Department of Cultural Affairs

Seventy Years of Writing: Yindi and Taipei’s Literary Years

The 29th Taipei Culture Award honors Cheng-kuang Ho and Yindi, founders of Artist Magazine and Elite Books, respectively. In 1947, at the age of ten, Yindi (born Ching-hua Ko) arrived in Taipei from Shanghai with his father. From that moment on, the study on Xiamen Street and the city itself became the main backdrop to his life and literary career. 

As a young man, Yindi delivered coal briquettes and sold newspapers, and even now his memories of Taipei still carry the scent of ink and paper emanating from bookstalls in the street. Unlike many young writers who immersed themselves in classics at an early age, Yindi says he was simply enchanted by words: “As long as there are characters on paper, I will read them.”

Life and Time in Words

Yindi began writing at sixteen. His works span fiction, essays, poetry, and diaries, totaling more than 84 volumes, including the well-known Three Books on Human Nature (人性三書), Five Books on the Times (年代五書), and Sixteen Diaries (日記十六書). In the 1980s he turned to fiction, and at 56 he centered his writing practice on poetry. For Yindi, literary genres reflect different stages of his life and states of mind.

In the preface to his autobiography Waiting for the Tide to Rise, Pai Hsien-yung described Yindi’s essays as “embodying a deep understanding of human nature.” Yindi himself values “smoothness” and restraint in prose, concise yet weighty. His poetry captures tone and emotion with sensitivity, often carrying traces of youthful sentiment. Even his diaries, though originally private, become a literary phenomenon, reflecting both personal feeling and social change.

Over seven decades of writing, Yindi has distilled all he has seen, felt, and thought into words. Though his eyesight has declined, for him, writing and time remain intertwined. We interviewed Yindi in Xiamen Street’s Elite Study (爾雅書房), next to Elite Books, birthplace of countless Taiwanese literary works and the center of Yindi’s daily life. While his vision still allowed, he wrote every day. If inspiration struck at midnight, he rose to record it. After completing a book, he often paused for one or two months to proofread. For him, proofreading offers even greater pleasure than writing. “Words are marvelous. Adjusting the order of a sentence entirely changes its tone and feeling.”

Founding Elite Books, Beacon of Taiwanese Literature

In 1975, Yindi founded Elite Books. Alongside Belle-Lettres Publisher, Vast Plain Publishing House, Hongfan Publishing Studio (洪範), and Chiu Ko Publishing House, it became one of the “Five Small Giants” of Taiwan’s publishing world. Over five decades, Elite has published major works by Hai-yin Lin, Chi Chun (琦君), Pang-yuan Chi, Ding-jun Wang, Hsien-yung Pai, Qiu-yu Yu, Show-foong Chang, Mu-rong Xi, Ai Ya, I-chih Chen, and many others. Hsien-yung Pai’s Taipei People alone has appeared in dozens of translations and stands as a landmark of modern literature. Despite dramatic changes in the publishing industry, Elite has continued to shine. Yindi recalls that he was profoundly influenced by Hai-yin Lin, who invited him to serve as assistant editor at Belle-Lettres Publisher, which marked his formal entrance into the literary world. Five years later, Elite Books was born.

At a large table inside Elite Stud, numerous copies of the house’s own publications are neatly arranged. Over the years, Elite has published works by bestselling authors while also remaining committed to bringing emerging writers into print. Under Yindi’s stewardship, the publisher has continued to compile literary anthologies each year, including the Annual Selection of Short Stories (年度小說選), Annual Selection of Poetry (年度詩選), and Annual Selection of Literary Criticism (年度文學批評選). It also founded the Hsing-fu Hung Fiction Award (洪醒夫小說獎). Together, these efforts reflect a sustained commitment to culture that reaches well beyond commercial calculation.

The Usefulness of the Useless

For Yindi, both writing and reading manuscripts bring joy. “Encountering a truly good manuscript feels like a spring breeze,” he says, “though rejection inevitably carries its own bitterness.” Even when publishing involves financial loss, he continues to support writers, seeing it not merely as a business, but as a way to nurture and pass on literature.

“A book may never become a bestseller, but if it offers someone a moment of comfort on a lonely night, that alone makes it worthwhile,” he says. Literature teaches us to observe life and understand others. Its value may lie in what he calls the “usefulness of the useless”—its power not in delivering immediate answers, but in helping us see, to see the world, and to see one another. It exists for those moments when the heart is heavy and frustration has nowhere to go.

Now 88, Yindi sits at the large table in Elite Study. His declining eyesight makes long hours of reading and writing increasingly difficult, a source of deep inner distress. Yet when he thinks of a life among books, he still smiles, even as his vision fades into a dim, crepuscular haze.