Wang Weigang, co-founder of Yilou, tells the story of the excitement and expectations of his first arrival in Taipei, and a few years later he was a little confused, but finally, through the lens, filmed the fire of every life.

Q1: After graduating from the Department of Geography, why did I choose to co-found the 9flor Building Symbiosis Apartment? What is the most frustrating, moving, and fulfilling story of this experience?

How did we begin to integrate into Taipei for the people who drifted north? There must be countless setbacks in the process, countless, but everyone is also in the daily scenery and interaction, accumulated a sense of belonging to this strange city.


Picture | provided by the author

When I first came to Taipei, how did I find my initial sense of belonging? The first thing for me is to know a friend in Taipei, not the kind of high school students, nor those who are also fighting in Taipei. It was a time when I felt needed and that I felt important.

After a few months or years, you have to make sure you can find a way to survive here and prove that you can get a foothold in this vibrant and competitive Taipei and have the strength to live. When the second sense of belonging is found, it will probably last another three or five years.

The third thing is a community, or a space, that makes oneself feel like a working machine, not a soul-searching between home and desk; after work day after day, someone goes to social dances, parties, hides in cafes, finds their own balance and rhythm between work and life, and perhaps doesn't leave Taipei without leaving.

At that time, I felt that we spent a third of our income, 1/3 of the time every day in the rented house, day after day life is not a waste, but do not want to let youth end like this. The living room and roommate of the apartment, perhaps that community, that space, can be more or less a little stay, some sharing before entering their room every day.

In the process, when we tear away the traditional "tenant" imagination, everyone's story is special. Everyone with great skill comes from all directions, has the same reason to live under the same roof, there are always some sparks in each other's lives or clear or destroyed.

The process also has setbacks, the entrepreneurial process always has many challenges, every day to wake up is not a dream, more IRS phone, law firm, or landlord complaints. But more complex is the management of people; in the face of a class of people who are about to begin to practice independent living, we seem to be like a kindergarten teacher, dealing with their own cognitively unimaginable living conditions.


Picture | provided by the author

Q2: How do you get interested in photography? What is photography for you? What do you think is the two experiences of photography and the building, what can be talked about?

At that time because of the encouragement of parents, social expectations came to Taipei, tell how the city full of opportunities and resources, how progress and diversity;

I chose to read geography because I had a personality who liked to explore unknown spaces, but when these terroirs and landscapes could be found on Wikipedia, I didn't expect the photos in my camera to be just a new travel brochure, but whether it was possible to dig down on the people who lived in different scenes, who they were, what they were doing, and why they were here.

Roommates come to Taipei from Taiwan and around the world to work, practice, exchange students, short-term exchanges, everyone has his good at, but also what he is looking for. If I hold the traditional landlord's point of view, the roommate's picture will probably become about students, couples, office workers, but if through the daily life of communication, , perhaps more three-dimensional people, will appear in the lens of the picture, about their happiness in Taipei at that time, and encountered the first setback.


Picture | provided by the author

Q3: Please share a favorite photo you took, what's behind this photo? What does it have to do with yourself?

One moment was captured in New York last year: the composition was originally just an extension of a subway station, but a passenger laughed playfully and tried to get into my shot, creating an unforgettable picture.


Picture | provided by the author

Recently there was a pass through the MRT Zhongshan station business circle, probably on the shoulder with the camera on his back, there is a foreigner on the road to come, imitate the appearance of taking pictures to make me laugh. My heart was small was provoked, want to record the beautiful street scene, turn an instant, next to Zhongshan North Road motorcycle still whizzing past at 80 kilometers, an expressionless mother pushing her baby, face to face.

What the hell are we up to and what are we up to? Perhaps as a person who keeps practicing cross-cutting, identity transitions, he has been trying to define his or her success.

Society always seems to have some expectations, he told us to graduate on time, finish the paper to oral examination, and then simply label us, oh, you are a boy, you are a photographer, you are starting a business. Social media relationships make us want to know so many people that we only have three keywords left in our brain capacity to remember every face and his achievements.


Picture | provided by the author

But none of this is enough to cope with the happiness I expect. If our happiness can be turned into a course map and planning, it will not be the kind of university department website put.

Happiness is not the patent of the rich, but the input of the heart. If you can put aside the expectations of each label, find a way to practice sharing your happiest looks with important people in your defined success. So if there is a chance that we happen to meet on the road, I hope I can press the shutter for you.