How apples paved the way to France, food and all that jazz

Cafe encounter inspired cultural connoisseur's life changing overseas odyssey

A falling apple legendarily inspired Isaac Newton to become a great physicist, but another apple, a delicious one, opened Yi-ping Pong's 20-year love affair with France.

Pong, a Taiwan-born writer and photographer who lived in Paris for 17 years, was in Beijing in April to promote her books about French jazz, art and food culture.

Pong's romance with France started in 1993, when she graduated from National Taiwan University in Taipei, majoring in history. She was fluent in German, French, Japanese and English, and wondered which country to go to for further study.

Pong says she had read many books about France, but few people during that period studied there, so there was no one she could turn to for suggestions. That is, until she heard that a painter who had returned from France had opened a cafe in a lane nearby.

"The caf had a very good atmosphere and there was a wall covered with graffiti works, which was rare at that time," she says. "The painter welcomed me and made a very delicious apple pie and an apple cocktail."

Later Pong searched for how many kinds of French food had apples as an ingredient. It turned out to be more than 300, which inspired her to go to France.

"If a country could use an apple to make so many different kinds of food, its culture must be very delicate, and I wanted to learn it," she says.

She has now won many awards in France and Taipei for her books and short movies, and has held dozens of photographic exhibitions over the past decade.

Pong's father was a doctor who loves painting and calligraphy, while her mother was a nurse, and loves literature, movies and opera. They valued education and art highly, so Pong developed broad interests starting in childhood, and cultivated a desire to be free and unique.

She fought against all the restraints she ran into. She skipped school frequently because she didn't like the educational system. In college, she negotiated with teachers so she could skip classes and stay in the library.

Pong's passion for jazz started in primary school. Her family lived in the noisy central area of Taipei. One day she got a tape of her favorite song, Moon River, performed in jazz style.

"That rhythm made me peaceful inside immediately, and for some time I forgot noisy Taipei and everything around me," she says. She then kept looking for more jazz tapes, going to jazz clubs and meeting jazz artists.

Pong found living in France relaxing and it increased her creativity. She spared no effort in learning whatever she liked, including food culture, directing movies and photography. For years, she spent days working and nights at jazz clubs, with little sleep.

She became a good cook by studying France's culinary culture.

"I love food. Every time I ate something nice, I would analyze its ingredients and practice cooking it."

Food and jazz have become two primary subjects of her creations. Her first book about French food was published in 1998, and one about jazz appeared in 2002.

"I wanted to introduce the culture to Taiwan in a practical way, to help people learn about its value and change their lifestyles, which was my cultural mission," she says.

She always goes beyond her original subject to include related culture and hidden stories. For example, French jazz is closely related to American jazz and African jazz. So her books would cover them all, including different historical backgrounds, music theories and musicians. The book Le Voyage Musique d'un Photographe, which she took to Beijing on her recent visit, cost her seven years and about 30 revisions to finish.

She combines her writing and her photos. In college, she trained herself in photography. She took photos of her interviewees and some related scenes. She even gave a year of jazz lessons to the art designer for Le Voyage Musique d'un Photographe so he would understand jazz better before doing the design.

"To many writers, photos maybe don't mean much, but to me, it is very important. Inside my images, there are many hidden messages."

In the book Le Voyage Culinaire d'un Photographe she took all the photos using the light of only one candle. She wanted every image to tell a story - who was eating, at what time, what their mood was, what the ingredients were, and other related cultural and geographic information.

"I want all the elements to be condensed into one image," she says.

Pong has now published 11 books about France's food culture, jazz and women across the world. But every time she has started writing, publishers in Taiwan were very hesitant.

"They would say no one has ever written about this topic, no one will be interested, and it is too highbrow to be popular," she says. "But oddly, readers always responded passionately."

Pong says Chinese society has many restraints and is not tolerant enough to embrace different ideas and personalities, compared with the West.

She remembers that when she went to Beijing 20 years ago, she rode a bike to Peking University, and perceived Beijing people as very casual and relaxed. But now, maybe because of life stress, many people are expressionless and seem emotionless, she says.

"Beijing is a city with rich elements. It is brilliant," she says. "People here work very hard to seek a better life, but exerting too much strength can mean many things lose their fineness. Sometimes we need to enjoy the whole process of life instead of the result."

Zhang Weijun, an editor of the Central Compilation & Translation Press in Beijing, who worked on the publication of Pong's books, says that she is a very diverse writer, and he believes her topics about life and art will attract more readers in China's mainland.

"Now people born in the 1980s and 1990s have grown up," he says. "This generation has better taste and seeks the delicate things in life more than their parents did. We've seen growing demand for art."

Liu Fan, a 21-year-old student who attended a lecture by Pong in Beijing, says that she went to the lecture because she was very interested in Pong's experiences traveling around the world. But what impressed her most was Pong's temperament and spirit.

"She was very candid and easygoing. She does everything to fight against restraint, to pursue her dream and to live her life happily. That makes me ponder how much of my time has been wasted," she says.

Pong says she is about to travel around the Chinese mainland and write about it next year. But this year, she has a full schedule of books, exhibitions, movies and photos.

One new book is Women's Rooms, portraits and interviews with women around the world. Earlier, she already wrote a book on women called Her Story, which was recognized as the best reporting from 2006 to 2007 by French magazine Marie Claire. For that, she traveled around 42 countries in search of photos and stories.

"Women's rights are not as advanced as we think today. In fact, they have gone backwards," she says. In the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), if a woman was riding a horse topless, it was considered OK. Also, a talented woman would win respect even from a king.

"In many countries, women cannot show the real sides of themselves because of social restraints, so I entered their bedroom to tell their stories through my lens and words, though it was very challenging," she says.

She once took a photo of a woman from a noble family in Sri Lanka. After months of working to convince her, she agreed to give Pong three seconds for the photo and no interview. But then they ended up talking for hours.

"This was a strange collision. She saw a different person in my photos," she says.

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/30/2014 page28)