Guest Blog 9
An introduction to literature in Taiwan.
A Bookstore in Central Taiwan
What is there at the center of your country?
Here in Taiwan, there is a town called Puli(埔里).
It's famous for its beautiful nature and is one of the popular tourist spots in Taiwan, attracting city dwellers and foreigners. The former for escaping the hustle and bustle, the latter for a part of the journey for witnessing the unique culture and lifestyle of Taiwan.
And this is where we are, running a small independent bookstore, B&B Trade Winds(貿易風書旅).
On this page, we’d like to let you know a little bit about us.
Cultural Exchange through Literature and Art
The main focus of our business is to create opportunities for local people to learn and enjoy the different cultures.
We have a lot of books written in English and Japanese. Using those materials, we’ve been doing reading classes. It's not just learning languages and how to read. We can discuss the differences between each culture with hints which were found in the books.
We also try to create communications through art. We hold movie nights regularly where we watch different kinds of movies and share options with each other. And Inviting artists and writers, we do workshops too.
Because of language barriers, it’s challenging sometimes for sure. But, unlike cities, there’re not so many chances in the town for local people to experience cultural exchanges like these. We thought there’s significance in creating a place where locals can go easily and enjoy learning about other cultures.
We’d like to bring a breath of fresh air into this town.
Stay Overnight at A Bookstore
Did you ever stay up all night because the book you were reading was too good to close or have too many books you wanted to read?
Maybe you did when you’re a kid or teenager.
Now life is busy. There’s no time to fully immerse ourselves into reading in everyday life. Having an hour to read is not easy.
But if you are a book lover, it can be frustrating. Sometimes you may think you just want to be alone. To reread your favorite books, tackle a pile of to-be-read books or try completely new genres. Or, to get back to yourself.
We are on your side. We have created a place where you can be alone with only books.
You can rent out the entire first floor (our store is on the first and second floor of a four-story building) for a day. You can hog it. Explore different kinds of books and get absorbed in reading all day. Or, spend the day sightseeing and enjoy reading at night. It's up to you.
We have coffee and several kinds of tea, which are locally made, and also have handmade snacks. So you can relax. No one will stop you from going into the book world.
Just one day. Just one night. Why don’t you get away from everything and shut yourself in a hideout?
Hit the Road with Dreams on the Back
We have a small van.
Painted in white and yellow, it may look charming at the first glance, but it’s quite beat up actually. We've already sent it for repair several times.
But this hoopty has been doing a great job for us so far.
We occasionally leave the town and go out to various places for book fairs. We’ve been to Taipei(台北), Hualien(花蓮), Chiayi(嘉義), Pingtung(屏東) and a few other places.
When we went to Hualien, we had to cross a huge mountain(3,282m). That made us a little bit anxious if we could make it. Not only the van is old, but it also had lots of books on its back. It seemed not a good idea, but, without any problems, this van brought us to the destination.
It’s fun to travel around Taiwan and know a little bit about other cities. And more than anything else, we can meet new people at each event. It’s exciting and encouraging just to know there are so many book lovers all over the place.
Without this van, we can’t have those experiences. We're proud of our precious buddy.
Hope it’ll be active as long as possible. Our journey will continue.
On the Way
That's it!!
Thank you for reading. We are honored to have an opportunity to introduce our book store.
What we want to try next is to find new local artists and collaborate with them. We need to explore more about what we can do to contribute to the local society.
We’re still working on many things.
