Renowned Taiwanese writer and essayist Lung Ying-tai was the speaker for the closing talk of the inaugural City Reading @ SG festival organised by Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao. Her talk, titled When I Walk Into the Mountains, was held on 3 June 2023 in the Concert Hall of festival venue partner Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. It drew an audience of about 1,400 – a rare sight in Singapore for a talk by a writer, as Lee Huay Leng, Editor-in-chief of SPH Media Trust’s Chinese Media Group noted in her introductory remarks.

A former Culture Minister of Taiwan, Dr Lung left urban living for a remote village in 2017. Since 2021 she counts as her home Mount Dulan in eastern Taiwan, with its panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. In an hour-long talk, followed by a Q&A with the audience, she reflected on what it means to live immersed in nature and in conversation with the environment – the subjects of her recent works Under Dawu Mountain and Walking.

The talk is in Chinese with English subtitles. Video provided by Lianhe Zaobao with permission to stream on Offstage. Images courtesy of Lung Ying-tai/ Lianhe Zaobao.