About the Comic Book

This book, involving the joint efforts of a noted television producer and an innovative sequential artist, tells of how the Housebook60 Coffee Shop, a charitable organization, first came into existence. Actual visits to the Housebook60 Coffee Shop were conducted, as were interviews with Village Chief Fang He-Sheng and students of the Soaring Youth Barista Training Program. Drawn in a lovely style, the comic book is both realistic and heartwarming. By following in the footsteps of Fang He-Sheng, we see how a disadvantaged Taiwanese youth is able to turn his life around.

South Airport is located in the Zhongqin district of Taipei, Taiwan. Most of the apartment buildings there are old and dilapidated. It is an impoverished area, well-known to the city’s social welfare workers.

Jia-Kai, the protagonist of the story, does not know who his mother is. His father is a violent drunkard. At fifteen, he is a terrible student ostracized by his classmates. He resorts to petty theft to find enough to eat. He is a problem child both at school and in his neighborhood.

Unexpectedly, Jia-Kai turns out to be a gifted coffee maker. He is working hard to fulfill his goal of becoming a barista with a certificate issued by an organization in the United Kingdom. But after an argument with a member of his coffee class, Jia-Kai gives it all up and returns to the streets…