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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Mailboxes inspire sales from keychains to cupcakes
A photograph taken from a Facebook page shows products made in China featuring two “crooked” mailboxes in Taipei. Photo taken from Facebook
By Huang Li-hsiang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Local bakeries and Chinese online shopping Web site Taobao.com have stolen a march on Chunghwa Post Co by marketing products inspired by a popular pair of “leaning” mailboxes in Taipei.
The mailboxes on Longjiang Road became tilted after a shop sign fell on them when Typhoon Soudelor hit the nation on Saturday.
Chunghwa Post yesterday said it had shelved a plan to move the mailboxes, adding that it would not take legal action against commercial items patterned after the mailboxes as long as they do not contain the world “post.”
The company originally intended to relocate the mailboxes to Beimen Post Office near the Taipei Railway Station, as the lines of people waiting to take pictures of the mailboxes were beginning to affect traffic in the area.
The damaged mailboxes quickly became famous after pictures of the pair were posted online. Elite Bakery nearby started making cupcakes in the forms of the mailboxes, while Taobao.com features cellphone cases inspired by the mailboxes.
Ruten.com, another online shopping Web site, features key chains and other items made in the form of the mailboxes.
While some netizens have criticized Chunghwa Post for being slow in cashing in on the trend or even thinking of moving the mailboxes, history and cultural experts said that people must not forget that the mailboxes were a freak accident caused by a typhoon that created so much havoc and damage and even caused death.
While it is different from actually taking pictures at disaster sites, people should nonetheless be aware of the reason why the mailboxes became crooked in the first place, academics said.
The phenomenon of people lining up to take pictures with the mailboxes in Taipei drew jeers from residents of other cities, with one person saying Taipei residents were acting like the country mouse visiting the city.
Residents of Hualien County’s Yuli Township （玉里） said the town also has a crooked mailbox — a single mailbox divided into red and green parts — for more than a decade.
A local academic took a photograph of the mailbox and posted it online with the comment: “Crooked mailboxes are the patent of Taipei. We have had this one for more than a decade and never once thought of fixing it.”
Chunghwa Post’s Hualien County branch on Tuesday dispatched workers to fix the mailbox.
Another mailbox in Tainan’s Yongkang District （永康） was “double-crooked,” as its head and pole were bent in two different directions because of the typhoon and a car crashing into it before the storm.
Chunghwa Post’s removed the mailbox on Tuesday, saying it had been of little use, with just a little more than 10 letters being deposited in the mailbox every month.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
