I compare reading Vendorworld to a stimulating, nostalgia-laced virtual journey through Taiwan’s markets and side streets – from crowded crossroads to shops and stalls with dozens-deep lines of hungry customers outside.
The author’s illuminating focus on these vendors, each a small but important part of their surrounding milieu, paints a fun-to-read, satisfyingly complete picture of Taiwan’s lively street vending scene. Moreover, the myriad stories and insights into vendor owners, clientele, and history add delightful dimension to this work. Taiwanese readers in particular are sure to find fond and familiar memories of their own within its pages.
With Taiwan’s distinctive street vendor culture now in slow but steady decline, Vendorworld is an important new addition to Taiwan’s collective cultural memory bank.