Ri Xing Type Foundry

Date CapturedJune 21st, 2017 at 08:15 UTCCameraSM-G9208LensSamsung Galaxy S6 Rear CameraApertureƒ / 1.9Shutter Speed1/25 secFocal Length4.3 mmISO200Exposure Value6.5 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Founded in 1969 and now run by Zhang Jieguan (張介冠), who took over from his father, Ri Xing is the last surviving traditional Chinese character type foundry in Taiwan. The shop, tucked into a lane off Taiyuan Road, casts lead type from a library of more than 120,000 matrices spanning a variety of forms. Production peaked in 1976, when father and son worked in shifts to cast 100,000 characters a day for the printing trade. After the closure of Zhongnan Foundry (中南鑄字廠) in 2000 this became the last remaining of its kind. Recent decades have shifted the focus of the business to preservation. The shop is open to the public.

Date CapturedJune 21st, 2017 at 08:10 UTCCameraSM-G9208LensSamsung Galaxy S6 Rear CameraApertureƒ / 1.9Shutter Speed1/20 secFocal Length4.3 mmISO200Exposure Value6.2 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400