 |
 |
 |
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.
|
|
|
 |