The earliest coffee shop in Taiwan: an introduction to the coffee shop culture in the old society

Xiyangxuan, a cafe at the west gate of Taipei in 1897, and the Lion Cafe in the Park in Taipei in 1912 appeared at the Witt Cafe in Taiping Town, Taipei in 1931.

The earliest cafe in Taiwan is called Xiyang Xuan.

In September 1897, in Taiwan's daily newspaper, there was an advertisement for the opening of Xiyang Xuan, a restaurant that called itself a teahouse, selling Western food and wine, but in the title of the advertisement, Xiyangxuan was determined to be a "European-style coffee teahouse." This record was mentioned in 2008 by Chen Ruoyi, "Discovery of the first Coffee Shop in Taiwan", thought, No. 8, 2008, p. 163, but rarely noticed. But it is definitely the earliest coffee shop in Taiwan.

The second coffee shop is the cafe Lion Park Lion Cafe opened during the Japanese occupation era, which was born in December 1912. It is located in the "February 28 Memorial Park" in Taipei, of course, the building is no longer in existence.

The original location is the welcome hotel at the second venue of the Memorial Expo, which has been ruled by Japan for 40 years. Fireworks were set off on the opening day and hundreds of geisha were recruited as waiters to successfully create a topic. The "Park Lion" opened at 06:30 every morning and became a gathering place for "Wenqing" at that time. Later, it was added to a two-story house, and the second floor could hold art exhibitions, photography exhibitions, and also accommodate performances by small theatrical troupes, which can be said to be the origin of modern compound art and culture space.

In 1931, the "Witt" coffee shop in Taiping Town, Taipei, was supposed to be the first coffee shop opened by Taiwanese. It was named after Goethe's novel "Young Victor's troubles."

Chen Ruoyi also said in the article that the most important feature of the coffee shop at that time was that it was accompanied by young girls to drink coffee, and customers could hold the wrist (wrist) of the waitress in the coffee shop, and erotic sex smelled like coffee.

The author also mentioned that one of the features of the coffee shop was that the waitresses wearing kimonos in the coffee shop were called "female givers". They not only delivered drinks to the guests, but also had coffee with them, and even provided appearance service, just like today's hotel ladies. However, the author also mentioned that coffee shops are not all like this. Coffee shops are not just erotic places. In the past, "tea parties" were held to invite high-level people to drink tea, eat cakes and chat. Tea members later set up shrines dedicated to the gods of literature and art in the place where the tea party was held, so it is hard to imagine that coffee shops would have such a role.

During the Japanese occupation, shops with the name signboard of "Cafe Japanese", like the important role played by western coffee shops in the process of modernization, served as a public domain for civil society to communicate with each other. However, as an open social situation, it does not mean that its space is also open and transparent. First of all, from the outside, when the coffee shop closes the door, draws the curtains or uses stained glass with dim lighting, the interior of the coffee shop becomes obviously isolated from the outside world, becoming an invisible and closed space.

In addition, the interior of the coffee shop is also open and closed, visible and invisible. Boxes and VIP rooms are private spaces for groups or a small number of people. The rest, such as the bar and general guest blocks, appear semi-open spaces with seating partitions and potted landscapes according to the differences of each coffee shop. In such a semi-open space design, customers who go to spend, on the one hand, have some of the necessary privacy areas, on the other hand, they can peek into the condition of neighboring seats. (the original article was published at Lifan Global Institute of Fashion Technology.