A falling apple famously inspired Isaac Newton to become a great physicist but another apple triggered Yi-ping Pong's 20-year love affair with France.

Pong, a Taiwan-born writer and photographer who lived in Paris for 17 years, was in Beijing two months ago to promote her books on French jazz, art and food culture.

Pong's romance with France started in 1993, when she graduated from the National Taiwan University in Taipei, majoring in history.

She was fluent in German, French, Japanese and English, and wondered which country she should pick to study further.

Pong says she had read many books about France but didn't know many people to turn to for suggestions, until she heard of a painter who had returned from France to open a cafe.

"The cafe had a good atmosphere and a wall that was covered with graffiti, which was rare at the time," she says. "The painter welcomed me and made a very delicious apple pie and an apple cocktail."

Pong then found more than 300 French dishes that used apples as an ingredient. That led her to undertake a journey to France.

"If a country could use an apple to make so many different kinds of food, its culture must be very delicate, and I wanted to learn it," she says.

She has since won many awards in France and Taipei for her books and short movies, and has held dozens of photographic exhibitions over the past decade.

Pong's father was a doctor who loved painting and calligraphy, while her mother was a nurse, with an interest in literature, movies and opera. Her parents' appreciation of art encouraged Pong to become a free thinker since childhood.

She skipped school frequently because she didn't like the education system. In college, she negotiated with teachers so she could skip classes and read in the library.

Pong's passion for jazz started in primary school, when her family lived in central Taipei. One day, she got a tape of her favorite song, Moon River, performed in jazz style.

"That rhythm made me peaceful inside immediately, and for some time I forgot noisy Taipei and everything around me," she says. Pong then went to jazz clubs and met musicians.

Pong found living in France relaxing and good for her creativity. She studied France's culinary culture, and learned photography and film direction. For years, she also spent evenings listening to jazz at clubs. She eventually became a good cook, too.

"I love food. Every time I ate something nice, I would analyze its ingredients and practice cooking it."

Her first book on French food was published in 1998 and her book on jazz in 2002.

"I wanted to introduce the culture to Taiwan in a practical way, to help people learn about its value and change their lifestyles. It was my cultural mission."

Pong tends to go beyond her original subjects to include other hidden stories. For example, her books cover how closely French jazz is related to American jazz and African jazz by including historical backgrounds, music theories and musicians.

Her book Le Voyage Musique d'un Photographe was written over seven years and underwent about 30 revisions of the original work.

She trained in photography in college and images became a big part of her books. She also gave a year's jazz lessons to an art designer from Le Voyage Musique d'un Photographe so he would understand jazz better to design anything on the subject.

"To many writers, photos might not mean much. But to me, it is very important. Inside my images, there are many hidden messages," Pong says.

In the book Le Voyage Culinaire d'un Photographe she took all pictures by the light of only one candle. She wanted every image to tell a story - who was eating, at what time, what their moods were, what the ingredients were, and other information related to culture and geography. "I want all the elements to be condensed into one image."

Pong has published 11 books mainly on France's food culture and jazz. But each time she begins writing, book publishers in Taiwan would grow hesitant because of their perception that her topics were "too highbrow to be popular" locally.

"But oddly, readers always responded passionately," she says.

Zhang Weijun, an editor at the Central Compilation & Translation Press in Beijing, who worked on Pong's books, describes her as a very diverse writer, whose topics will please readers on China's mainland.

"People born in the 1980s and 1990s have grown up," he says. "This generation has better taste and seeks the delicate things in life more than their parents did."

Liu Fan, 21, a student who attended a recent lecture by Pong in Beijing, says that although her initial reason was to hear from Pong about her global journeys, it was Pong's temperament that most impressed Fan.

"She does everything to fight against restraint, to pursue her dreams ... That makes me ponder how much time I have wasted," Fan says.

Pong says she will write about her travels through China's mainland next year. But this year, she has a full schedule.

Her new book Women's Rooms is about portraits and interviews with women from different places on earth. An earlier book on the subject, called Her Story, was lauded by French magazine Marie Claire.

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

Yi-ping Pong says she will travel the Chinese mainland and write about it next year. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily 06/11/2014 page19)