"Mazu Xu Zhimo" Cao Yixiong turned the abandoned tunnel into a bookish cafe.

/ photos by Liu Xiaoyi / photography by Liu Meiyu

Cao Yixiong, former director of culture in Lianjiang County, devoted himself to the deep ploughing of Mazu's local culture for 20 years. After leaving office in 2015, he made painstaking efforts to organize 12 military strongholds in Mazunei and set up an independent bookstore combining cafes and residential accommodation. It has become the only independent bookstore in Mazu so far, and it is also the first military tunnel fortress bookstore in the country! Over the past 20 years, he has spared no effort to promote the cultural industry in Mazu, including the preservation of settlements and the reuse of idle space. His experience, enthusiasm and mission have enabled him to achieve the almost impossible thing: to revitalize and rebuild the abandoned bunker tunnel into a warm and humanistic art space.

There are a total of 97 military strongholds on Mazu Nangan Island. due to the national army's policy of elite troops, the strongholds have been abandoned one by one, and more than 200 bunker tunnels have become ruins, and many people have tried to rebuild but failed. He is the first successful example of Mazu to revitalize the ruins of a civil demonstration. When he was director of culture in Lianjiang County, he promoted the preservation of the settlement. The most successful example was Qinbi. Later, when the military began to release the stronghold, Cao Yixiong thought about how to revitalize it. During the eight-month layout period, the old man bowed down to carry old furniture and boxes of books. Because there was only one passageway and hundreds of stairs, he toiled back and forth many times a day, giving new life value to the space brick by tile, and edifying humanistic temperature with art.

The bookstore has a rich collection of 3, 000 or 4, 000 books (left); bright and pleasant coffee space on the first floor (right) 3. The bookstore has a rich collection of 3,000 or 4,000 volumes.

"the tunnels and ruins left behind by the war originally had an air of killing. I hope to soften it so that people can change their stereotype of Matsu in order to eliminate the battlefield, and feel the humanistic atmosphere of Mazu." Cao Yixiong said. Therefore, the collection of books here alone amounts to 3,000 to 4,000, which is Cao Yixiong's "belongings" and donations from others. There are books in every corner except the bookcase, coupled with multiple artistic elements such as painting and driftwood creation, which has become a platform for the exchange of multiple arts and literature. many poets and artists like to do activities, publish or create.

The reason why it is so attractive to art creators is that there is an advantage that can not be replaced by other places, that is, it is surrounded by the sea on three sides, the first floor or even on all sides, and has an invincible sea view! Cao Yixiong knocked down the walls of the first and second floors of the old barracks facing the sea, and the large windows gave a panoramic view of the invincible sea.

Together with the tunnel, there are more than 100 ping space, the 1st and 2nd floors are coffee shops and bookshelves, for compound exhibition space, concerts, film reading clubs, new book sharing sessions, literary symposiums and reading clubs are held on the second floor. Last year, there were three exhibitions, including poetry and photography, watercolor painting, oil painting, and concerts of sitar and African drums.

There is a small tunnel hidden below the coffee shop on the first floor, which leads to the bunker and gun of the 75th mountain cannon and the 50s machine gun, which has become a "secret base" for stinging birds. On the first floor, there is tea space in the basement leading to the tunnel. Turning to the basement is a small study facing the sea, which makes people inadvertently find a kind of unique surprise. Cao Yi-hsiung named the "Tolstoy Corridor" for the tunnel hidden under the study, flanked by tea banquets and paintings. Cao Yi-hsiung said: "opposite the tunnel is the sea and islands, which represents peace, and this space symbolizes' war and peace.'as an old man, I represent the 'old man and the sea' and connect with the world here!"

Cao Yixiong, who wears small round glasses and has a strong artistic flavor, is ridiculed by artist Tao Wen-Yueh as "Matsu Xu Zhimo," while he jokingly calls himself "Kafka by the seaside." to make visitors to the coffee bookstore feel as leisurely and elegant as he does. Coffee study combines exhibition and accommodation, there are two rooms, every year during the Spectacular Scenes of Sea Fireflies in Pingtan season from April to August, you live in the stinging Bird, you don't have to go out. After nightfall, as long as the lights are turned off in the coffee shop, you can watch Spectacular Scenes of Sea Fireflies in Pingtan indoors, outside or on the roof. Poets Ye Sha, Wu Yuxuan, Cai Wanxuan, artist Chen Jianbei, writer Apu, and others have all come to the stronghold to create and hold lectures, indulging in such an environment and settling down physically and mentally under the healing of natural beauty.

To open a bookstore in a secret place, beauty is beautiful, but at first no one is optimistic about it, mainly because it is too difficult to run a bookstore in Mazu. Cao Yixiong also makes no secret of the fact that his income is often beyond his means. However, his mission of cultural inheritance has reached a boiling point. Without fear of hardship, he said, "when the bookstore shrank in Taiwan, I operated in reverse in Mazu, hoping that under such a culture, decades later." Mazu's children do not have to go abroad for development and can be satisfied on their own land. " Under the concept and contribution of Cao Yixiong, the dreamy beautiful environment and the multi-art exchange platform are deeply rooted, and now they are gradually becoming famous in the predicament, and there is still a long way to go. Surrounded by the Binhai, Cao Yixiong and his bookstore mark a garrison light.

Cao Yixiong's small archives

The former director of culture of Lianjiang County, who is now the operator of the independent bookstore of Coffee Coffee, has devoted himself to the deep cultivation of local culture in Mazu for 20 years.