He was profiled in the August 2011 edition of the Taiwan Panorama magazine, in which he
was put forward as an example of a “quiet” resistance artist who writes on
everyday life, inspired as he is by the encounters he experiences during his
daily long walks and occasional extended tours.
Liu earned a reputation for his “slow travel” guides
that appealed to the “non-mainstream” tourist. He sums up his collection of
over 70 published titles as an attempt to capture “a Taiwan that most people
don’t know about — one that is either long gone or on the way out.”
Addressing the idea of writing as a form of
resistance for quiet, solitary personalities like himself, Liu argues that a
writer can “do more than stand on the front lines of protest.”
Liu is a proponent of storytelling as an act of
critique and education. He also finds solace in poetry. Through storytelling he
advocates for Nature against the Industrial crush that increasingly threatens
Taiwan. With poetry he re-energizes himself by communing with the world of spirit
and energy.
And by taking long walks he re-invigorates both mind and body, and heightens his connection to the Natural world. “After you’ve walked a long time, you discover … the meaning of simplicity.”
