Category: Personal Thoughts

The Anxiety of Nature and The Difficulty of Grace

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"A man's heart has heard two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You'll have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. It accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them, to have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it, and love is smiling through all things. " - The Tree of Life (2011)

Between My World and Me

Wan Bo

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a post seeking the most neutral, most inoffensive description of what’s happening in Hong Kong. I am by no means qualified to do that. I have never been to Hong Kong, nor have I or my family directly benefitted from its special political and economic status. As you might have noticed, I do not like to offend others, especially on such a divided issue with both sides feeling so strongly. But to me, this is not a matter of seeking the most apolitical description; the most apolitical description is itself a political statement. This is an issue of personal matter and sentiment. This is an issue between my world and me.

“White Left” and Surging Chinese Nationalism

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It is certainly not easy to be white nowadays. On the Chinese version of the World Wide Web, “White Left” is a term loosely referring to white people who hold left-wing political views. The phrase has acquired negative popularity on various Chinese social media such as Weibo and Zhihu, the Chinese equivalence of Twitter and Quora, since the European refugee crisis and the latest US election. Why do Chinese netizens hate left-wing politics so much? And in particular, why do they target at white people?

Feeling 4.0: Redefined Intimacy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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On the whole, Her is a sharp, witty film depicting modern human relationship and what we have become without realising. It is as realistic as it is speculative. While in the past semester I have been mostly studying the economic and technical aspects of the fourth industrial revolution, I want to reflect on something personal in this essay. I want to reflect on how the fourth industrial revolution may change interpersonal relationships and how one perceives reality, love and intimacy. Like the film, my reflection can be speculative at times and make certain assumptions, and I do not claim that this reflection accurately predicts the future. I also do not claim to be pessimistic about the future. This reflection is at best the melancholic afterthought following the fourth industrial revolution, or what I call it, Feeling 4.0, after not just jobs, but also conventional conceptions of human existence and metaphysics are lost, for better or worse. 

Cultural Exchange and Cultural Surrendering

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When I was asked why I wanted to go to The Netherlands for a semester, I quickly considered cultural exchange as an important reason. I fantisiced making new friends from different countries and learning their perspectives. I was excited about the idea of visiting Paris, the cultural centre of Europe, and reading philosophical texts from the continental tradition. My plans have been well executed so far, although I would rather re-consider whether cultural exchange is an accurate term decribing my semester abroad, or in general my experience of studying abroad away from my Chinese home.