A rare torrential downpour on a Tainan afternoon soaks throngs of tourists. On Zhengxing Street, on the west side of downtown, the proprietors of the old shops there—the Tai-cheng Fruit shop, the popular Brian Black Tea and others—are greeting customers as they always have.
In November of last year, “the world’s first street magazine”—Zhengxing News—published its inaugural issue. The street’s 30-some shopkeepers were the focal points of its stories.
The cover features the women proprietors of three of the street’s most famous establishments—Tai-cheng Fruit Shop, N23° Kungfu Teas, and Fengfa Oden. With one in a traditional floral-patterned jacket and another in jeans, they present a style that is at once retro and modern. The photo successfully drew attention to Zhengxing News, which bills itself as having a “narrower scope” than any other magazine in the world. It was wonderful publicity.
The narrowest scope
Far out of the mainstream, Zhengxing News features neither stories about the fabulously successful nor sensationalistic headlines. Instead, its content focuses exclusively on the people in the street’s 30-some establishments. Running from Hai’an Road in the west to Ximen Road in the east, Zhengxing Street isn’t even 300 meters long. Is there really enough material to write about? Editor-in-chief Erik Kao, who is owner of the shop Rainbow Is Coming, says, “There’s plenty.”
The cover of the first issue featured the father of Wu Lizhuo, owner of Xiao Man Shi Tang. The photo shows the formally dressed mature gentleman with a fish laid in front of him on a white-and-red plastic bag. The pseudo-Japanese-style atmosphere coupled with the humorously campy text quickly created a stir on the Internet.
Originally Zhengxing News was published as part of a fundraising effort. Kao explains that last year, they were organizing a local “creative bazaar” (a street fair with concerts), and several partners were concerned about insufficient funds. After discussion, they decided to publish the magazine, with the idea that it would serve as a long-term source of funding for community activities (after deducting printing costs).
The first issue had a heavily experimental flavor, with most of the content related to the creative bazaar. With a more complete staff and more defined themes, the second issue better resembled a true magazine. The page count rose from ten to 62, and the magazine contained a wider range of subject matter, including reports on Japanese language instruction and secret recipes of Taiwanese home cooking. The magazine has become an ideal guide to Zhengxing Street.
When you flip through its pages, the cute illustrations and rich diversity of content rival those of commercially marketed magazines. All the work behind the scenes has been done by a “motley crew” of editors who totally lacked previous editorial experience and receive no salaries.
These “friends of Zhengxing” have day jobs such as Jia-Jia Group designer, restaurant owner, coffee shop manager, or busy freelancer. And although they are typically quite busy, when work for the magazine needs to be done, they make time, split up the tasks, and get the magazine out.
For instance, Tang Shih-hsien, a design director at Jia-Jia Management Consulting, crammed to gain an understanding of desktop publishing software so he could assume responsibility for the magazine’s art direction. Huang Youlin, the founder of Satoko Atelier, who has studied in Japan, handled the Japanese translation. Kang Yiqi, who handles marketing and publicity for Jia-Jia, took over most of the news gathering and writing for the second issue. “Ever since I was young I’ve enjoyed being different,” says Wu Lizhuo. “As it happens, everyone on the team seems to share that characteristic.”
Mutual assistance
The magazine wasn’t the first experience these friends of Zhengxing—who get along well and often go on joint outings—have had working together.
In December 2012, Xie Wenkan, the owner of Tainan Old House Inn and the IORI Tea House, came up with the idea of closing off the street and holding a Christmas party. The notion was enthusiastically embraced by other shop owners.
The party’s Christmas tree was dressed up with fruit by the Tai-cheng Fruit Shop, which was celebrating 80 years of business. Seeing the lead taken by Tai-cheng’s third-generation proprietor, other owners then rushed to fill its branches with their own products. Finally, it was hung with IORI tea canisters, small Wanfeng rice bags, and clothes from Ah-Fen Clothier. They had decorated the Christmas tree in authentic Zhengxing style.
Even though the event was held on a Monday night rather than a weekend, more than 3000 people gathered on the street. The crowd was much bigger than the one that showed up for a holiday event held by the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store at the same time. “People told me that only ours was truly culturally creative,” recalls Erik Kao, “because it was an authentic outgrowth of real life.”
Strong neighborhood bonds
There are many examples of shop-originated activities attracting the participation of private citizens on Zhengxing Street.
In 2013, in order to dig up true stories about the street, Kao spent the year interviewing the proprietors of eight of the street’s retail establishments and designed T-shirts with their own exclusive logos for the Tai-cheng Fruit Shop and Ah-Fen Clothier. One year later, Zhengxing was holding four or five events a year that blended art walks, street fairs and concerts in various ways.
With their success, outsiders thought that there must be some formal association organizing these events behind the scenes, but Kao would explain that the activities were simply organized on the honor system with verbal agreements among the shop owners. Up to now, they still haven’t established a formal association.
Along with Shennong Street and Hai’an Road, Zhengxing Street is a popular area with tourists. But longtime Tainan resident Huang Youlin explains that Zhengxing Street wasn’t nearly so bustling several years ago.
Huang, whose mother had a clothing alteration shop in Tainan’s West Market, recalls that when she was young Zhengxing was a street that didn’t have a lot of foot traffic. During holidays the throngs would tend to gather on Zhongzheng Road and Guohua Street. “Even taxi drivers would be confused when you asked to go to Zhengxing Street.”
Xie Wenkan, who is likewise a Tainan native, says that it is only in the last three years or so, as Rainbow is Coming, Ninao Gelato Classico, Xiao Man Shi Tang, the Zhengxing Café and other new hip establishments have opened one after another, that outsiders have begun to pay attention to the street. It’s notable that this group of people from Taoyuan, Pingtung and elsewhere, unlike typical migrants, have actively engaged with local shop owners and residents as if they were family. Both groups, the natives and the transplants, have worked together to create the lively mix of old and new that is today’s Zhengxing Street.
Whether in their street-level activism or in the pages of their tradition-breaking Zhengxing News, this motley crew is working hard to overturn the status quo with their activism. The Japanese and English editions of the magazine that were released with the second issue bear witness to the same aspirations.
Kao explains that while preparing the second issue of Zhengxing News, the staff began to make plans for the foreign-language editions so as to help to foster a new kind of “in-depth tourism” that would attract international travelers who identify with their urban “go local” movement.
“Zhengxing News isn’t looking for scoops or exposés. Rather it’s simply disseminating already existing knowledge about people and events on these streets.” However much such remarks downplay the magazine’s significance, the mobilizing actions of these friends of Zhengxing, who show a wide range of personal styles, are truly creating new possibilities through their every instance of community building.
A section of Zhengxing Street barely 100 meters long is home to a dozen or so stores whose proprietors have drawn on each other’s enthusiasm in launching the street’s eponymous journal as well as a bunch of other community-building activities.
To many longtime residents of Tainan, a decade ago Zhengxing was just an ordinary street. But recently opened establishments such as Rainbow Is Coming, Ninao Gelato Classico, and the Zhengxing Café have animated it with newfound energy.
To many longtime residents of Tainan, a decade ago Zhengxing was just an ordinary street. But recently opened establishments such as Rainbow Is Coming, Ninao Gelato Classico, and the Zhengxing Café have animated it with newfound energy.
Guo Taicheng, the third-generation owner of the Tai-cheng Fruit Shop,wears a T-shirt specially designed for the shop by Rainbow Is Coming.It’s a demonstration of the goodwill and mutual assistance that prevail on Zhengxing.
Guo Taicheng, the third-generation owner of the Tai-cheng Fruit Shop, wears a T-shirt specially designed for the shop by Rainbow Is Coming. It’s a demonstration of the goodwill and mutual assistance that prevail on Zhengxing.
Xiao Man Shi Tang, Country House, Ninao Gelato Classico… the more than 30 shops on the street are the main focus of Zhengxing News.
Xiao Man Shi Tang, Country House, Ninao Gelato Classico… the more than 30 shops on the street are the main focus of Zhengxing News.
Xiao Man Shi Tang, Country House, Ninao Gelato Classico… the more than 30 shops on the street are the main focus of Zhengxing News.
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