Pushi Cafe x Island of Light Shared Hub

This place aims to provide young people who come to Hualien with a solid cultural hub, where they can experience and document the local area together, encouraging them to stay or become valuable contributors elsewhere in the future. The hub has three stages of development. The first stage was as the home of "o'rip" — "Taiwan's first independently operated local publication." "o'rip" was founded by Wang Yu-ping, who, after moving to Hualien, gathered partners. She had previously served as a director in Eslite's planning department and understood the importance of the local voice. The publication is a bimonthly magazine with a print run of 5,000 copies. It did not apply for any subsidies and was distributed to hundreds of unique shops in Hualien and across Taiwan for people to pick up and read. From its launch until 2016, it received significant feedback. Besides attracting travelers from other counties and cities or foreign countries to explore Hualien's local culture, some readers even visited "Pushi Cafe," the base, hoping to receive various information about relocating, thereby becoming a cultural window for many travelers to learn about Hualien at that time. "o'rip" also received invitations from Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. and CommonWealth Magazine Publishing Co., and subsequently organized its content to publish "Secret Paths to Hualien" and "Railways, Valleys, and Friends' Homes," thereby promoting Hualien's cultural background and lifestyle. The second stage is cultural talent cultivation. In 2014, Wang Yu-ping established the "Write-Write Studio." She launched a free course, the "Write-Write Editorial Academy," on the second floor of Pushi Cafe. Each year, it teaches 10 local young people skills such as interviewing, writing, and publishing, focusing on a different local theme each year: organic agriculture, marine industry, natural ecology, history of ethnic migration, local literature, and more. The co-created works are then made available through major distribution channels. To date, 14 works have been published, and 110 young people with editorial experience have been cultivated. Editorial work has also become a medium for these young people to deeply understand the local area, using it to develop their relationship with the community. Among these, "People of the Island and the Sea" was selected for Shopping Design's TOP100 in 2019. "Eat Local, Live Well" was chosen as a "Book of the Month" by four channels and selected by Openbook in 2020, and was included in Openbook's SDGs 100 recommended reading list in 2024. "Meilun River, Urban Stream" was also included in Openbook's SDGs 100 recommended reading list in 2024 and was nominated for Openbook's Annual Good Living Book. The third stage is the more active construction of the "Hualien Arts and Culture Support Platform." Recognizing that most young people who love Hualien and its arts and culture still have to leave Hualien to seek employment elsewhere, Wang Yu-ping invited partners who value Hualien's cultural industry to form a board of directors. In 2022, they established the "Island of Light Culture and Arts Foundation" and repurposed the "Pushi Cafe x Island of Light Shared Hub." For two years, they have regularly held public welfare-oriented "Free Gatherings" to empower emerging artists and cultural workers, and "Adult Writing Sessions" to accompany over 50 amateur participants from across Hualien in learning writing, photography, and other skills. They also bring together arts and culture professionals to co-create various exhibition and performance events, and engage in exchanges with external creative and regeneration groups, producing works such as the Youth Development Administration's "Youth Hub" 2022 and 2023 achievement reports. This has made it a base for promoting Hualien's vibrant arts and culture and talent exchange.