Inspired by the growing number of immigrants in the nation, Lin Chun (林群) has transformed Casa de Socrates Cafe, a secondhand bookstore at Hsinchu City’s National Tsing Hua University, into a collection of children’s books.
Originally, Casa de Socrates Cafe mainly collected Chinese-language and English-language secondhand books, Lin said.
However, he has now created what he calls a “mobile book house” out of a van to transport different kinds of books to Aboriginal communities in rural and mountainous areas so that the children in those communities also have access to children’s books.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Over the past few years, he has discovered on his journeys that many immigrants have settled in rural and mountainous regions, Lin said.
Increasing numbers of Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai and Cambodian spouses have appeared, he said, adding that these foreign spouses are hardworking and they have gradually filled the demand for more workers in mountainous communities.
However, they left their home nations to move to Taiwan, speak an unfamiliar language and are forced to respect Taiwanese culture, Lin said.
Inspired by what he observed, Lin said he decided to turn Casa de Socrates Cafe into a source of children’s books for these immigrants’ offspring.
He used his holidays to travel to Southeast Asian nations and purchase the most popular children’s books to bring back to Taiwan.
He even came across a Vietnamese version of a picture book by Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao (幾米), he said.
His collection now includes books from six nations — Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines — while Burmese books are soon to be added to the collection, Lin said.
People can read the books for free at the store and they are also be added to his “mobile book house” so that foreign spouses and their children can enjoy them, Lin said.
One out of every five young people in Taiwan is a now the child of an immigrant, Lin said.
They are a part of Taiwan’s future talent pool, he added.
“One important issue that the nation is facing is how to get the children of immigrants to engage with their mother country, language and culture,” he said.
Lin said he hopes that through the establishment of his collection of books at the cafe, immigrants can not only look back on their own childhoods, but also pass on their native languages to the next generation.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS