Akauw Books

A curious triangle sits inside the pale-blue door frame. A little board proclaims books and coffee, and an entirely workmanlike drainpipe hangs beside the grey-tiled roof. Akauw Books has settled into one of those houses that arrives with its own photographic filter. Its appetite runs to anthropology, communities and food culture. Want to get under Pingtung's skin? Pull a book off the shelf and chew on it.

The shop also makes local publications and hauls reading events out into the community. In a March 2026 report, Yang Ning-Kai followed cofounder Peng Chiao-Ju to a reading carnival in a Zhutian temple courtyard. The heavens opened; outdoor storytelling threatened to become a water park. Taking books beyond the shop requires a survival instinct for finding stories a roof that doesn't drip.

Peng has a hardcore background in Hakka food research. The café turns food cultures explored through that research into things on a plate. Bring your appetite for reading and eating. Lunch does not require a thirty-thousand-word dissertation and an oral defence. Relax.