Booksellers in East Asia

"Chinese learning material, HSK courses, abridged versions of Chinese novels, bilingual textbooks on Chinese culture and the like. Offer discount for learning material."

"Timezone 8 is a Hong Kong-based publisher of books on contemporary art, architecture, design and photography from GMT+8 (China). Founded in 2002, the company works with top designers, editors, critics, historians, artists, art and media institutions to publish between 10 and 15 new titles per year. To date, Timezone 8 has published more than 100 English and bi-lingual book publications.

The publisher's mission: to produce and distribute well-designed English and bi-lingual books that offer a worldwide readership a unique and culture-based perspective on the changes taking place in China as expressed in compelling texts and images by the people working on the frontline of 'one of the world's youngest civilizations: China.'

To this end, timezone 8 recently worked with China-based magazines Urban China and +0086 to translate and publish their groundbreaking content in the fields of urban planning and street culture respectively. It also worked with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art to publish three new titles on contemporary art and artists. For details on these and Timezone 8's other 12 front list titles, as well as its 40+ recent titles still in print, please browse this site or download our .pdf catalog on this page.

With offices in Hong Kong and Beijing and a worldwide distribution network that includes warehouses in London, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing and freight forwarders in New York, London and Hong Kong, as well as agents around the world, Timezone 8 is now recognized as the leader in its field. Its titles continue to top the bestseller list at independent art bookstores in Beijing and can be found in the world's leading contemporary art libraries, institutions, bookstores and websites, including amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com."

"[…] für Kunsthistoriker mit Interesse an Gegenwartskunst/Architektur/Design unentbehrlich. Bücher auch online bestellbar."

"Großes Angebot an Literatur, vor allem auch Kunst. Spezielle Lage in einer ausgedienten Tiefgarage, schöne Non-Book Abteilung mit Notizbüchern und so Sachen (Mehr..) Existierte auf jeden Fall noch 2010."

"Areas: Literature, Teaching English as a second language."

"Timezone 8 is a Hong Kong-based publisher of books on contemporary art, architecture, design and photography from GMT+8 (China). Founded in 2002, the company works with top designers, editors, critics, historians, artists, art and media institutions to publish between 10 and 15 new titles per year. To date, Timezone 8 has published more than 100 English and bi-lingual book publications.

The publisher's mission: to produce and distribute well-designed English and bi-lingual books that offer a worldwide readership a unique and culture-based perspective on the changes taking place in China as expressed in compelling texts and images by the people working on the frontline of 'one of the world's youngest civilizations: China.'

To this end, timezone 8 recently worked with China-based magazines Urban China and +0086 to translate and publish their groundbreaking content in the fields of urban planning and street culture respectively. It also worked with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art to publish three new titles on contemporary art and artists. For details on these and Timezone 8's other 12 front list titles, as well as its 40+ recent titles still in print, please browse this site or download our .pdf catalog on this page.

With offices in Hong Kong and Beijing and a worldwide distribution network that includes warehouses in London, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing and freight forwarders in New York, London and Hong Kong, as well as agents around the world, Timezone 8 is now recognized as the leader in its field. Its titles continue to top the bestseller list at independent art bookstores in Beijing and can be found in the world's leading contemporary art libraries, institutions, bookstores and websites, including amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com."

"[…] für Kunsthistoriker mit Interesse an Gegenwartskunst/Architektur/Design unentbehrlich. Bücher auch online bestellbar."

"This fabulous two-storeyed shop, located close to Shijô-Dôri and Kawaramachi Stations, can be found in the middle of the Teramachi shopping mall in Kyoto. Truly delightful - even if only to browse; many wonderful woodblock prints of a good quality, some are even affordable!"

"In general, but particularly for humanities, this is one of the best supplied stores in the whole land, keeping stock of many complete works series, old editions of various sources collections as well as many specialised monographs from small academic presses. Branch stores (Shinjuku or Kichijōji in Tokyo, as well Kyōto and Ōsaka and other large cities) can be found from the website."

"There are several stores in Japan and the East, but I only stayed in Tokyo a couple of times, so I can only recomand the Shinjuku South-Kinokuniya Store (Shinjuku Minami Kinokuniya 新宿南紀伊国屋.

The Bookshop has a wide range of books, unfortunatly I can not really say how the Japanese section is, because I only spend time in the section of fiction books and historical novels. However I really can recomand the English Section. There is a huge Section for Political Science and Art (e.g. Reference Books for University Work)."

"Areas where the book shop is good in : Korean books (various subjects, Art, History)."

"Book shop specializing in art books."

"Book shop specializing in language learning."

"Book shop for books of a wide range of topics."

"Exklusive Auswahl von Büchern zur Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens. Das National Palace Museum kauft regulär von dort, und auch ich war begeistert. Er gibt anscheinend regelmässig Saisonkataloge heraus."

From their web page:

"With over 4,000 titles, Han-niew Bookstore offers you most complete collection of Asian arts books in Taiwan, including museum, antique shop and auction catalogues on sculpture, ceramics, bronze, painting, etc."

"Thanks to a tip shared by a fellow graduate student I met here yesterday, I learnt about another excellent academic bookstore here in Taipei which is, I'm told, a favorite among those "in the know." Its owner, a legendary Ms. Huang (who was out when I visited today) is apparently well-loved among scholars all over East Asia as well as sinologists in the United States. This was confirmed by two elderly Korean philosophy professors I had a chat with, from two separate Korean universities, who said that they had been visiting and ordering books from the place for many years. One of these professors yelled the owner's name affectionately as he disembarked the elevator and seemed very disappointed to see she wasn't around.

樂學書局, or the "Lexis Book Co." as it is known in English has one of the most unusual locations of any bookstore I have had the chance to visit. Whereas the 學生書局 is conveniently located on 和平東路 near the entrance of the Shida night market and 唐山書店 is just out of view in a basement locale near Taiwan National University, this book store is found in what looks like a converted residence on the 10th floor of an apartment complex on 金山南路(Chin-shan S. Road), perhaps 10 minutes walk from Guting station. There are no signs at the street level suggesting that this residential high rise houses a bookstore with one of the greatest collections of academic Chinese language works in Taipei. However, as I passed the security guard at the entrance to the grounds, he stopped me and immediately asked with a knowing smile, "樂學書局?" When I responded in the affirmative he told me to go to the apartment complex to the right and take the elevator to the 10th floor. The whole experience felt like that scene in the movie "The Matrix" where the band of adventurers go to visit the mystical "Oracle" in her hidden home.

Inside the apartment/bookstore every room is filled with books, including the shelves above the kitchen sink. History books can be found in its own room in the back corner. There is a great selection of both pre-modern and modern history but look through all the shelves since their semi-sorted nature can be deceiving. While almost all the books are in Chinese, there was a series of shelves with dictionaries and publications in everything from Manchu to the various languages of Central Asia. Another one of the rooms also has a good collection of the English language publications of SMC Publishing."