managed. Its spatial organization is meant to invoke an outside market area. Its corridors are called “streets” (
jie
) and are marked by signs, and the self-enclosed store units flanking them all have street numbers posted on the doors. Through screening applications for retail space, the management ensured that these shops sold only imported goods and were designed to complement one another. Cleanliness and visual consistency ordered the foreign novelties into easily accessible displays and constructed a distinctive space distinguished from the streets outside. All the shops have to adhere to strict codes dictating store hours and decor. With oversized glass windows facing the “streets,” these shops give consumers a full view of store interiors decorated with objects from, or associated with, foreign places. Small boutiques like the ones in NKSM were becoming more common in Taiwan in the late 1980s. They attested to a growing desire in Taiwan to construct “taste” and “identity” through consumer choice. In addition to emphasizing their sophistication, boutiques also were invested with “character” or “personality” (
gexing
) built on the personal taste of store owners who handpicked their merchandise. Tian, a store manager now in her early forties, recalled that when NKSM was first established, most of the retailers were first-time business owners who saw the shops as a means to become their own bosses in a growing market and achieve financial independence. Their enthusiasm reflected the optimism of 1980s Taiwan when the island was beginning to open up economically and politically. It was also at around the same time that teenagers started to become a consumer demographic in Taiwan. Regulations on high school dress codes were loosened, and the economic miracle produced a generation of young people who had more money at their disposal. This change occurred concurrently with the democratization process on the island and the global proliferation of youth popular culture as a marketable commodity. As a result, there emerged a youth culture largely generated and influenced by commodities, advertising, and transnational cultural flows. New Kujiang’s rapid fashion changes, led by
danbang
merchants; the playful juxtaposition of images and goods from all over; and the mixture of languages on business signs composed an imaginative world where consumers could imagine, touch, and consume the global. For both consumers and merchants, these enclosed spaces with windows all facing inward were experienced as an opening that connected them to a wider world beyond the city.
Less than ten years after the establishment of NKSM, the nearby residential area of Jen-chi Street, Wen-hua Road, and Wen-heng 167 Alley had developed into a shopping area that then came to be known to most Kaohsiung residents more generally as “New Kujiang.” Other shopping gallerias with spatial layout and managerial style similar to NKSM were built. The Oscar Movie Theater, numerous fast-food outlets, less pricey shopping centers, and cheap knockoffs sold on the streets all drew in a younger crowd, giving New Kujiang a reputation that was becoming more hip than the sophisticated chic that NKSM had aimed for. Merchants used the arcades (
qilou
), an outside space protected from the weather by overhanging structures, either for storage or as additional display space. Street vendors set up stalls and carts in the arcades for protection from the weather or on the sidewalks right outside, blocking access to the arcades and the shops. Pedestrians were often forced to spill out onto the streets, exacerbating the already congested traffic and contributing to constant turf battles among merchants, vendors, pedestrians, and motorists. In NKSM, as a result of later expansions that incorporated previously existing buildings, the floors were not of the same height, and the corridors took strange turns and crosscut each other at unexpected intervals. The
jie
) and are marked by signs, and the self-enclosed store units flanking them all have street numbers posted on the doors. Through screening applications for retail space, the management ensured that these shops sold only imported goods and were designed to complement one another. Cleanliness and visual consistency ordered the foreign novelties into easily accessible displays and constructed a distinctive space distinguished from the streets outside. All the shops have to adhere to strict codes dictating store hours and decor. With oversized glass windows facing the “streets,” these shops give consumers a full view of store interiors decorated with objects from, or associated with, foreign places. Small boutiques like the ones in NKSM were becoming more common in Taiwan in the late 1980s. They attested to a growing desire in Taiwan to construct “taste” and “identity” through consumer choice. In addition to emphasizing their sophistication, boutiques also were invested with “character” or “personality” (
gexing
) built on the personal taste of store owners who handpicked their merchandise. Tian, a store manager now in her early forties, recalled that when NKSM was first established, most of the retailers were first-time business owners who saw the shops as a means to become their own bosses in a growing market and achieve financial independence. Their enthusiasm reflected the optimism of 1980s Taiwan when the island was beginning to open up economically and politically. It was also at around the same time that teenagers started to become a consumer demographic in Taiwan. Regulations on high school dress codes were loosened, and the economic miracle produced a generation of young people who had more money at their disposal. This change occurred concurrently with the democratization process on the island and the global proliferation of youth popular culture as a marketable commodity. As a result, there emerged a youth culture largely generated and influenced by commodities, advertising, and transnational cultural flows. New Kujiang’s rapid fashion changes, led by
danbang
merchants; the playful juxtaposition of images and goods from all over; and the mixture of languages on business signs composed an imaginative world where consumers could imagine, touch, and consume the global. For both consumers and merchants, these enclosed spaces with windows all facing inward were experienced as an opening that connected them to a wider world beyond the city.
Less than ten years after the establishment of NKSM, the nearby residential area of Jen-chi Street, Wen-hua Road, and Wen-heng 167 Alley had developed into a shopping area that then came to be known to most Kaohsiung residents more generally as “New Kujiang.” Other shopping gallerias with spatial layout and managerial style similar to NKSM were built. The Oscar Movie Theater, numerous fast-food outlets, less pricey shopping centers, and cheap knockoffs sold on the streets all drew in a younger crowd, giving New Kujiang a reputation that was becoming more hip than the sophisticated chic that NKSM had aimed for. Merchants used the arcades (
qilou
), an outside space protected from the weather by overhanging structures, either for storage or as additional display space. Street vendors set up stalls and carts in the arcades for protection from the weather or on the sidewalks right outside, blocking access to the arcades and the shops. Pedestrians were often forced to spill out onto the streets, exacerbating the already congested traffic and contributing to constant turf battles among merchants, vendors, pedestrians, and motorists. In NKSM, as a result of later expansions that incorporated previously existing buildings, the floors were not of the same height, and the corridors took strange turns and crosscut each other at unexpected intervals. The
Similar Books
