Information from @skyarise ‘s tweet, was reposted with permission.
How to purchase uncensored Chinese Danmei physical books for international buyers (a short guide):
1. Online bookstores:
https://www.animate-onlineshop.com.tw/ Only ships within Taiwan.
- They don’t carry all titles, and some must be bought via proxy. They accept international credit cards. Online bookstore shipping is very fast, and they use express shipping.
- For Jiafei books if you want the whole set, you should pre-order, since the online bookstores won’t include the extras booklet / fanwai volumes. You will need to buy from a proxy or wait for leftovers (not guaranteed)
How to tell whether these sites will ship the specific titles overseas (some of them are domestic market only)
1. Books.com.tw: some R18 books can’t be shipped overseas but a lot can. Go to the book you wish to buy and look under 運送說明, it’ll say whether they ship overseas or not (海外)
2. Eslite.com: seems to ship all R18 books overseas. Search for the title you want, look under 付款/配送 and if they ship overseas it’ll say 台灣以外快遞寄送
3. kingstone.com.tw: doesn’t ship all R18 books overseas. Search for the title you want and look under 配送方式 and it’ll say 海外 國際怏遞：全球
2. Proxies:
- Seemoon (PayPal) They have many books that aren’t on online bookstore platforms; They carry in-stock books + books you can preorder (and a limited stock of second-hand books). You’ll have to make an account before you can order. They’ll send you an email to pay, you don’t pay immediately. Shipping is calculated once the books arrive, and consolidated shipping can be arranged if you have more than one order.
You can also contact them via LINE or Skype.
LINE id: sililon
SKYPE id: seemoonks
- Feiqing 绯沁 (PayPal + Credit Card) Limited in-stock books, but they allow pre-orders for books that Seemoon doesn’t care e.g. xuru studios. You’ll need to message them via FB or LINE id: feiqin2021 to make an order. They’re also on twitter, but not sure how responsive they are via this platform. When messaging them be very clear about which title you want, how many copies, and which country you want to ship it to. You pay first then the shipping is calculated when the books arrive. You can also consolidate orders.
This is their website for overseas purchases and you’ll need to fill out this google form for pre-orders – you must pay and show a screenshot of payment in the form. They will email you the receipt later. - 食糧閣x吃吃食糧 you make an order via their discord server. Message them on FB for their invite link. Works with most publishers.
- Bluelady (Credit card) Works with some publishers, but not all. The website is easy to use.
- Kakitono (Credit card) Message them on FB to make an order. Be specific on what you want and how many copies. You pay first then shipping is calculated when the books arrive later. They work with most publishers, and will create a spreadsheet for you with your order list.
- DM Prince (Credit card). DM via FB or LINE to order.
- 卡部書屋 facebook.com/kabubooks They have FB but you must email them to make an order: kabubooks@gmail.com Works with most publishers as well.
- Rosmei (Credit card). Singapore based proxy, they do overseas orders as well.
- Via Lactea publishing/ (PayPal) The website is in English, and shipping from Canada. Do your research because the simplified (uncensored) VL books take a notoriously long time to arrive. English books have their own set of issues.
- Uei Shiang publisher from Taiwan: (Credit card) You can purchase directly from them, or via the online bookstores, but not everything they have will be available via online bookstores (e.g. Sha Po Lang). So you’d probably want to purchase that directly. You’ll need to make an account in order to purchase.
- Pinsin 平心 publisher from Taiwan. You can buy directly, but it makes sense to use a proxy or buy from the bigger online bookstores, since they normally have plenty of stock. They publish a lot of danmei including the uncensored MXTX books.
- Mo Fei 墨扉 publisher from Taiwan. They published books like Nanchan, and they do POs every now and then. You’ll have to wait ~6 months or more for POs.
- MeMob Studio 没谱文化 publisher from Taiwan, you’ll need to use a proxy like Kakitono, Seemoon, Feiqing etc. Their main proxy is https://moonsunstore.waca.ec and they take credit card and Paypal, but they don’t seem very responsive.
- Xuru Studio 旭儒工作室 publisher from Taiwan. You can use a proxy like Feiqing. For more information on HK / Macau proxies and publishers, there’s a really useful guide here
Other notes:
Most uncensored danmei manhua can be purchased from online bookstore platforms, but you can check the proxies if they have them.
Note that uncensored Chinese hardcopies can be either traditional or simplified Chinese.
Sometimes if you miss a PO, you can wait for leftovers from proxies. Sometimes ppl cancel their POs as well so which generates leftovers. Some pubs won’t restock once they completely run out and you may have to buy them secondhand.
Here are some Taiwanese publishers that you probably can get the books from (for a while) even if you don’t pre-order (books only):
PinSin, Hazymoon, Kadokawa, 深空, 三日月, Rusuban, 長鴻, 東販, 東立, 愛呦, 春光
- For Jiafei books if you want the whole set, make sure to PO. They take a really long time to ship their pre-orders (they did Erha).
- If you want the author’s special signatures/teqian 特签， there’s generally a time-limited window (e.g. first 10 minutes, first 2 hours etc). Most of the proxies will allow you to pre-order in advance to get the teqian, but check with them first.
- You can also get out-of-print books from sites like ruten or shopee, but buyers beware because a lot of them are fake. They also are unlikely to ship overseas.
3. Physical Stores
- Eslite , Kingstone Books, and Kinokuniya stores have BL sections, and branches across Taiwan. -> what Eslite Kaohsiung’s BL section looks like, here
- Kabubooks 卡布書屋, Address: 台中市中區繼光街46號 Taichung
- Wawa Books 蛙蛙書店有限公司 , Address: 台北市大安區八德路二段3號 Taipei
- Comic Toranoana Address: 台北市中正區漢口街一段85號2樓 Taipei
- Taiwan Comic Base 台灣漫畫基地, Address: 台北市大同區華陰街38號 Bookstore & Cafe in Taipei
- MagFreak Address: 台北市萬華區武昌街二段7號 No. 46-5號 Taipei & 台中市北區育才北路46-5號 Taichung
- Seemoon 月見草 Address: 高雄市左營區文康路 073419153 , Opening Hours: (Tues – Sunday), 12:00 to 21:00 -> I visited them in Kaohsiung recently, here.
- Mollie 2nd Hand Books, Address: 台中市西區公益路161號B1 Taichung, 高雄市苓雅區新光路38號B1 Kaohsiung
4. Comic Conventions:
If you want to buy physical books at a convention, here’s the website for one of the bigger Taiwan Comic Conventions, CWT. They’re held several times a year across Taiwan. Publishers like PinSin, Uei-shiang etc usually have a booth there. Some photos from the Pinsin booth, here.
