Vintage vibe sets the scene for a new story

THE ARTICLES ON THESE PAGES ARE PRODUCED BY CHINA DAILY, WHICH TAKES SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENTS

Gary Brightman (second left), owner of vintage music and book store Vibe, with his friends outside the store in the Silvermine Bay area of Mui Wo, Lantau Island in Hong Kong in June (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Rickshaws run along the streets and pass by the colourful advertisements of small shops. At intersections, high-rise buildings and fashionable billboards come clearer into view.

This is Gary Brightman’s first impression of Hong Kong — a harmonious mix of modernity and tradition — the classic sci-fi film Blade Runner becoming reality.

“It was like entering a dream world,” says Brightman, a 63-year-old Briton and the owner of Vibe, a vintage music and book store.

Brightman used to be a global head of an information technology company. He lived in Britain for 48 years before running Vibe in the Silvermine Bay area of Mui Wo, Lantau Island in Hong Kong, since 2018.

A chance visit to Hong Kong in 1987 became a turning point for Brightman. The vibrant cityscape and the dynamic culture profoundly affected his perspective on life.

In May 2018, Brightman took over the bookshop Imprint Books, operated by a British professor for 16 years. He rebranded the establishment as Vibe and carried out a special transformation, turning it into a welcoming community hub on Lantau Island.

Vibe offers a vibrant mix of multilanguage books and classic vinyl albums, featuring about 16,000 Chinese and English titles and thousands of records. Customers can also find CDs of popular funk bands tracing back to the 1990s.

Brightman at his store Vibe (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

“My love for Hong Kong and its history inspired me to gather many Chinese books on the topic, especially books that detail the long history of China,” he says.

Brightman says he never imagined he would open a bookstore. “Compared to London, Hong Kong is not regimented into a certain way of living. There is an open mindset that you can start any job you want to,” he says.

Amid the technology-driven conformity of the digital age, Brightman’s shop insists on a nostalgic mode of management — information on its books and albums rest on customers’ individual exploration and shopkeeper knowledge.

“A part of the shop is old-fashioned,” Brightman says. “It’s about the surprise and discovery of spending time browsing through books you never knew existed before, which gives a real sense of achievement.”

His love for a nostalgic Hong Kong began with his foray into the realm of filmmaking and a story about an old market.

His debut film when he was at the International Academy of Film and Television Hong Kong was a 15-minute documentary about Graham Street Market, a 160-year-old market in Hong Kong’s Central District.

“Because of the urban redevelopment in Hong Kong, vendors had to leave and shops were closed. Those fruit sellers, those meat sellers, were leaving at the time,” Brightman says. “I was horrified by that and I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna document this’.”

Brightman formed a unique connection with the vendors in the old market. With his camera, he tenderly captured the stories of the old street market that still thrives amid Hong Kong’s urban renewal.

Peter Millward, a British musician, has regularly visited Vibe since its inception in 2018. He always enjoys dropping by and peeking his head into the shop to see who is there for a lively chat.

Millward says there was a huge difference after Brightman took over the shop.

“I wouldn’t go to the shop if I needed a specific book previously, but now people just casually drop in and have conversations together. Everyone gets involved,” he says.

Beyond the book and music shop itself, Brightman aspired to craft a hub of community interaction. Every Saturday, he would invite a musician or a writer to visit the store. The gathering soon became a local attraction, drawing many residents from the neighbourhood to mingle and take part in the cultural festivities.

“I met many people who became really close friends of mine,” Brightman says. “Since then, the shop started to metamorphose into something different, like a media centre that we could entertain people in.”

Hu Xinyue contributed to this story.