South Korea’s City of Books

A satellite tv for pc metropolis 22 miles northwest of Seoul, South Korea, Paju is small, with a inhabitants of round half one million. The streets are quieter than these of the bustling capital, the air cleaner and the tempo of life half a beat slower.

Whereas many individuals know town for its navy base, Paju can be residence to the nation’s elaborate ebook publishing hub — formally often known as Paju Publishing Tradition, Data and Nationwide Industrial Park however generally known as Paju Guide Metropolis. Round 900 book-related companies, together with printing presses, distribution corporations and design studios line the streets, and indicators studying “Paju Guide Metropolis” are in all places.

The federal government opened the publishing hub in 1998, after nearly a decade of planning and as half of a bigger effort to modernize the nation. South Korea’s ebook trade was dispersed, however, in accordance with Lee Sang-yeon, a supervisor of one among Paju’s major cultural amenities, the Asia Publication Tradition and Data Middle, “the founders of the publishing metropolis thought this scattered, decentralized manner of making books was inefficient.”

In clustering all of its bookmakers in a single place, South Korea hoped to raised produce and distribute a serious a part of its tradition. Books are an enormous enterprise in South Korea. Final yr, greater than 115 million books have been offered nationwide, in accordance with the Korean Writer’s Affiliation.

The ebook metropolis’s mission — to “actively assist tradition and humanities based mostly on books” — could be seen in buildings throughout city. Photopia, a serene purple construction curved like an ocean wave, serves as a pictures manufacturing and processing studio. One publishing firm, Dulnyouk, has its headquarters in a towering, geometric construction that resembles the type of cumbersome transport automobile present in “Star Wars.” Quaint cafes, the place guests can sip their drinks whereas studying, dot Paju’s road corners. Every part is designed to protect and unfold a love for books.

On the core of Paju Guide Metropolis is the place Lee works, the Asia Publication Tradition and Data Middle, a five-story advanced that features an schooling facility, occasions corridor and exhibition house, and that serves as a social {and professional} nucleus for native publishers. The middle attracts nearly 10,000 guests a yr.

On the constructing’s first ground is the Forest of Knowledge, a central library with tens of 1000’s of books on show and tens of 1000’s extra in storage, in accordance with Lee. Ground-to-ceiling bookshelves, some greater than 25 toes tall, line the partitions. Although guests usually are not allowed to take a look at books — fiction and nonfiction, reference texts, image books and different works — they’re welcome to browse the cabinets and skim in frequent areas. The seemingly boundless assortment means friends embody households with youngsters, younger {couples} on dates and teams of older folks on social outings. The middle features a lodge for anybody who needs to spend the evening.

The publication middle additionally prides itself in preserving historical texts and the follow of typography. The Guide Metropolis Letterpress Museum, adjoining to the middle’s principal constructing, holds in its assortment conventional printing gear, together with 35 million metallic character blocks.

Unsurprisingly, colleges love to go to Paju. On a Friday afternoon final month, first graders in matching college uniforms learn alongside a flight of stairs, some sitting in pairs, others alone. Elsewhere, a category of highschool juniors and seniors found the printing and publishing course of via a hands-on lesson.

Each fall, the middle hosts a ebook competition, bringing collectively native authors, artists and ebook lovers. This yr’s occasion, the twelfth annual gathering, included artwork exhibitions, stay music, a typing competitors — by which contestants, sitting at typewriters row upon row, have been judged on velocity and accuracy — and, in fact, ample alternative to thrill within the tradition of books.

“Even because the world turns into extra digital, the appeal of books is rarely misplaced on readers,” Lee stated. “Those that like to learn books will all the time come again.”