Abdul Mubarok comes from Batang, Indonesia, and had hard work in an electronics manufacturer in Rende District of Tainan city. Jury Award Winner of 2016 Taiwan Literature Award for the Migrants (TLAM), Abdul intertwined his memories and longing for his beloved mother into his work LIR ILIR, depicting how his mother’s religiousness and love for her child had supported him throughout the struggle of his Ramadan fasting practice during days of sweat and toil of his laborious life in Taiwan, where love had overcome distance literally and figuratively.

Deeply moved by his LIR ILIR , I had decided to take the initiative in coming up with this collaborative plan with Abdul Mubarok. Only during the course of our arrangement for the first meet-up had I realized that he has extremely little time off, i.e. two days off every month. It was a Sunday evening at Taipei Main Station when I first saw him in person. As people were hustling to and fro around the station, immigrant workers mostly gathered here to meet friends for a day’s rest. But Abdul was sitting alone by the roadside, wearing a grey shirt and a brown hat, looking like an English detective or writer from the 1920s. In fact, he does write to recollect and retell his own life experiences, as what he did in LIR ILIR, which according to him could be passed down to his children and grandchildren.

We chatted intermittently via the Google Translate. I was startled and sorry when Abdul told me that he traveled all the way from Tainan to Taipei just to meet me on purpose. Before we parted, Abdul took a photo of us using a self-assembled bluetooth camera, which left me lost in contemplation while looking down on the iPhone in my palm. This could very likely be assembled by a worker who is also striving for life. As we said our farewells by the station gate that day, I made my promise to pay him visit soon in Tainan.