How are there this many coffee shops in Taipei?

When I first lived in Taipei, I lived in the Yongkang St. / Dongmen area. As a writer, one of the first things I did was look for the coffee shops. Well, I didn’t have to look far because just in the short 5 block radius of my apartment there were like 7 coffee shops. In fact, one of the coffee shops I frequented the most at that time (because it had a large selection of non-caffeinated beverages, and I don’t drink caffeine + a lot of outlets + beer I could purchase for a job well done) lived on a block next to TWO OTHER coffee shops.

This is something I truly don’t understand. How do these coffee shops survive? Is competition just not a thing? Are there enough Taipei people to fill up multiple coffee shops? (I am writing this while seated in a coffee shop, next to which is another coffee shop, and around the corner is another one, and down the street yet another, also one across the street…) Why, in this economy, are there MORE coffee shops opening rather than closing down? Who are all these people that fill up all the coffee shops? This is not in the vicinity of a university so it’s not even like, students. I suppose a lot of people like working in cafes now, but it’s not even like Taiwan is a big virtual workplace kinda country.

The oversaturation goes for beverage/boba shops too. In some of the more lively areas, you can see like five beverage shops squashed together on a single block like books on shelves. To be fair, each one offers slightly different things, but at the end of day, they all sell tea, milk tea, boba, fruit juices, or some variation thereof? Some of them don’t even seem to have anything special to differentiate them. Again, how are Taiwanese purchasing habits able to support this? How do these shops stay alive?

I remember when I first moved here, I heard a lot about the 草莓族, the Strawberry Generation, I guess what they call Millennials here, like a generation of young people who are too soft and have zero ambitions other than to open a little coffee shop where their friends can come and hang out (this is not what I think of people here, by the way, just some sort of derogatory stereotype of a certain age group). And so for awhile I wondered if that’s why these coffee shops were everywhere. And I had thought, well, especially in a country where it’s common to own a storefront and live in the back or above, someone could conceivably open a coffee shop in their parents’ building, renovate it, and then at least you don’t have to make enough to pay rent?

But I also wonder if, in a country where salaries have barely increased over the last decade (definitely not in pace with inflation) and more than half the population earns less than the average monthly salary, for some young people, there’s a nihilism inherent in the decision to open a shop of your own. I mean, given how I heard Taiwanese workplaces can be, it’s no wonder that some people might instead choose to be their own boss? If you can’t earn good money no matter what, perhaps you might choose to at least do it in a sort of relaxed environment where you can control the aesthetics and music and feel of the place?

I don’t know, I’m honestly making this up. I’m sure someone actually has studied this and there’s some more definitive answer than whatever I’m saying here.1

My Mister (Netflix)

My current WiP “requires” me to do a lot of research on Kdramas, so I’ve been trying to watch a bunch. But then on the first try, I picked My Mister, and oh man, I am obsessed. It’s about an every day middle-aged sad-sack salaryman, who is just like, depressed bc work sucks, his marriage isn’t great, his brothers are struggling, etc. And then this temp employee who is this 20 year old girl who is in a shit ton of debt and being hunted by loan sharks and is trying to care for her deaf grandma, and she is so hardened on the outside. And in order to help someone else at the company fire the salaryman for money, she puts a wiretap on his phone. And in the process she begins to feel sympathetic towards him. It’s about this really unlikely friendship between the two, and, I don’t know. It sounds BORING but it got me in all the feels. IU (from When Life Gives You Tangerines) is so talented, and I didn’t even recognize her at first bc she does such a good job of playing this hardened girl! I loved this so much and still can’t stop thinking about it.

Superfan by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

I had so much fun reading this book about a college girl and the Kpop-style idol she’s obsessed with. It really shows you the dark side of fandom too, but also some of what these idols are standing in for for some people. But most of all, I LOL’d whenever this specific older white writer college guy appears. He is SO a specific type of literary dude so many of us know and love to hate.

Red Queen Bistro

This Sichuan place has such a cute ambience, backup by fun/yummy drinks, and pretty good Sichuan food — some of the food was pretty strong on the ma, my favorite!! I went with some girlfriends, and it was a perfect, fun place for us — the bartender even brought us shots for free and gave us a free dessert.

I’m teaching an online class over at Grub Street for four weeks in May, for their Manuscript Month. It’s called “Novel Writing Group: Project Immersion” and what that means is that it’s really meant for folks with novel-length projects to make some buddies, while we do some writing exercises that will help you dive more deeply into your project. It’s NOT a critique workshop, but more of a support group!

The class runs every Thursday in May, from 10am - 12:30 pm ET.

Sign up here!

Here’s the actual description:

Do you wish you could fully immerse yourself in your full-length project? Have you been seeking support and community as you go through the process of writing your novel? Whether you have a near-finished manuscript or you’re in the nascent stages of outlining and drafting, this four-week writing group will give you the push you need to refine your work and make progress toward publication, in the company of writers who are in the same boat.

Each week, we will engage in reflective writing exercises designed to help you think deeply about your work and writing process; work on your respective projects in digestible writing sprints; share the challenges and successes of writing a manuscript; read short excerpts of your work, and receive light, encouraging feedback from your peers. This writing group will focus on process and building a supportive network, rather than detailed, workshop-style peer and instructor feedback.

Please note that this group is not for writers who want to generate manuscript ideas from scratch, but for those who have already cultivated their own direction for a project. Writers interested in joining should have at least the beginnings of a novel-length project, whether that be an outline and clear vision, rough draft, or a draft in revision.

Join us for four weeks of regular accountability, structure, and community to propel your novel project forward!

Would love to see you there!