I was born and grew up in Beijing, China. Pictured is me drinking a Yanjing beer. It was good, and I was impressed. Although it seems like I was left unsupervised, whoever took that picture definitely knew what I was doing. I think it was my dad. Time has passed and a person changes. I am now significantly less enthusiastic about beer.
Apart from doing philosophy, I watch a lot of films. John Cassavetes remains my favorite filmmaker, whose work makes my heart murmur and shiver the most. I also love reading fiction. I’ve been on a mission to finish Proust’s In Search of Lost Time so that I can get a closer glimpse of the curious, sophisticated and forever mysterious mind of filmmaker Chantal Akerman. She loved Proust and made a beautifully eerie film adapted from his The Captive. Before I finish the whole thing, I’m withholding my suspicion that Proust might be the John Mayer of his time.*
*I gave up on finishing the whole thing 2/3 way through the fourth volume, Sodom and Gomorrah. Should I have given it up sooner? Probably should. Many have said this about Proust and I can only agree: it’s (at least) a lack of imagination that one sees the diversity of human sexuality only through the lens of binary heteronormativity. With the exception of desperate times, I’ll leave it for another life. Fingers crossed that I don’t turn out to be a tree that cannot read. Hmmm, in fact, perhaps I should cross my fingers that I do turn out to be a tree that cannot read.