For a decade, Brilliant Time, a Southeast Asian bookstore, has been a safe haven for migrants and immigrants to Taiwan, providing literature from their homelands. Now, it's closing its doors. Owners Chang Cheng and Yunchan Liao reflect on what the bookstore has meant for them and the communities they serve.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:01Closing a chapter on this beloved bookstore.
00:05Brilliant Time, a Southeast Asian-themed bookstore in New Taipei, is shutting down after 10 years.
00:11The space has been a hub for people from Southeast Asian countries living in Taiwan,
00:15looking for stories of their homelands.
00:17And now the owners say their mission is complete.
00:30The husband and wife team of Zhang Zheng and Yun Zhang Liao have run the store as a space for visitors
00:41to gather on the weekends and borrow books, listen to lectures, or just meet with friends.
00:46Although the bookstore catered to Southeast Asian readers, they also had frequent local visitors,
01:03people wanting to learn more about Taiwan's growing multicultural society.
01:07There are around 800,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, nearly all from Southeast Asia,
01:13and about 500,000 so-called New Immigrants, or foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens,
01:19many of whom face barriers and prejudice in local society.
01:23I really feel that people from different places will stick together.
01:30And this kind of intertwined, I don't think there are many other books.
01:37I would say there are still some, but this kind of vibe is that I always feel that there is a magic.
01:42The bookstore's rich history is painted on the walls, with postcards and signatures from visitors,
01:55and gifts from people whose lives were touched by the stories and memories made here.
02:00For the past 10 years, the bookstore owners have been keeping track of books using handwritten logs like these,
02:06covered with names in Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, English, and Chinese.
02:11With no limit to how long they can rent the books, sometimes it's hard to keep track.
02:16But for the owners, the real value isn't the books themselves, it's the knowledge inside that's priceless.
02:22And while one chapter closes for the bookstore, its story continues at a major transit hub in Taipei.
02:35This is where many Indonesian migrant workers spend their days off.
02:39And here, the books come to the readers.
02:44In no time, readers are clamoring over their wares.
03:09As they turn the page on this chapter of their lives, the owners hope the brilliant times made at their shop
03:30will continue in the stories of readers and their lives in Taiwan.
03:35James Lin, Kamashui, and Tiffany Wong in New Taipei for Taiwan Plus.