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 on June 30. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Rickshaws run along the streets and pass by the colorful 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.
Brightman said Hong Kong inspired his artistic, creative senses and it was the most energizing thing that could have happened to him.
"It was my 'sixth sense' that told me, I gotta live here."
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.
Gary Brightman at his store Vibe in Mui Wo, Hong Kong. The store offers a vibrant mix of multilanguage books and classic vinyl albums, featuring about 16,000 Chinese and English titles and thousands of records. [Photo provided to China Daily]
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.
"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.
The vintage telephone booth designed and made by Brightman and his friend, where visitors can sit and play CDs. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Memory lane
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."
The shop also boasts a red telephone booth, almost extinct in Hong Kong. Old CDs featuring famous bands and orchestras from across the world are stacked up next to a CD player. On the ceiling, a painting of a beautiful blue sky with soft white clouds evokes a soothing dreamland.
"My friend and I designed a space for listening in the telephone booth, where you can pick up a CD and enjoy the music for a whole afternoon," Brightman says.
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.
As one of the oldest traditional markets in Hong Kong on the edge of demolition, the market offered a place for hawkers selling fresh produce and handmade products for local customers.
"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'."
With help from his local friend Rosa Ma, Brightman met various street vendors on Graham Street, from the uncle at the pork stall to neighbors with deep intergenerational relationships.
"I still remember the guy who sold DVDs. I would go back to the same store every year and meet the man's family. They always remembered me and every time I went, they would have some little gift for me," Brightman says.
"I was blown away by that because I'm just a guy from London that pops over here. They were so kind and I could always find warmth and mutual respect from those vendors in the traditional markets."
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.
Gary Brightman (right) and friends have a casual chat inside his music and book store Vibe in Mui Wo, Hong Kong. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Close ties
Wearing a pair of Cantonese-style flipflops and sitting in his shop, Brightman warmly welcomes every customer who drops by. Most are regulars.
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, where conversations could flow and cultural exchanges could take place.
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 neighborhood to mingle and take part in the cultural festivities.
As musicians filled the air with melodies and writers shared anecdotes from their lives, visitors were welcomed to join in, sit among the guests, and immerse themselves in a tapestry of global narratives.
"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 center that we could entertain people in."
Brightman with community members at his store in 2022. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Brightman's Vibe community continues to connect Mui Wo residents. From children accompanied by their parents curiously discovering the shop to Hong Kong seniors randomly dropping by to gift a few books, it is a leisurely place for residents to take a rest. Even Keung To, a singer from the popular Hong Kong boy band Mirror, has visited.
"It's a kind of culture that you can't describe. … People living here all tend to be friendly to each other, no matter if they know each other or not," Millward says.
"When you are in a community, you always get something back," he says. "Joining Vibe lets me play music with people I wouldn't play with and triggers something in me cooperating with a band or a musician in the shop. It's all worthwhile."
"We don't make a lot of money but I run this shop by passion," Brightman says. Wealth is not the objective; it is the enrichment of the community and the nurturing of cultural bonds that matter most, he says.
The shop runs at a loss, Brightman says, but many residents and friends help him manage the store as volunteers.
"They will come here every week and help me rearrange the books and greet the customers," he says. "Thanks to their help, the shop can still run.
"The shop does not have a value in my head. Instead, what it has is a sense of wellbeing. I spend money on this shop but I feel that I'm giving something back to the community."
