Make the streets fun! These young people trade a cup of coffee for your life story.

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At 7 o'clock in the evening, the stage of Daan Forest Park was not only dark, but it was raining heavily outside, but the crowd kept gathering. The only thing with a little light is a simple sign with the theme of today's visit "one cup of coffee, one story". The barista also sat on the ground with the crowd, boiled hot water on a simple stove and hand-washed the coffee beans provided by the store for the participants at the scene to taste, thus opening the event.

"since it is a dead end to follow the norms of society, you might as well live the way you like!"

The speaker is Zhuang Yifan, the founder of the event, with shoulder-length hair and beard. He is only 21 years old. He has been hosting "one Cup of Coffee, one Story" for nearly two years.

The life of turning around the island

"80% of the people who come to attend are new faces." Yifan set aside time to talk to us and was curious about the story, which is the original intention of this activity. In his sophomore year, he resolutely dropped out of school and embarked on the journey around the island. Along the way, he visited many coffee shops. He wanted to hear the story of opening the shop, but accidentally discovered the importance of "listening."

He tried to exchange stories with passers-by, using his favorite coffee as a bargaining chip, chose a random place to sit down in the street, a wooden box and a guitar, and embarked on the journey of "one cup of coffee, one story". Unexpectedly, the original exchange of stories from one person to one person gradually evolved into one person to a group of people, and it became what it is today. "everything is to let nature take its course!" He grinned, vaguely revealing his joy and pride.

He originally wanted to open a coffee shop in order to get closer to the crowd, but each guest went to the coffee shop for different reasons. Even if the boss wanted to chat with the guests, the guests would not necessarily pay attention to you. "later, I thought, I might as well go straight into the crowd!" Yifan began to develop his experiments in Taichung, and by the time he returned to Taipei, he had collected many stories.

With the addition of Su Wen-Chiu, a senior at the same school, "one Coffee and one Story" has been resident in Taipei for nearly a year and a half. They set up boxes on the streets of Taipei and even walked into the campus. The popularity of Facebook also made the event seen by more people. In August last year, the first partner recruitment was held, bringing together a team of 15 people to stir up more ideas. It has developed into three types of movies, music, and lectures at the same time, and coffee beans are sponsored by coffee shops. It is hoped that through this event, more people can taste good coffee.

See one's own life from other people's stories

Chamberlain, who used to be a participant and later became one of the team partners, believes that "one cup of coffee, one story" breaks the modern way of communication, and people can simply communicate with each other with stories, and multiple voices can be heard. Wang Hansheng, a young photographer, pointed out the "street" element of this activity, as long as people who pass by can participate. Such a "random" brings shock and emotion to everyone, which is a very new experience.

In Yi Fan's eyes, the story is a kind of catalyst. "in fact, everyone's life experience has many similarities, which can not be separated from family and emotional problems. As long as someone shares the story, you can certainly find resonance in it." He describes life as a jigsaw puzzle, and a story is a scattered fragment. It seems meaningless to look at it alone, but it will be who you really are when combined.

He hopes that this activity will not only narrow the distance between people, but also learn about his own life through the stories of others.

Since we all have a dead end, we might as well live the life we want.

"as long as we are strong enough, we can not talk about God or idolatry." Wen Yi, who has been holding activities all the way, stresses that he is not an atheist. He believes that this is a way for young people of our generation to strengthen themselves-choose to believe in their own lives and have the courage to practice what they think is meaningful.

With this belief, they have gone through nearly two years, and continue to make progress, thinking about how to bring more possibilities to lonely urban people. This is an irrational young people's small movement, but it has a lot of energy. Let more young people rediscover the meaning and value of life, seemingly naive and romantic behavior, but become their revolution and answer in the depressed life of this era.

(photo: talking on the street on the stage of Da'an Forest Park. )

It is about to enter more than 11:00 at night, and it has been more than an hour since the scheduled end time, but the crowd has not dissipated for a long time. Yi Fan says with a smile that every time it drags on, "being able to talk with strangers for such a long time. It will be a particularly precious experience for everyone."

We also know that it will be transformed into a street meeting house, hoping to become a new street platform for more people to participate. "one cup of coffee, one story" will only be one of them. "We want to create parties where people can communicate on the street." Yifan thinks so and is expected to add the equivalent elements of curatorial and guerrilla factions. Interested friends are very welcome to join.

The next time they come out from the streets, they are uncertain about the form, but more interesting things are sure to happen.