"Simplicity" as Resistance Writing

Writing is a viable source of protest and resistance for a quiet “recluse” like me. You can understand why, when I was flipping through some old magazines at home, I was inspired by an article about Taiwanese writer Liu Ka-shiang (劉克襄).

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.”