Publications
I believe that opportunities present themselves to those who seek them.
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That’s why, upon receiving an email from Notre Dame Global inviting me to attend their six-day writer's retreat at Kylemore Abbey, I responded affirmatively without hesitation.
Are you a tourist or a pilgrim?
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Reflecting upon my past 40 years after crossing the Pacific Ocean on a one-way flight when I was 27, I realized I had started out as a tourist, fixating on external appearances, admiring scenes and sights like clouds in the passing. In time, like a pilgrim, I focused more on my internal development, seeking deeper self-awareness through reflection and meeting other people. All along, one question kept nagging me: How does one know who they really are?
When a plant blossoms, it announces the arrival of spring by producing buds before bearing fruit. When people blossom, we likewise flourish. However, when that lush season ends — and it will end, for everything and everyone — do we wither and become forever dormant?
Ethnocentricity should not always be problematic. Hollywood has excelled in spreading American values around the globe. So has Silicon Valley, as a technological leader of the world. In those cases, it's perfectly normal for people to feel superiority and exceptionalism.
Following Mao's call to the young during the Cultural Revolution, Cheng Wang, a so-called “Educated Youth,” boarded a train destined for a secluded village in Inner Mongolia for the compulsory period of re-education. For the next three grueling years in rural exile, he pondered how his once privileged family had been caught in a political undertow, and how his own future might unfold.