TAIPEI — Rows upon rows of books in different South-east Asian
languages are stacked neatly on shelves on the ground floor of this
three-storey walk-up located in a small lane in the heart of New
Taipei City’s bustling Zhonghe District.
At Brilliant Time Bookstore, the books are not for sale, but you
can take them home for a small fee and return them any time you
like. “We are therefore neither a bookstore nor a library,” said
founder Chang Cheng.
The bookstore’s story started two years ago, when Mr Chang wrote
a column in the highly regarded Commonwealth magazine calling for
greater understanding of South-east Asian culture and history among
the Taiwanese.
“I noticed that there were hardly any books in Taiwan about
Asean countries,” he said, adding that he urged Taiwanese to send
such books to him so he could share them with others.
The donations slowly started coming in, including from Taiwanese
tourists visiting Southeast Asian countries.
Today, Mr Chang gets an average of 50 books a week, some of
which he sends to partners in other parts of Taiwan so they can be
handed to foreign workers from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the
Philippines.
He rents the space for NT20,000 (S$910) a month, and the
bookstore takes in about NT60,000 every month through the talks and
language classes it conducts. Brilliant Time itself stocks about
5,000 books, said Mr Chang. Two staff members help him to run the
place, which is frequented by tourists, foreign workers and
students.
“We obviously cannot make money from this,” he said. “But what
we can do is foster a better understanding of South-east Asia among
Taiwanese and provide foreign nationals access to books from their
home countries.”
The place has attracted not only book lovers, but also VIPs. Ms
Tsai Ing-wen visited in April 2015, months before she won the
presidential election, while Mr Ma Ying-jeou was there a year
later, shortly after losing to Ms Tsai in the election.
“I hope to keep this going as long as I can,” said Mr Chang.