Many years later, I recalled Taipei

A place that makes you sad, scared, yet warm when you think of it.
Taipei is our home.

Her colleague is a cat, her outlet is a pen,
She is a Malay girl from 3,000 kilometers away and a resident of Taipei for over 20 years.
This is her written confession of her best years as she struggled to survive in Taipei.

The collection features 40 new essays by Manini, winner of the Taipei Literature Award, Golden Tripod Award, Literary Book Award, Takao Fengyi Literature Award, and Zhong Zhaozheng Literature Award, including his award-winning works "Mountain and River Girl" and "When I Sleep"

Poet Hong Hong: "In Taipei, I raise my son, my cat, and the eyes of a little woman in my heart. Manini made me realize that we are all strangers. If we want to talk about 'Taipei Studies', we can't miss a voice like this."

I really want to leave Taipei.
I don't feel safe here.
But I have no idea about the future.
There's no point in thinking about it. There's no time to think about it.
In the past year or two, my relationship with Taipei has changed again.
Cats changed me.
Those cats took me into Taipei.
Cats gave me my first and second neighbors in Taipei.
My son has a first godmother and a second godmother.
The love that outsiders give to my son and me is better than that given to my family.
I felt safe and I knew there were people who could help me.
…
It was my cats and dogs that introduced me to people.
It is the energy of cats that drives me to do more.
Spend time on things that are not yours.
Those tiny cats have more energy than humans.
These cats make me feel like Taipei is home.

──〈Postscript: I Lived as a Writer〉

Malaysian essayist, poet, and painter Manini has lived in Taipei for over 20 years, creating distinctive illustrations, poetry, and picture books. From a new Taipei resident to a longtime Taipei resident, she writes about her time there.

This book contains 40 essays, filled with emotions about Taipei, the epidemic, hometown, and beloved cats. From sadness to relief, from resistance to courage, through Manini's straightforward words, readers can see a different side of Taipei.

In [Part 1: I Remember Taipei Many Years Later], she said:
"A city is as much love as it receives. It also bears as much pain as it does. I don't hate. I hate no one. Because I have no face. There's nothing much to say. I'm different from them. I have no face. No roots. Sometimes people just treat me like this. I won't cry anymore. I don't want revenge anymore. I won't argue anymore. There's nothing much to say. Years later, when I recall Taipei, the things I can't help but think of are all there. So don't make me recall them anymore."

In [Volume 2: When I Sleep], she said:
"I'm a rare person. I don't have a talent for making money, but I have a talent for sleeping with cats. There's nowhere else I can go except here. The table is unwashed, yesterday's mess, yesterday's garbage, and yesterday's leftovers are all still here in the house, and yet I still sleep. A person's daily tasks are so trivial because I'm not lucky enough to not have to do housework or take care of children. Those people, I'm so jealous of them, I'm practically blinded by their own children."

In [Duo: Cat Diary], she said:
"I put him on the balcony. I set out new litter, water, feed, a box, a bed, and grass. He wasn't nervous at all when I opened his cage. He walked out calmly... That night I told him, if you're looking for a home to spend your old age in, stay on the balcony. Or you can come over whenever you want. A hungry cat is the easiest thing to catch. Those who oppose feeding stray cats and dogs don't know what it feels like to be hungry. They've been well fed for so long."

Sincerely recommend

Liu Kexiang, Zhu Tianxin, Hong Hong, Yang Jiaxian, Liao Weitong, Sun Ziping, Li Tonghao, Cui Shunhua, Wang Chunzi, Sao Xia, Liao Mi

"In Taipei, I raise a son, a cat, and the eyes of a little woman in my heart. Manini made me realize that we are all strangers. If we want to talk about 'Taipei Studies', we can't miss such a voice." - Hong Hong

"Nine out of ten of Manini's writings are periods. I am sad. I am awkward. I am lonely. Period. Period. Period. The abundance of periods makes the sighs of a sojourner in a foreign land seem like harsh words, like a despairing conclusion. But because she was adopted by a cat or dog on the street, her entanglement with this city has the most gentle ending. To be continued..." - Li Tonghao

"I read Maniniwei's writings when no one knew who she was. Such strange writing, such a strange person, I was strangely drawn to her. Ten years later, Maniniwei became famous, but her writings remained the same. It was still like a dream: she kept talking and writing, drawing me in deeply." - Liao Mi

"Maniniwei's prose is incredibly sincere, peeling back layer upon layer to reveal her and the life around her. It reads like poetry, a blend of everyday reality and dreams, though they're certainly not beautiful dreams. My Taipei is also in there, but we're so used to being polite that we don't curse, always swallowing our words. So, I had to borrow her pen and spit it out word by word." -- Wang Chunzi

"Manini's uniqueness comes from her endurance and revenge when facing the 'no-man's land' of Taipei, a forever foreign land. It is both painful and joyful." - Liao Weitong

"Maniniwei's words are full of color, just like rain; you'll be trapped and want to keep reading. Taipei is like a container, full of rainwater and cats. Taipei is also a community of imagination. Cats are a common language, and they don't need to be translated." - Sao Xia

2022-10-05

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