Chuang Song-lieh
Chuang Song-lieh grew up in the rice farming community of Yun Lin in central Taiwan, son of a teacher and a nurse. Raised a Catholic, he thought about entering a seminary, but after graduating from high school he did three years mandatory service in Taiwan's Air Force 'learning how to shoot down mainland jet fighters'. Then, after a brief stint in the hotel business, he decided to go have a look at the other side and moved to the mainland 'to get away from the one-pattern thinking of my island home'.
When Chuang passed the entrance examination to Beijing Film Academy in 1993, aged 24, he became the first Taiwan student to enrol as an undergraduate. During his student days of screenwriting and acting, he married Li Ruofan (right, with Chuang), a cat-loving woman from Hunan whom he met on a train to Xinjiang.
Living in a hutong in Beijing was a world apart from the semi-tropical countryside of Taiwan, but in time he adjusted to the colder, cruder and more robust rhythms of daily life in the ancient northern city. What drove him nuts was not having any place to go - no cafes, no places to hang out, just school and his room - so in 1997 he and his wife decided to open Sculpting In Time (diao ke shi guang), a cafe on an alley near the east gate of Beijing University. Given the dearth of good cafes in Beijing, and the crowded dorm conditions faced by students, many of whom sleep six to a room and wolf down meals in cold, cavernous dining halls, it's no wonder the simple, rustic cafe with book-lined walls, film paraphernalia and screenings soon became a hangout.
Then, when Beijing city authorities ordered the entire historic street torn down by October 1, 2001, Chuang was forced to relocate. 'They always talk about 5,000 years of history here, but they don't seem to appreciate or value old things very much,' says Chuang. Beijing being the way it is, there was no legal recourse and in June 2001 he found a new location above the south gate of the Beijing Institute of Technology near the Goethe Institut, a site that is 'busy but quiet', far away from the commercial, trendy side of town.
Having found the right formula - providing a clean, comfortable place for customers to linger - Chuang recently opened another cafe simply called Sculpting In Time, Xiang Shan branch,at the foot of Fragrant Hills Park on the western outskirts of Beijing.
The newly opened branch faces a street busy with hikers and day-trippers, and offers respite in the form of a large wooden balcony overlooking pine-clad hills reminiscent of mountainous Taiwan.
Running two cafes requires a dedicated staff and Chuang sees training his workers as one of the most important aspects of his job. He has a staff of 20, almost all from Hunan, who are housed in dormitories he manages.
'Some of them are really good, not just friendly but really learning the art of service. You see, my mother-in-law, a schoolteacher in Hunan, sends some of her best students to me. It's a poor district, so coming to Beijing to work is a big thing for them. I'm trying to nurture a family-style team - they all call me brother Chuang; I won't let them use the word boss.'
Although the cafe business seems a far cry from making movies, the two worlds of Chuang Song-lieh might come together yet. 'I have this idea, to write a sitcom based on the daily life in a cafe,' he says, breaking into a smile. 'You know, film it right here ... the workers, the customers, and all the interesting things that have happened. What do you think?'
