Bookshelf: Julien Tang, Publisher of Laji Magazine and Co-curator of Zajia Lab

The book on my shelf with the most sentimental value is a Sun Wukong comic book published in Taiwan in the 1980s with traditional characters.

If you only ever read one book about China, make it La pensée en Chine aujourd’hui (Thought in China Today) by Anne Cheng. It can help you avoid saying stupid things about China.

In the bathroom, I prefer music or radio to books.

I read newspapers on the subway. But I love to drive, which doesn’t really work with reading.

I wouldn’t hide a book, not even a porno magazine.

The fictional character I’ve had a crush on is the girl from the poem “La Loreley” by Guillaume Apollinaire. I was 14, and I fell in love with her after a few lines.

The last book I read is a book I just designed for a writer, The Unfinished Collection by Iona Whittaker. It’s an essay about the DSL Collection of Chinese contemporary art founded by Dominique and Sylvain Levy.

The last book I bought was New Games, an independent book of photography by Yusuke Nishimitsu. It has the same aesthetic as the magazine I publish.

All the books that I’ve finished have the best endings.

The book that surprised me most was The Social Contract, by Jean- Jacques Rousseau. I was 18, in high school, demonstrating against national education reforms when I read it.

My favorite line from a book is from Nietzche’s The Joyful Wisdom. “For the New Year. I still live, I still think; I must still live, for I must still think. Sum, ergo cogito: cogito, ergo sum.”

I always judge a book by its cover.

The book I brought with me on my latest travels was a blank book to write in that I didn’t even open.

A film, not a book, changed my life. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. I was a young man and into Chinese studies. No film put me to bed so many times. So I went into film studies.

I don’t like novels. I prefer essays and poetry. At the end of the day, I’m OK with my world.

Pick up this month’s issue of Laji Magazine at Alba Cafe.

This article originally appeared on page 52 of the January issue of the Beijinger.

Photo: Sui