vision.

When we entered the Center, a volunteer gave us a guided tour of the exhibits in Mandarin. He was enthusiastic and memorized the opinionated spiel about the paintings. But it took too much time and our attention, so we declined the personal tour after a few rooms. I did not take any photo in the Center except in the shop which had a decent range of books and design objects.

Apart from contemporary art, we visited the gallery of a copper artist/craftsman who made incredibly beautiful and complex copper sculpture.

798 Art Zone mixes art, commerce and tourism. It is exciting and exhausting at the same time due to its size, novelty, and diversity. If I live in Beijing, I will come here regularly.

One could think of this as Beijing’s version of New York’s Soho. While the development of the Zone has undergone a similar industrial to artistic to commercial pattern, it is not quite the same. The Zone is in a suburban area, not central Beijing, and much larger in terms of area. To me, it felt a bit like a theme park.

After the 798 Art Zone, my friend took me to the Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. See the next post.