Putting the retro in everyday life
Yeh Shih-tao, the late elder statesman of Taiwanese literature, described Tainan as “suited to dreaming, earning a living, falling in love, marrying, and living a leisurely life.” The city is famous for its deep cultural heritage and the relaxed attitude of its people.
That attitude about the right and wrong way of doing things is a defining characteristic of the city’s people and applies to both its century-old establishments and the shops recently opened by young entrepreneurs. Beef soup joints are open for business early in the morning, but coffee shops only open at 8 or 9 a.m. and then close punctually at 6 p.m. It’s not that the proprietors couldn’t make a little more money with longer hours, but they know how to be content with what they’ve got and put a premium on their own quality of life. It is an approach not often taken in other Taiwanese cities, but it represents the mainstream model for doing business here. If you want to find a simple idiom to best capture the unique spirit of Tainan, it is undoubtedly, “When the flowers bloom, the butterflies come.”
“Tainanese have taught me to shun the rat race and realize that ‘having what one needs is enough,’” says Rafal Chien, standing in the doorway of his shop Zyuu Tsubo.
Chien has long hair and a tattoo on his shoulder. It’s hard to imagine that this former real-estate agent, born and bred in Taipei, hadn’t even visited Tainan until he was 38. He immediately forged an unbreakable bond with the city. “In one year, I visited 20 times.”
Chien courageously rented an abandoned old building that was diagonally across from a hostel he was staying at and hatched a plan to move to the city. Two years later he formally opened Zyuu Tsubo, a Japanese rice bowl shop, in Lane 158 of Zhongyi Road Section 2.
Because the shop is ten ping (33 square meters) in area, he picked “Ten Ping” for its Chinese name. It has high ceilings, which were suited to its incarnation as a family-operated rubber factory before standing empty for nearly 40 years.
Although it is tiny, it lacks for nothing. A mezzanine gives it two levels. There is a sink, cooking area and refrigerator upstairs, and a food prep area with chopping blocks and counter space for just ten customers downstairs. Here people are bound to “rub elbows.” It once caused an applicant for a job as a cook to exclaim: “I never thought it would be possible to prepare a complete meal in such a small space.”
In just four years, its unique atmosphere and exquisite food have earned the restaurant renown among tourists, but Chien has continued to insist on cultivating a local clientele. Neighbors young and old, engineers from the Tainan Science Park, and even the owners of the famous local cookie shop Ling Tih Tong and the bag maker Her Cherng Canvas are counted among Zyuu Tsubo’s loyal customers.
Chien loves to interact with those he serves. Proprietors of long-established Tainan shops have infected him with their perseverance and generosity. No longer focused on the bottom line and maximizing profits, he happily shares his thoughts with customers, and he also makes time to spend with his family.
“I’m particularly happy that I’ve been able to make images from the past part of my daily life,” says the animated and high-spirited Chien with a self-evident sense of satisfaction.