A small crowd gathered on the patio outside Cafe Philo (慕哲咖啡館) on a recent Friday evening. Some of the participants were college students, while others were social activists like Robin Winkler. They reasoned, argued, questioned and interrupted each other for two hours, and many stayed longer to continue the conversation.
The forum takes place Friday evenings at 7:30pm at the coffee shop, which is located on Taishun Street (泰順街) in Taipei. Its inspiration comes from French philosopher Gabriel Marcel’s famous Friday evening talks in the 1930s and the cafe philosophique movement, which began in 1992 when French professor Marc Sautet regularly joined friends to talk about philosophy at the Cafe des Phares in Paris. As a form of organized debate, cafe philo has since spread to the rest of the world.
“When transplanting the idea of cafe philo to Taiwan, we tend to focus on various local issues of the day. When people take a stand and talk about things, they are guided by sets of values, consciously or unconsciously. Here we discuss those values as well,” said Shen Ching-kai (沈清楷), who plans and hosts the event, which is titled Cafe Philo a Taiwan (哲學星期五).
Photo Courtesy of Youth Synergy Taiwan Foundation
Subjects range from suicide, the death penalty and the Jasmine Revolution to computer games and philanthropy. Every Tuesday, Shen chooses a topic and posts it on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cafephilotw). This week’s edition is titled Social Justice and Workers’ Rights.
Cafe Philo a Taiwan is one of many events held by the Youth Synergy Taiwan Foundation (青平台). Founded in May last year by Taiwan Thinktank executive director Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君), the non-governmental organization’s motto is to “find the strength to change,” according to its Web site. In practice, Youth Synergy offers participants first-hand experience with local problems and issues through field trips and stays in Aboriginal hamlets, farming villages and Changhua’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑), the proposed home for the Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co (國光石化) naphtha cracker complex.
Social activists, NGO workers and alternative media staffers hold workshops, and the foundation also recruits people interested in working at small NGOs and social groups and deploys them to different organizations after training — with full pay.
A series of lectures titled Tower of Babel (夜之巴別塔) takes place every Tuesday evening at Cafe Philo, and is free and open to all. Experts give speeches followed by question-and-answer sessions. Among the topics proposed for the coming weeks are art as a form of social activism, human rights in Tibet, and loneliness and solitude in literature.
“We want to build a cultural habit. It is here every Tuesday and it’s free. You can always drop by when you don’t want to watch television or go shopping,” Youth Synergy project manager Vivi Ho (何旻燁) said. “Democracy would be too limiting if it only happened at the legislature. Public issues can be discussed over a cup of coffee. It’s a part of life.”
To date, all the talks have been in Mandarin.
Cafe Philo is located at 11, Ln 60, Taishun St, Taipei City (台北市泰順街60巷11號). For more information about the foundation and the events it offers, visit www.ystaiwan.org.tw.
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