Mei-yu Lan sells The Big Issue Taiwan from her pitch at the IKEA Taipei City Shop Arena. She has been working as a vendor since the launch of the magazine 13 years ago and is part of the community where she works. She is a straightforward woman who believes in treating people right; it’s led to her building a large customer base. It’s these loyal customers who keep her motivated.

Yu-fu Hsieh is a veteran Big Issue Taiwan vendor who started selling the magazine in April 2010, after he retired from his sales rep job, from his pitch at Exit 2 of Gonguan metro station in central Taipei. He has never moved pitch since then. Hsieh delights in his work, crediting it with bringing enjoyment and happiness to his retirement, and he looks forward to many more years of working with The Big Issue Taiwan.

Those shopping in the area between Taipei City Hall Station and VieShow Cinemas pass Chu-fang Chuang as she sells copes of The Big Issue Taiwan outside a Chunghwa Telecom shop. Chuang volunteers for multiple organisations in addition to her work as a vendor and thrives on self-reliance and keeping busy.

The Big Issue Taiwan is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. It hasn’t exactly been the most ideal celebration. But Kuen-hua Shiu (Hua for short) first became a magazine vendor back in March 2010, returned to his work with the magazine in November 2019, and is still going even as COVID-19 has affected sales. You’ll find him in the pedestrian arcade at Dingxi Station in New Taipei City sitting on his mobility scooter, wearing his orange vendor’s vest and waiting to greet his customers.

Coronavirus – or Covid-19 – has spread to multiple countries with street paper representatives, including Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Italy. INSP is gathering information about how measures by governments and the medical community, and the reaction of the general public, are affecting street paper vendors in those locations.

Mr. Shiu is a Big Issue Taiwan vendor from Kaohsiung who sells copies of the magazine from his pitch in front of the KFC at the crossroads beside the entrance gate to Kaohsiung Medical University and Shihcyuan Road. He started working with Big Issue Taiwan in May, and Shiu is embracing the prospect of becoming self-reliant through his work.

What’s been making the front pages of street papers during the past month?

Standing in the corridor outside the exit gate of Hsinchu Railway Station, Li-qiu is waiting for customers to buy copies of Big Issue Taiwan from her. She is still adjusting after moving to her new pitch less than a month ago after construction work started at her old one. “I’m trying to get used to it. I’m not quite familiar with the environment and customers over here,” she says. Despite the fact that sales have been slow today, Li-qiu thrives on her contact with customers and is happy to be working.

Mei-hung is a Big Issue Taiwan vendor on Guohua Street in Tainan. She speaks about her work in a variety of jobs, the illnesses that have stopped her from finding steady work and the kindness of strangers that makes her life easier.

Staff from four Big Issue titles based in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia got together in Osaka for INSP’s first Asia-Pacific regional meeting, to talk and learn more about the unique problems facing each of them and the innovative projects they are involved in.

It may be Halloween, but we’ll try not to scare you off with this month’s eclectic round up of street paper covers from around the world.

Mr. Huang sells The Big Issue Taiwan from his pitch outside the Qizhang metro station in Taipei. His life changed five years ago when two workplace accidents and a cancer diagnosis transformed his physical health. Having made peace with the past, Huang is grateful that being a Big Issue vendor provides him with a steady income and is looking forward to the future with hope.

This month saw the 2018 Global Street Paper Summit return to INSP’s home city of Glasgow, and our golden annual opportunity to replenish the street paper archive and get up close and personal with covers from around the world.

Our picture gallery of the 2018 INSP Awards. Relive the highlights!

Last night, at the 2018 INSP Awards, The Big Issue Taiwan was victorious in the Best Design category. Part of their win can be put down to the work of Aaron (Yung-chen Nieh) who, remarkably, designed 95 out of the last 100 covers of the street paper. His contemporary and stylish designs have endowed the covers of the magazine with a unique visual style that has not only proved popular with readers, but which has also attracted a great deal of attention from professional designers. For the magazine’s 100th issue, Aaron shared his insights regarding how to design an effective front cover and talked more about his work with The Big Issue Taiwan.

The winners of the 2018 INSP Awards have been revealed at the official Awards Ceremony, as part of the Global Street Paper Summit in Glasgow.

We’re rounding off the week by bringing you the Finalists in Best Design for the 2018 INSP Awards.

From sixty-three to five – it’s time to reveal the Finalists for our most hotly contested INSP Award this year: Best Cover.

Chen has been selling The Big Issue Taiwan at Xihu Station since the start of this year. Business is up and down, but he is determined to succeed: he chose his pitch at Xihu Station after realising there weren’t any vendors already working there and he has made the spot his own. Here, he looks back on his life and expresses his gratitude to those who have helped him through difficult times.

This award acknowledges excellence in street paper design – find out who’s made the Top 10.

Our most hotly contested INSP Award this year was for Best Cover – with a whopping 63 entries from street papers around the world! Find out who’s made the Top 10…

Old lady Zhong, as she is known, has been a Big Issue Taiwan vendor for two years. Here, she tells her life story; from her days spent caring for her paraplegic father to her professional life and motherhood. She also reflects on the support that she has received from various benefactors throughout her life and speaks of her desire to carry out similar acts of kindness for others.

For many street paper vendors, getting the opportunity to sell the paper us a lifeline. For Long-Zhu, Li, in Taiwan, this is no different, and his sales figures for the past year are his proudest achievement of 2017.

We are delighted to bring you the finalists for the 2017 INSP Awards, starting today with the visual feast that is the Best Cover category.

It’s been another brilliant year for street paper covers, and we’re delighted to announce the first set of nominees for this year’s INSP Awards – kicking off with the hotly-contested Best Cover category.

From Melbourne to Denver, Taipei to Athens, vendors across the globe share what it’s like to sell a street paper in their city… and so much more.

Between Halloween and Trump, there’s a frighteneing vibe on this month’s international street paper covers. Thank god for Street Cat Bob…

There’s support from big name stars featured on this month’s covers – but also stark reminders of why street papers are so necessary for homeless people.

August’s street paper covers have the Olympic spirit, featuring ‘cuddly lawnmowers’, a homeless wedding, Steven Spielberg, and a cheeky little bit of rickrolling.

Soak up a summery selection of animal-mad street paper covers with pugs, wolves, chickens, seagulls and crabs – plus Pikachu and the fish star of Finding Dory.

A gloriumptious look at the world of Roald Dahl, a red-haired mischief-maker, a mafia flower plot and Yanis Varoufakis at the INSP Summit… explore June’s street paper covers.