Taiwan’s last Chinese letterpress and one of the last remaining lead-character makers in the world. Chinese does not have an alphabet--it consists of words made up of one to two characters. Rixing has one of the largest collections of three-dimensional Chinese characters in Taiwan, with 120,000 molds of different characters and over 10 million lead character pieces. Photo 7 of 14 in Visit 12 Design-Centric Stops in the Asian Metropolis of Taipei

Visit 12 Design-Centric Stops in the Asian Metropolis of Taipei

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Maintaining both a family legacy and preserving a dying cultural tradition, Chang Chieh-kuan is the owner of Ri Xing Type Foundry—Taiwan’s last Chinese letterpress—and is one of the last remaining lead Chinese character makers in the world. His father opened the foundry in 1969, and today, it's the only remaining store in the world that sells traditional Chinese moveable printing types.