【Sunday Slow Moments】VVGSomething’s Hidden Gem: A Bookstore with Workshops

“I always feel that it’s not us who found these old things, but that these old things found us,” say Yang Ge and Liao Yixian from Waiwu Design Studio. And perhaps stories happen the same way: not that people choose to meet stories in bookstores, but that stories choose to unfold in bookstores. People meet in bookstores, bookstores sell stories, people come to bookstores expecting to find stories and also end up creating them. In the end, stories are passed on through encounters, collide and spark, eventually evolving into new narratives. Reading creates. So it seems only natural for a bookstore to become a classroom—and that’s what makes this class unique: we’re not just learning, we’re also sharing.

 

Before asking why there are “Waiwu Zhiqu Workshops” in a bookstore, perhaps we should ask: why open such a bookstore in the first place? Just named one of the “World’s 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores” by the American arts and culture website Flavorwire.com earlier this year, VVG Something 好样本事—now four years old—has gone beyond being just a reading and information exchange space, becoming a second home for life. It's not just beautiful, but elegantly so, filled with traces of daily life. As the website described it: beyond practical value, it holds the elegance of a bygone era, just like the ideal ship cabin we imagine. When asked about this honor, Grace Wang Liqin, founder and head of the VVG Good Series, laughed and said, “We didn’t even know we were nominated. We only found out when we got the congratulatory call.” As she often mentions during interviews—go with the flow. Facing praise and encouragement, Grace simply smiled faintly, in her usual style. Opening a restaurant or a bookstore has always been a natural progression for her.

“I love books and I collect them. Opening a bookstore isn’t just about fulfilling a dream—it all just fell into place naturally.” Beyond enjoying books alone, book lovers are even more eager to share their passion for books and life. The trigger was the 2008–2009 financial crisis. “Back then, Taipei felt so down and lifeless. But the gloomier it got, the more I wanted to do something impulsive and fun,” Grace said. And so, with the simple thought of “fun,” 好样本事 was born. Reading can show us sights we don’t normally see—hence the fun. Running a bookstore lets you travel the world for books without judgment—so even more fun. Opening a book is a kind of departure; opening a bookstore is another kind. Take a close look at the store’s selection—mostly art and design books from around the world, paired with miscellaneous goods collected from all corners of the globe. The space is filled with the owner’s personality and taste. “At first, I wasn’t entirely sure which direction the bookstore would take. I just felt that my dream bookstore should be small but cozy, so the book selection leaned toward my personal preferences—focusing on design, originality, and especially books with unique bindings. Small quantity, high quality, no restrictions on new or old. Many of the books were treasures I dug up in second-hand stores abroad,” Grace said.

As for the name, after much deliberation, it came to Grace after watching the stage play “Design for Living” starring Sylvia Chang, which triggered memories of going to the cinema with family as a child. “Back then, there used to be a stack of ‘benzi’ (movie synopses) in front of cinemas—important references for moviegoers, tied to the excitement and emotion of those cinema visits. But you don’t see them anymore.” Some things remain only in memory as time passes, perhaps making us all the more attached to printed words. Thus the name 好样本事 (literally “Good Sample Things”). Or maybe it’s the “ability” kind of “本事,” or simply “book matters”—the interpretations vary. And VVG 好样? That’s obviously “very very good,” or even a hearty “Well done!”

 

Just as the English name of 好样本事—VVG Something—suggests, the hope is that something special happens or unfolds in the bookstore. From the beginning, Grace had planned to include workshops. Happening once or twice a month, they offer afternoons of handmade crafts and sharing on weekends. During these sessions, the books on the big wooden table in the middle of the store are cleared away, and everyone pulls out the various chairs Grace has dug up from storage—each uniquely different, but one thing is certain: the wooden ones just get more comfortable and characterful the more you use them.

Most of the workshop instructors are Grace’s friends, such as Teacher Yang Zhongming, who hosts paper roll and metal type stamp workshops, or Teacher Shen Zhaoliang, who holds STAGE photography talks. On the day of our interview, we met Teachers Yang Ge and Liao Yixian, who connected through the “Beautiful Day” project at the 2012 Taipei International Book Fair. As if bound by a shared love for books, their exhibition piece was a reading lamp made from an old camera—what was once the lens now gently emits a warm glow, once observing the world, now accompanying its new owner into the new worlds within books.

 

The two are industrial product designers by trade and co-run Waiwu Design Studio. They only launched the “Reborn 重华” project in early 2012 as a micro-revolution for youth. Though trained in mass-production industrial design, the pair are fascinated by old things and hope to redefine their value and find them new roles through renovation and reuse—like career reorientation for old objects.