Past media coverage suggests he's a melancholic recluse and his whimsical stories sometimes reinforce that image. But in person, popular writer-illustrator Jimmy Liao Fu-pin comes across as amiable, relaxed and humorous.
'You probably don't see me as a low-profile person as we talk. I'm not shy talking about my work,' says Liao, who publishes under the pen name Ji Mi. 'I'm just a bit uneasy discussing my personal life. There's nothing special about me.'
The crowds lining up to view an exhibition marking a decade of his work would say otherwise. Liao's 30 illustrated stories for adults have sold five million copies worldwide and many have been adapted in movies and plays in Taipei, Hong Kong and on the mainland.
The Taiwanese author flew in last week to launch Jimmy One Decade Exhibition - Never Ending Story, and smiles as he recalls fans taking snaps at the show featuring original sketches from his illustrated tales, and fibreglass figurines drawn from favourites such as Turn Left, Turn Right and Then the Moon Forget. 'It's good to see my work is so close to readers.'
Liao, 50, says he's just like many people in the city: he finds joy in simple pleasures such as singing karaoke with his 11-year-old daughter and feeding the family cats with his wife.
His illustrations and stories, however, convey a sense of loneliness that touches thousands of people feeling alienated by big city life. It's a sensibility informed by his battle with leukaemia.