Taiwanese writers who love to write in cafes

Originally, Luo Yijun had an appointment for an interview in the study, but when he met, he temporarily changed his mind and took me to a small cafe called Cozy on Qingtian Street. It was raining, but he could only sit outside under the umbrella in the greenhouse. He also sat outside in the cold and hot winter because he needed to smoke.

The various cafes scattered in the alleys are the literary and artistic labels of Taipei. Reading and writing in a cafe has become a model way of life for petty bourgeoisie because of the star effect of Zhu Tianxin and Tang Nuo. The writer and couple claim that the cafe is their study, and when friends from all over the world go to Taipei, the cafe is also a "scenic spot" they will definitely recommend. However, Luo Yijun says that in fact, almost all writers in Taiwan write in cafes, and they have no intention of deifying the matter. "it was really because the house was too crowded, so I had to write it in a cafe."

Luo Yijun has a relatively spacious house in his hometown in the countryside, but in order for his children to study and his wife to work, he rents a small unit of 40 to 50 square meters in the city, where a total of five people and two big dogs live. "in our generation, it is impossible to buy a house in the city by writing. In the past, books by Zhu Tien-wen, Zhu Tianxin, and Zhang Ta-chun sold hundreds of thousands, but now we generally have a print run of 2000. Even younger ones have won a lot of literary prizes, but they can only print 1000 books, and some of them can't even be published. " However, compared with Beijing and Shanghai, Taipei's urbanization time is relatively long and the process is relatively natural, so a large number of people-friendly cafes have gradually grown. For Luo Yijun, an urban parasite who is "too extravagant to go to PUB", spending about 30 yuan in a cafe for an afternoon is indeed the best choice. "there are so many young artists in this city. They may be twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old and still live in the overcrowded student dormitory next to the university, but when they get to the cafe, they can fantasize about being able to make movies one day. Or just sadly write newspaper essays to make ends meet." In Luo Yijun's view, these people may understand the real city, and they personally experience the unstable relationship and uncomfortable state in the modern city. "what is written in Paul Oster's novel is more like what I have seen. For everyone, you can only get a glimpse of it."

B = "Bund Pictorial" L = Luo Yijun

B: which cafes do you write in most often? Why do you like these families?

M: there are about three or four. There are two restaurants in Wenzhou street on the other side of National Taiwan University, one is Juliano, and the other is a general chain cafe called Yike Coffee. Otherwise, there are two houses on Qingtian Street near my home, one is called Rabbit to listen to music, the other is called cozy. They all have a small courtyard or outdoor balcony, and trees are usually planted. I later settled in these houses because the indoor smoking ban in Taipei is very strict, but I can't write anything at all if I don't smoke. I can only work in cafes with outdoor seats. These houses are relatively empty and usually there are not so many people. All the important works I care about in the past few years were written in cafes.

B: can you describe your study?

M: my study is very much like a waste warehouse for old people who pick up waste. Because the space of the small apartment is limited, the study is only four or five square meters. In fact, the study in the countryside used to be bigger. When I first moved to this small apartment eight years ago, the three-wall bookcases and books in the study were all neatly arranged. They were all selected books that I had bought in the past 20 years from college to that time. I thought they were important or would read them again and again. Many other books were left in that house in the country. As a result, over the past few years, the books bought have been piled up at the front of the bookcases, the ground is also piled up, and the desk is also piled up like a rock canyon, often collapsing, often unable to find the book I read only a few months ago. I just can't find it. There are bottles and cans of medicine stuffed in every corner of the bookcase, or all kinds of health powder given by my mother, which is quite like the nest of old people who pick up trash.

B: which books do you read or use most often?

M: they should still be novels. M á rquez's one hundred years of Solitude, Calvino's if A Traveler on a Winter Night, Borges, Okawa Kenzaburo, Kutcher, Kawabata Yasunari and Kundera. Rushdie's the Devil's Psalms, Nabokov's Lolita, Voos's the Magician, Alice Murdoch's the Sea, the Sea, and Dostoevsky have been rereading over the past decade.

B: how many new books have you bought in the last year? What impressed you most after reading it?

M: I didn't pay special attention to it. 200 should not be able to escape. What impressed me most was Polanio's 2666, but he didn't buy it himself, it was a gift from the publisher.

B: which book did you bring on your latest trip?

L: Baudrillard's on temptation and A Yi's Bird saw me.

B: how do you organize your bookshelves? do you have any special personal preferences?

M: when I first moved here, the books were sorted out when they were unsealed and shelved from the carton. In fact, it is a bit like the arrangement of second-hand bookstores. Literature, history and philosophy have their own positions or regions, but I am almost all fiction books. The six boxes closest to the back of the seat are the books that are more likely to be read over and over in those years, such as Borges, Nabokov, Rushdie, Herabar, Paul Oster, Margaret Atwood and Latin American novels. But the books on the bookcase have been messed up all these years.

B: do you have the habit of collecting? What are the most valuable books in your collection?

M: I'm not in the habit of collecting. My father is the kind of old Chinese professor who likes to buy a collection of books. Yonghe's hometown is full of old hard-shell classical Chinese books. Such as the Great View of Notes and novels, the Integration of Ancient and Modern Books, the Dazang Sutra, the Books and periodicals of Chinese Traffic History, and so on. But I can't believe he finished reading all kinds of books up and down the old room in his life. after he died, my mother and brother donated many of his books to a Buddhist university library in Taiwan.

B: do you often go to bookstores, or are you used to buying books online?

M: I still buy it in the bookstore. I won't use the Internet to buy books or anything else. Many bookstores near Taipei National Taiwan University, such as canal channels, are quite casual, and Eslite is also quite convenient.

B: is the study a private space for you? Will the family use this room like you?

M: right. My family is not likely to come into my study, because it is really like the rubble of the battlefield, books and manuscripts are cluttered, and only here can smoke. They think it stinks.

B: have you thought about the ultimate fate of your collection? Give it to the library, or sell it to a secondhand bookstore and leave it to posterity?

M: I didn't think about it. Mainly, I haven't got the style of collecting books. That is to read something like the soul in those books and suck it dry. If a book is no longer in a state of being read, it is just a dead thing or scum in time. I wish there were some good books, and my sons can read them at some point in their lives. For no reason, they are so rich and beautiful. I hope they will also try them. But apart from that, books shouldn't be worth much, and I didn't want to leave them. There is a second-hand bookstore near where I live. The owner is very tasteful and knowledgeable. Many old professors of National Taiwan University live in this area, but many of them are lonely old people. Often an old man has passed away. The whole collection of books in the old apartment is collected and sent to his shop to pick and choose. There are many versions of books, many Japanese documents from 50 years ago. It is strange that there are no descendants to stop asking for these books, and the dead books are scattered, much like Herabar's "too noisy solitude".

B: what is your ideal study like? Does this study meet your ideal now?

M: no, it's too small and too crowded, alas, otherwise there's no need to wander and write in a coffee shop. I quite miss the study I used to have in the countryside. in fact, it was an illegal tin house built on the second floor, about 20 square meters. at the same time, it was also used as a storeroom to pile up baby walkers that were not used at home, discarded furniture and so on. Outside the window is a stream, and at the other end is the mountain, which is not high. The desk is two pieces together, and there are all kinds of books spread out after the earthquake. But at that time, writing is very angry, sitting for half a day to write, will not feel bored. My focus area is still in the space of a desk. I don't need a computer on the desk to disturb my mind. In fact, I write very well in a hotel with a desk. When I get bored, I leave, take a walk in the streets of a strange city below, pick up strangers and turn my eyes. Maybe it's my ideal study.

(responsible Editor: Leo)