Through the Eyes of Lo Ning:

Brought up in mountainous Hsinchu, Lo Ning moved to Taipei to study in the Department of Communications Design at Shih Chien University.

She traces her creative endeavors back to her university years. Academic training enabled her to take a close look at different elements of animated films—plots, scenes, characters, storyboards—and she discovered that film sets were what interested her most.

For Taiwan’s Cozy Corners, she took pains to capture the looks of a wide array of businesses in Taiwan, including motorcycle repairers, locksmiths, hardware shops, and stationery shops. “These shops give us a very vivid sense of daily experience. We dine in the eateries, buy school and office supplies at the stationer’s, or take our duvets to the laundry when ­summer comes. Aren’t these all vital elements that constitute life in our local communities?” Lo says.

Lo’s illustrations often include a weasel carrying a tote bag. The creature bears some resemblance to Lo herself, who is tall and thin and wears round glasses. It was while she was an undergraduate that Lo invented the character in her illustrated journal, modeling it on her own physical appearance.

Many Taiwanese people frequent breakfast bars like this one portrayed in one of Lo Ning’s illustrations. (© 2020 Lo Ning)

Lo Ning lives close to a traditional market, in a neighborhood full of bustling shops. Her works reproduce the vibe of her world. (© 2021 Lo Ning)

Faithful details

Being Lo’s first book, Taiwan’s Cozy Corners is a labor of love. Presenting a sumptuous collection of 50 illustrations, the project took five years to complete.

“Before I set to work, I gather material first,” Lo says. She sometimes wanders around her neighborhood exploring potential subjects. At other times, she visits particular locations to capture scenes she has already set her sights on. Then, like a set ­designer, she assembles her subjects and creates scenes following the dictates of her taste, memories, and aesthetic sensibility.

Astonishingly detailed, Lo’s illustrations embody her emotional attachments to physical objects. “If I can’t own them, I can at least draw them, can’t I?” Lo says with a smile. She’s like a little girl carefully clipping the images she admires out of newspapers and magazines and pasting them into her scrapbook.

The name of this scooter repair shop, zai chu fa, is pronounced the same as a common Chinese phrase meaning “to set out again,” but the character for “again” (zai) is replaced with one meaning “to give someone a ride,” showing Taiwanese humor. (© 2022 Lo Ning)

This illustration evokes the familiar sight of streetside noodle stalls. We can almost smell the cooking. (© 2023 Lo Ning)

Each detail in Lo’s illustrations is intimately rendered. She takes care, for example, to include real music albums and the once-trendy Taiwanese catchphrase Kám-án-ne? (“Is that so?”) from a TV drama. She also strives to be faithful to reality in her use of colors. Thanks to this verisimilitude, her readers feel immersed in the scenes she has created. Architectural heritage scholar Ling Tzung-kuei says, “If we were to extract the colors from the illustrations and turn them into color charts, by combining the colors in the right proportions we could almost conjure up a rich, authentic Taiwanese ambiance. As we look at the scenes a little longer, they seem so real that we can almost smell them.”

Lo Ning has launched a series of products featuring a weasel character modeled on herself. (photos by Lin Min-hsuan)

A love letter to Taiwan

Lo says that growing up, she always tried hard to be a “good girl” and didn’t really pay much attention to the world around her. While studying in Canada, she had to talk to people about Taiwan, and it was only then that she realized she knew virtually nothing about her homeland.

The experience inspired her to create the illustrations in Taiwan’s Cozy Corners, a love letter to the place she calls home.

Lo Ning goes shopping with her tote bag, just like the weasel in her illustrations. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

The scenes Lo depicts all evoke “the forthright sincerity of the Taiwanese people.” There are streets that emanate freedom and colorful ebullience, almost bordering on chaos; shops whose furnishings and displays of not-for-sale objects reflect the distinctive tastes of their owners; and shop signs that catch attention by making clever use of puns.

Standing on the street, Lo Ning looks as if she’s inside one of her own illustrations. She’s glad to be in her element. 

Like a set designer, Lo Ning fills each of her scenes with a wealth of details, striving to be faithful to the characteristic atmospheres and colors of Taiwanese streets. (© 2020 Lo Ning)