Born in   Tungshih   Township,Chiayi  County, A-fu’s family moved to Sanchung when he was five years old. His family was very poor, all eight family members living in a hut just in the front of a tomb yard.
     A-fu started to earn his living at the age of five as his sister and he picked flowers to sell in streets. The best timing for flower-picking was 4:00 AM so he had to get up at early hours and finish the work before 7:00 o’clock. He gave up his education due to poverty and even did not know how to write his own name on the graduation certificate of the elementary school.

A-fu was so poor when his was a child that there was no photo of him at that age. This painting illustrates his childhood living conditions.

       His life course was changed when he joined the army. His company commander sent him to the cadre-training course because he was very strong. However, only those graduated from high school were eligible for the course. So the company secretary changed his education background. Among 78 classmates of the training course, 77 were graduates from normal colleges or three-year colleges, and A-fu was the only one who was almost illiterate, which led to the fact that he was punished everyday. Then he was determined to catch with others and started to teach himself so hard with the help of his fellow classmates. He kept studying with torch light when others were already asleep during the night and became short-sighted consequently. He made such a great progress that he ranked the fourth among the 78 trainees at the graduation of the training course. He was very proud of that achievement.       

       The leader of the cadre-training course once told him that there were five factors influencing your life, namely destiny, fate, Fengshui, education, and good deeds. As the former three factors were not controllable, the later two could be manipulated by yourself. By education you could change your life course, becoming rich, wise enough to make judgment, and making friends. Doing good deeds could make you respectable and people were always ready to lend their help. So education and doing good deeds were very important topics in life. A-fu drove the words deep in mind. As he could do little to make his family rich, he was capable of improving his education and doing good deeds. So he decided to educate himself and do good deeds to change his life when he was discharged from the army.        

We are so deeply attracted by A-fu’s past stories

         A-fu first came to work in a dumpling factory when he left the army and his payment of the first month was NT$18,000. He was so diligent that his boos raised his salary to NT$33,000 at the next month. However, he found the job left little time for him to further his education. So he quitted and found another one in Liming Company. After finishing his daily work, he went to  Sanchung  Guangron  Junior High School and   Tunghai  Senior High School  to further his education. He even went to study in  Tamkang  University and  National  Chengchi  University  after finishing the senior high school courses.
       A-fu met his wife then, who was a clerk in a company. A-fu fell in love and got married soon. One of A-fu’s good friends, Yan-cui Chen, wanted to move out of Luchou because there was no Book Club. In order to maintain the precious friendship, A-fu and his wife planned to open a Book Club of their own.
        They decided to open a bookstore to support the Book Club. A-fu made a survey on the bookstores in the province to identify the children’s interests. It was easy for him because he worked for a big book wholesaler. He found that, among above three thousand bookstores in  Taiwan, only less than one hundred are dedicated to children because the segmented market was not so lucrative. Children were crying for a world rich with books suitable for them. So A-fu decided to open a children bookstore to promote reading among children as well as keep his good friend.