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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Cups museum hopes to bring world to Caotun
Coffee sets in Hung Meng-fen’s collection are displayed in her museum in Nantou County’s Caotun Township on Sunday. Photo: Chen Feng-li, Taipei Times
By Chen Feng-li and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A collector of coffee sets has opened a museum in Nantou County’s Caotun Township （草屯） to display the items she has collected from around the world over the past 41 years.
Caotun resident Hung Meng-fen （洪孟芬） on Sunday said that in her years of amassing the sets, she convinced many collectors to part with items by telling them she would put them in a museum.
Many told her that they would come to Taiwan to visit the museum, so she hopes the opening would set the eyes of the world on Taiwan, Hung said.
Her collection began when she received coffee cups as a wedding gift from a good friend, she said. After that she picked up sets whenever she was overseas on business.
Hung has not done an accurate count of her collection, but said it totals in the tens of thousands.
The museum became a shared endeavor for her and her husband, she said.
The couple hired former hotel manager Lin Tzu-heng （林子恆） to manage the museum and assist with planning.
Despite two months of work, the museum is still being set up, Lin said.
However, fellow collectors are welcome to visit the unfinished space and could book a visit by calling （04） 9233-6518, he said.
Several crates remain unopened, with 250 containing items collected over seven years from across Europe sitting in an office in the Netherlands waiting to be shipped to Taiwan, Hung said.
Of the crates in Holland, 50 contain antiques, she said.
Many of the items have interesting stories behind their acquisition and some collectors initially refused to give up their sets even for a high price, she said.
“As soon as they heard that they would go into a museum in Taiwan, their tone completely softened,” she said, adding that the collectors asked to be informed when the museum was completed.
“I was truly touched by that sincerity and warmth,” she said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
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