T.I.B.E. Or Not T.I.B.E.
At half past two in the afternoon, the digital counter registered 76,888 as I walked through the entrance of Building 1 of Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) after I had shown the NT$120-worth entrance ticket to the door attendant. That was on Saturday, 7th of February this year, 4th day of the 6-day book fair - the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE), world’s 2nd largest book fair this year. Building 1, which is connected to Taipei 101 by a covered walkway (the kind that we call footbridge in Manila), was the exhibition area for International Zone, General Books, Digital Publishing and Specialized Books. Books on fiction and literature, which were the prime reason I went to the fair, were categorized under Specialized Books. Buildings 2 and 3 of TWTC, which were located across the streets surrounding Taipei 101, housed the exhibition halls for Comic Books and Children’s Books, respectively. I did not intend to visit these smaller venues though. I’m not a fan of comic books and I’m too old to be reading children’s books. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” which I have been reading from time to time like a serial does not qualify as children’s books. Read Cinderella, for example, and you’ll know what I mean.
The physical plan of the Exhibition Hall in Building 1, notwithstanding the now-here-now-there kind of visitors flocking from one booth to the other booths, had managed to endure the chaotic traffic of book lovers, publishers, agents and the curious. The number of exhibitors from all over the world (906 publishers from 41 countries) and the number of visitors, including me, if only for that day, were impressive. This was the largest book fair I’ve ever been.
It was not at all disappointing to have had experienced the chaos. I saw patrons of the fair aged 10 to 80 (I’m just guessing this) in different states of business. Notable were those who were in different queues patiently waiting for their turn to have their books signed by the respective authors who, unfortunately, I didn’t know. Some were glued to their seats, attentive to some authors on the podium discussing their books. But the most notable of them all were those who collected freebies (pens, bags, books, notebooks, writing pads, candies) that exhibitors gave away. Though I didn’t care much about these things, I couldn’t refuse the two Time-like magazine and paperbacks samples (in Chinese) that some promoters handed me . Having said ‘thank you,’ I sheared the now listless mob in that area and glided my way toward the portal to the international section, lest I would be obliged to exchange mutually incomprehensible talk on our respective points of view with these people. I have to say at this point that those magazines and paperbacks ended up in a garbage bin that I chanced upon on my way to the neighboring Taipei 101. I don’t like (even the idea of) lugging with me things that are of no use. I can’t read Chinese. I should have politely refused accepting them in the first place.
Finally, I was in the International Zone. I visited the booths exhibiting publications from Japan, France, Germany, USA and other countries in Asia, particularly Thailand, which was this year’s theme and international guest of honor. However, I was disappointed to find out that the literature books displayed and available for sale were all in the original languages. I was hoping to find some translated books but to no avail. Even the US booths, which I expected to display Penguin or Vintage titles, didn’t have a decent number exhibited. I already have in my library all the interesting titles in display - there were only 10 titles more or less! The neighboring booth, which was that of a local bookstore in Taiwan (Bookman), had surprisingly more titles in English than any other exhibitors in the fair. Most of the titles that caught my attention I have already read or owned though. I just bought one trade book paperback– E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime – at 75% of the original price.
I had company when I visited the book fair. Visitors No. 76,889 and 76,890 were somewhere else inside the hall of Building1 lurking on whatever they would find interesting. We have different interests so we decided to split once we got in and agreed on a time to meet at a specified place so that we’d leave at the same time. So did us.
We did leave the hall at the same time only to realize three minutes later that we took the wrong exit. We didn’t go back; instead, we continued walking until we saw the entrance to the book fair through a hotel. We decided to re-enter through the hotel and find inside the hall the exit nearest to Taipei 101, where we decided to have dinner and possible visit to Page One located at the 4th floor of the tower. The guard and the door attendant, in a combination of charade, Chinese and incomprehensible English, tried to explain to us that we couldn’t re-enter. We, of course, protested in English:
“You mean we can’t we re-enter, why?”
“It was only three minutes ago since we exited, only to find out we haven’t seen all the booths yet.”
“We’re not going to Buildings 2 and 3 anyway.”
The physical plan of the Exhibition Hall in Building 1, notwithstanding the now-here-now-there kind of visitors flocking from one booth to the other booths, had managed to endure the chaotic traffic of book lovers, publishers, agents and the curious. The number of exhibitors from all over the world (906 publishers from 41 countries) and the number of visitors, including me, if only for that day, were impressive. This was the largest book fair I’ve ever been.
It was not at all disappointing to have had experienced the chaos. I saw patrons of the fair aged 10 to 80 (I’m just guessing this) in different states of business. Notable were those who were in different queues patiently waiting for their turn to have their books signed by the respective authors who, unfortunately, I didn’t know. Some were glued to their seats, attentive to some authors on the podium discussing their books. But the most notable of them all were those who collected freebies (pens, bags, books, notebooks, writing pads, candies) that exhibitors gave away. Though I didn’t care much about these things, I couldn’t refuse the two Time-like magazine and paperbacks samples (in Chinese) that some promoters handed me . Having said ‘thank you,’ I sheared the now listless mob in that area and glided my way toward the portal to the international section, lest I would be obliged to exchange mutually incomprehensible talk on our respective points of view with these people. I have to say at this point that those magazines and paperbacks ended up in a garbage bin that I chanced upon on my way to the neighboring Taipei 101. I don’t like (even the idea of) lugging with me things that are of no use. I can’t read Chinese. I should have politely refused accepting them in the first place.
Finally, I was in the International Zone. I visited the booths exhibiting publications from Japan, France, Germany, USA and other countries in Asia, particularly Thailand, which was this year’s theme and international guest of honor. However, I was disappointed to find out that the literature books displayed and available for sale were all in the original languages. I was hoping to find some translated books but to no avail. Even the US booths, which I expected to display Penguin or Vintage titles, didn’t have a decent number exhibited. I already have in my library all the interesting titles in display - there were only 10 titles more or less! The neighboring booth, which was that of a local bookstore in Taiwan (Bookman), had surprisingly more titles in English than any other exhibitors in the fair. Most of the titles that caught my attention I have already read or owned though. I just bought one trade book paperback– E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime – at 75% of the original price.
I had company when I visited the book fair. Visitors No. 76,889 and 76,890 were somewhere else inside the hall of Building1 lurking on whatever they would find interesting. We have different interests so we decided to split once we got in and agreed on a time to meet at a specified place so that we’d leave at the same time. So did us.
We did leave the hall at the same time only to realize three minutes later that we took the wrong exit. We didn’t go back; instead, we continued walking until we saw the entrance to the book fair through a hotel. We decided to re-enter through the hotel and find inside the hall the exit nearest to Taipei 101, where we decided to have dinner and possible visit to Page One located at the 4th floor of the tower. The guard and the door attendant, in a combination of charade, Chinese and incomprehensible English, tried to explain to us that we couldn’t re-enter. We, of course, protested in English:
“You mean we can’t we re-enter, why?”
“It was only three minutes ago since we exited, only to find out we haven’t seen all the booths yet.”
“We’re not going to Buildings 2 and 3 anyway.”
And so on.
This brought the poor Taiwanese guys in panic because they had to exert great effort to answer back in English. We were in an international book fair after all. They spoke Chinese instead. We told them we couldn’t understand them. They spoke Chinese again. Resigned, we decided to leave and take the long way to Taipei 101 instead.
Stalemate. We just stood there though. Silence.
Then after a few seconds, my eyes locked with those of the older Taiwanese guy’s (the guard’s) and without uttering more words in Chinese or English he took my right hand and stamped something on the back of my palm and motioned me to enter. The younger Taiwanese guy did the same thing to my friends.
“Thank you,” we said.
The Taiwanese guys smiled. The younger guy waved his hand while the older guy shook his head while chuckling.
Comments
very funny, very typical in any fairs, like food fairs, travel fairs, etc.
I remember your blog about your observations about the people inside that Taiwanese Museum, you're more observant/interested on peoples' reaction on the display instead on the display itself, hahaha.