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Independent Bookstore Owner | Chen Lung-hao

  • Date:2016-11-10
Independent Bookstore Owner | Chen Lung-hao

  • Chinese Name: 陳隆昊
  • Born: 1951
  • Birthplace: Hsinchu City (Northern Taiwan)
  • Did You Know That …?
  • When Chen was studying in high school, he walked into a random bookstore and picked up the Chinese edition of "The Secret History of World War II.” Since then, "books have become my best friend,” he noted.


Chen Lung-hao, founder of Tonsan Bookstore (唐山書店), played an important role in the development of Taiwan's culture for making western ideas available for students during the martial law era. His devotion to providing non-mainstream books since the 1980s has earned him accolades from the Taipei Cultural Award and the Golden Tripod Awards.


Chen began to develop an interest in books on cultural and social subjects during high school. This spurred him to copy books while studying at university and graduate school during a time when the Copyright Act was not enacted in Taiwan.


In 1982, Chen established Tonsan Publisher at home after copying roughly 80 books, and founded Tonsan Bookstore in a basement near National Taiwan University. There, Chen offered banned books, such as those by Karl Marx, Michel Foucault, and Jurgen Habermas, in secret when Taiwan was still under martial law (1949-1987).


Though Chen's bookstore became the target of the Government Information Office and the Taiwan Garrison Command due to its distribution of left-wing books, Chen has insisted on defending the bookstore and the importance of independent thinking.


For more than three decades, Chen served as an agent who introduced non-mainstream books of literature, history, philosophy, and sociology to Taiwan, stocking his shelves with books such as those written by Susan Sontag and Anthony Giddens.


However, with more and more online bookstores and bookstore chains established following the end of martial law, Tonsan Bookstore gradually lost many customers. To save Tonsan, Chen partnered with other independent bookstores to establish the Taiwan Association for Independent Bookshop Culture (台灣獨立書店文化協會) in 2013, hoping to raise public awareness of independent bookstores.


Serving as a director for the association today, Chen travels around Taiwan to deliver speeches and explore new ways to run such bookstores. Chen also leads independent bookstores in Taiwan to join book fairs in the hope of raising awareness for their cause.


Having dedicated 30 years to independent bookstores, Chen explained that his ultimate goals are to boost the habit of reading, help readers find more books, and make books available for children in rural towns and villages.