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The Unique Shanghai Bazaar By Geoffrey Barnes, Stephen Goslin and Christina Mazza |
Lilly Feihong Song established the Shanghai Bazaar four years ago, but not without facing many obstacles. With perseverance and hard work, she finally realized her dream in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. She started with establishing a bookstore on Arch Street while struggling to make a living in America.
Lilly Feihong Song, owner of the Shanghai Bazaar
“I wanted to have my own bookstore,” she said. “I came here in 1993 with nothing, only $300-$400, with a child only seven years old. I was babysitting, a housekeeper, tailoring and being a waitress, but I made it.”
Song was raised in West Lake in China, only a short distance from Shanghai, where she worked as a high school teacher. After touring several locations in America, including Chicago, San Francisco and New York City, she finally decided on Philadelphia because of a more affordable price.
Song previously owned two bookstores that were located on the 900 block of Arch Street, but had to move both times because of landlords who wanted her to leave. She established New China Book Store in 2004 at 1010 Race St., costing her $30,000.
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After working at New China Book Store for four years, which still exists only two doors down from the bazaar, she decided to establish a new store in the same busy intersection, closer to the Friendship Arch in Chinatown. This became the Shanghai Bazaar, a place that would sell more than just books. She raised money for the bazaar, which required a $350,000 investment to open, from profits obtained from the bookstore.
“I tried my best to do better and better, and then moved down and across the street, and moved next door to 1010” she said, referring to the current location of the bazaar and book store. “It was such a bigger space and such a good location.”
The bazaar is a two-floor variety shop that sells clothes, jewelry, Chinese-language newspapers and antiques on the entry-level floor. The second floor contains Chinese weaponry, such as swords and nunchaku, comics, music, televisions, movies and shows on DVD and books. The music sold in the store is also played in the background, which is easier to hear from the upstairs level.
The interior of the bi-level store
Song is passionate about the books more than anything else in the store. She wanted to find English versions of Chinese poems and literature to sell to attract Americans to the books, not just the Chinese, who the other book stores in Chinatown cater to.
Song’s father, Paul Bailao Song, is on the cover of a photo book sold in the bazaar. He’s a popular opera singer in China.
“He has many hobbies. One of them is painting and carving. He did all of this,” said Song. “My father is very open-minded…he said ‘the sky is never falling down’. Of course, you get a lot of trouble,” Song said, referencing how difficult it was to come to and establish a business in America.
Song can also sing opera, in addition to playing the flute.
The clothes section is a popular spot in the store. “Lots of people come for the clothes to buy them for plays and things like that,” said Ioan, one of the store’s employees. “But a lot of them are very expensive.”
Traditional Chinese garments sometimes
take up to six months to tailor
The main distinguishing feature between the employees and the owner are the clothes they wear. While employees such as Ioan wear a red Chinese shirt embroidered with a large flower on the right side and buttons on the left, Song wears a green vest adorned with flowers.
Ioan, an employee of the Shaghai Bazaar
“Everything [in the store] is from mainland China. This is a very unique and special store. If you go to China, you’ll see a bookstore and a fashion store, but not a combination like this,” Song said.
Many of the items in the store were used for the Chinese New Year that took place in February. The Chinese dragons, carried by many of people during the parade’s march down Chinatown, are placed in the back of the upper level. The drums used are also prevalent in front of the dragon.
A Chinese dragon used for the New Year parade
Being close to a number of the other main tourist attractions, like the arch and restaurants on 10th Street, has been great for business, especially from people not of Chinese ethnicity.
“In this store, I have touring people, and people who come to Philadelphia to visit,” she said, while referring to the fact that the store is a block only away from the Philadelphia Convention Center. “People keep coming back and back because they remember my store.”
Both New China Book Store and Shanghai Bazaar fulfill their intentions of being more than places for people to shop. The bookstore, in addition to selling multilingual books, movies and musical instruments, also offers classes in folk dance, music, Chinese calligraphy and language classes. The bazaar has a small massage parlor in the back and a small Internet café.
A 21st century record player that plays CDs
“I have so many letters people have wrote to me from Europe, from Canada, from D.C., Baltimore and even San Francisco. They say thank you to me because they are very impressed,” Song said.