COVID-19 prequel
The outbreak of COVID-19
Unlike a lot of MIT community members, who were only affected by the coronavirus outbreak starting in March 2020, I was paying attention to the outbreak since the very beginning on 12/31/2019. This was because one of my high school classmates – also my best friend – worked in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. […]
To separate or to engage?
Reflections during my country’s great war against the coronavirus epidemic
In China, each year begins twice. First on January 1 and once again on the traditional Lunar New Year (this year’s date: January 25, 2020). The days in between the two New Years are a somewhat peculiar time – though New Year has dawned in other places of the world, in China, students are taking […]
Practice imagination in MIT Hogwarts
Where empathy and compassion are the real magic
In J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard, she talked about the importance of imagination. I was really struck by her definition of imagination – how she described it as people “thinking themselves into other people’s worlds”. It made me appreciate my own capacity for empathy and compassion and how that’s been strengthened by the challenges […]
“Deity’s Book Collection” twenty minutes away
Rediscovering my cultural identity at Harvard-Yenching Library
Deity’s Book Collection Overseas 「海外嫏嬛」 Façade of the Harvard-Yenching Institute On a bright and crisp morning in late April 2019, when I first set foot into the warm Harvard-Yenching (哈佛燕京) library, it was as if I finally returned home from a long odyssey. The calligraphy overseeing the reading room 海外嫏嬛 (which literally translates into “deity’s […]
A Home Away from Home
The Genesis of MIT Chinese Music Ensemble
Prologue When I first came to MIT, I planned to work, but not much else. Certainly no time to play Gu-zheng – the Chinese zither. There are simply too many things to learn, to explore. But, from time to time, I was possessed by a lingering anxiety – an integral part of my voice […]
