He attended poetry conferences in Wufeng and advocated establishing a poetry society for all of Taiwan. And when literati passed through Keelung on the way to the mainland, they would invariably spend the night at Yen's "Lou Compound." Yen went beyond indulging his fancy for literature and hobnobbing with the literati.
霧峰開詩會，他也去，全台詩人大會就是他提倡的；有文人要坐船到大陸去，經過基隆，差不多都會在基隆顏家的「陋園」過夜。