Xi Bookshop (Toufenpu Cultural Workshop)

Xi Bookshop (Toufenpu Cultural Workshop) is an independent bookstore located in Pingtung City. Its founders, Xu Xiao-qing and Peng Qiao-ru, graduated from the Graduate Institute of Hakka Culture at National Kaohsiung Normal University, specializing in ethnic relations, folk beliefs, and food culture research. In addition to social science books, the bookstore also features a food research lab, established to complement their expertise in food culture. Xi Bookshop is located in the V.I.P. Zone (Victory Star Village) Creative Life Park in downtown Pingtung City, which is the largest, most numerous, and most completely preserved complex of Japanese-style military officer dormitories in Taiwan. In 1927, the 8th Flying Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army moved into Pingtung and built these official residences. Later, when the KMT government came to Taiwan, military officers brought their families and settled in this area, infusing the Japanese architecture with a strong flavor of military dependents' village culture. In recent years, the Pingtung County Government has actively renovated the military dependents' village spaces, gradually shaping the current appearance of the V.I.P. Zone community. Besides preserving the distinctive architecture from the Japanese colonial period that continues to this day, many local cultural, artistic, and catering industries have been invited to move in. This has added more vitality to the V.I.P. Zone and provided a place for Pingtung's cultural and artistic workers to return to their roots. The "Xi Bookshop" team was established in 2015. When they first moved into the V.I.P. Zone, the local government faced financial constraints, and only some buildings in the entire park had been renovated. At that time, many residents of the military dependents' village still lived there. During the early stages of the park's large-scale renovation, local cultural and historical teams in Pingtung, such as the "Pingtung County Hometown Love Association" and the "Xiao Zhen-ji Cultural and Arts Foundation," collaborated to conduct historical and cultural surveys of the military dependents' village. Xi Bookshop leveraged the "open and shared" nature of a bookstore to help disseminate valuable historical and cultural materials collected from various sources and used its expertise in curation and editing to help more Pingtung residents and tourists understand the historical context of the V.I.P. Zone. In addition to its local connections within Pingtung City, Xi Bookshop also has special ties with Laiyi and Taiwu Townships. Between 2021 and 2023, it assisted with the editing and printing of Laiyi Township's gazette and cultural calendar, and with the interviewing and editing of Taiwu Township's gazette. Building on these experiences, the team hopes to further detail its own growth trajectory and, through seven years of operational experience, share and provide consultation channels for young people returning to their hometowns. Therefore, in 2024, it established the "Victory Pingtung Empowerment Station." It also returned to the historical context of "Pingtung City," dedicating itself to connecting local cultural and historical workers, studios, and shops in Pingtung. Through methods such as data collection, historical material editing, walking tours, lectures, and performances, it aims to consolidate and construct a local identity for Pingtung. By the end of the year, returning to the front of the local grand temple, Tou Lun Pu Huashan Wanfu Temple, and drawing inspiration from Pingtung City's past cultural memory, the "Guangdong Road Trade Fair," it organized concerts, exhibitions, and youth markets, creating a new Pingtung brand called "Common Resonance, Common Taste."