Page One

Page One the Bookshop is one of the best success story of Singapore. They started as a retail bookshop in the mid-80s, but has since expanded to include publishing up to 150 titles of new books a year, icluding "iSh" magazine. They have branches in Hong Kong, KL, Bangkok and Taipei and are looking to open one in Beijing soon. Their newest store in Vivocity, which I visited on 7 and 13 Dec, is a self-contained haven. The store carries more than 340,000 books, with about one-third of its 28,000 sq ft space devoted to Chinese language ones in the centre. This is surprising, but it must reflect the changing demographics here. There are lacquerwares, rattanworks and ivory displays in the store. The music played will be either Thai or Balinese or some ethnic pieces. Last Sunday's papers carried an article on Mark Tan, the founder. Reading it, I felt proud that here is one who stood up for rising China, as well as Asia as a whole. An abstract:

"MARK Tan, founder of home-grown bookstore chain Page One, once turned down British politician Chris Patten. It was in Hong Kong in 1997, before the handover, and the then governor had written East And West: The Last Governor Of Hong Kong On Power, Freedom And The Future.

'The British publisher contacted our Hong Kong store to arrange for an autograph session. It was prestigious, to have the governor of Hong Kong come to your store,' says Mr Tan, 48, speaking to LifeStyle at his Singapore office in Kaki Bukit. Being cautious as the handover was approaching, he asked to vet a draft copy of the book. Although the book was inoffensive to the new government, there was one particular paragraph that troubled him. Lord Patten wrote that in order to understand how the Chinese people had felt when they bowed to their emperor, he had practised the motion in his living room, without success. Throughout the process, his pet dog had looked at him in a curious way, as if thinking his master strange.

It was because of this paragraph that Mr Tan rejected the prestigious (not to mention lucrative) book signing. He says he did this out of respect for his Asian heritage. 'To me, the paragraph implies that even Mr Chris Patten's pet dog did not understand what our ancestors went through. To me, he not only insulted Hong Kong people, but also all the Chinese people in the world.' This fierce pride in Asian culture is the organising philosophy behind his Page One stores."

Sunday Times, 10 Dec 2006

Well, let's hope Chris is keeping up with his bowing practices. It'll come in handy a lot more often and sooner than he thinks.

Chup