Steve Parry is many things. He is a grandfather, a director at a global geophysical boring company, the Facebook admin of Liverpool FC Supporters Hong Kong, the world’s largest online Liverpool FC supporters page with over 4.6 million fans, a 15-year resident of Hong Kong, and a proud Welsh native.

Above all, Steve is the creative brains, brand, and image behind @TypewriterTraveler, his personal Instagram diary recording his love for typewriters, traveling, journaling, and food, with close to 2,000 posts of his typewriting adventures and use in Hong Kong and the world.

Created in February 2019 and with just over 22,000 followers, Steve and his account have grown to be the world’s largest typewriting-inspired influencer Instagram page. The Beat Asia sat down with Steve to discuss his path from Hong Kong-based hobbyist to the world’s biggest typewriter influencer.

Steve is a North Wales-native but moved to Hong Kong in 2005 out of disdain for his home country and the wet, chilly weather that plagues Britain. Steve’s job, responsible for the global sales and marketing for a geophysical exploration company, would take him all over the world to drill the earth for water, minerals, oil, and gas.

His work would routinely bring him to Hong Kong, soon enough drawing his love for the Asian hub and influencing his move 16 years ago to the city.

Originally studying and working as a mechanical engineer, Steve appreciates “all things mechanical.” His creative interests tend towards the past, with a love for vinyl records, photography, and of course, typewriters. “I like things that are creative,” Steve told The Beat Asia in an interview.

It was on a Cathay Pacific flight to France from Hong Kong in 2018 that first piqued Steve’s intrigue for the typewriter. He tuned into watching a movie titled “California Typewriter,” a documentary about one of America’s last standing repair and typewriter sales shops in Berkely, California “dedicated to keeping the tradition alive.”

"I just thought this is great trying to keep the [typewriter] alive and these little companies trying to survive repairing and selling [the machines],” Steve said. He instantly fell in love with the mechanical keyboards.

On his trip working in the south of France, Steve decided to Google how to purchase a typewriter, and ended up buying his first one: a Hermes 3000. He admits that his first typewriter was not “the best choice,” sizing quite large, but it propelled him into his full-blown love for the art and keyboards.

Purchasing and using old typewriters amounted to an addiction for Steve, who began sourcing the web in 2018 for new typewriters, using them regularly for writing, starting his Instagram account @typewritertraveler in February 2019.

The intention behind creating his Instagram page was to promote the mechanical beauty and continued use of the typewriter. “I want to promote the use of typewriters, try to keep these businesses around the world alive, and [ensure] that the tradition stays alive of repairing and selling typewriters.”

As his love for typewriters sprouted, he began to become more knowledgeable about pricing and what machines were best to accompany him on his travels. “I realized I needed portable typewriters. I try to buy [machines] from the 1960s and earlier,” Steve said, referring to typewriters that are often metal-encased.

Steve has travelled to 73 countries and some more than 50 to 100 times on his business trips. Bringing his typewriter allowed him to curate and produce ornate letters for friends and family and journal entries to far corners of the world.

He began to haul his typewriters on trips to Europe, Asia, and Africa to pose for pictures using his machines against beautiful mountain, city, and nature backdrops. The typewriters, however, allow Steve to detail more than what can be captured on a simple photograph, for someone to read of his travel experience or a personal journal entry.

“When I first started travelling, I used to take a lot of photography. It could be a desert, it could be a jungle, a small village in the mountains of Pakistan and places like that. However, people could not quite see or smell or taste the atmosphere of the photo. If I’m writing something I can describe what I am seeing or doing.”

“Writing and sending letters to friends and family could take from two weeks to a month to receive a letter. People are quite shocked when they see them, and it is something you tend to keep and remember. We don’t keep our WhatsApp [messages} or emails.”

When snapping pictures abroad and around Hong Kong while pounding on his typewriter keys, writing letters or journals, Steve usually asks friends or strangers to help capture a photo or video to upload to his Instagram account. “It is nice to get a different pace in life but still keep modern stuff.”

To Steve’s estimation, he operates the largest typewriter influencer accounts on Instagram. His photos and videos of him typing in a café on Hong Kong Island, in nature or besides a beach, or on Hong Kong’s myriad of transportation options capture thousands of views and a distinct beauty for reviving the past technology.

Working from 10 AM to 3 AM to account for international business, Steve is free to “disappear anytime” to take pictures for his Instagram.

Like each photograph of a glistening sunset or a bustling cityscape with him typing away, Steve said “each typewriter has [its] own personality, totally different from using the computer.”

“You must fight with it; you have to get used to the [mechanical keyboard]. You work for that letter and with the typewriter. You need to make sure there’s ink on the ribbon, that you press hard enough, and be careful to not type too fast to reduce errors. So, you have to really play with the machine to get what you want.

With writing on typewriters, “you are actually creating something on you feel kind of connected. At the end of the day, it's like I've created something on paper. And that gives me the kick.”

Steve currently owns 60 typewriters in his collection, having purchased a personal record of 30 in 2020. “I am not collecting typewriters as a collector; I collect them because I want to use them. I fell in love with a typewriter brand called Corona 3, the longest selling typewriter in history from 1910 to 1940.”

Steve fell in love with the simple beautiful brand, usually taking a typewriter dating to 1916 to 1920 on his local and international trips. “I fell in love with them, and I thought I have got to try to get the best collection.”

According to typewriters insiders and experts, it is his curated collection of 35 Corona 3 folding typewriters he holds in his home office in Happy Valley that he believes is the best collection of typewriters in the world.

“My favourite [typewriter] is the Hermes Baby; I have half a dozen Olympia Splendid which I use every day. I have some hefty typewriters that occupy my play desk, and always have three typewriters out that I can use and write on.”

Steve has travelled to 13 countries with his typewriters and usually carries two typewriters on his journeys in a Globe Trotter brand transport case: a more portable machine used for writing letters and journal pages and a more delicate and beautiful one for capturing Instagram content.

His favourite destination for capturing typewriter pictures is Japan where he received a lot of positive feedback from the locals, even during the March snow when he ventured out in negative 12 degrees to capture pictures. The worst? Dubai. “It is too damn hot outside, nowhere comfortable to type.”

Despite the online favour and fandom surrounding his typewriter image, Steve is wary and respectful about the noise and attention that comes with using a typewriter in public and taking pictures and videos for his Instagram account.

“Does the noise bother people? I try to be respectful to others where I type and what type of noise I'm producing. I've only had one complaint in the last five years.”

“Most people of the older generation [in Hong Kong] will hear [my] typewriter and come and find me, say, in a coffee shop.”

From his Instagram following of 22,200 followers in Hong Kong and abroad, Steve estimates that he has encouraged “literally hundreds” of people to buy and invest into buying typewriters in Hong Kong.

With his website, Typewriter Traveler, Steve posts advice and guides on first-time buyers introduced in purchasing a typewriter, what to buy, where to buy, and what to look for. “I try to advise people and help them discover [the culture] for themselves.”

“I am not interested in making money on it, I just like more people using [typewriters]. My agenda is that I enjoy [using typewriters] in life and I want to try and promote people to use [them].”