China’s Urban-Rural Dualism
Do the Chinese Live a Better Life? Unpacking the Urban-Rural Dualism Category: Social; Tags: China, Hukou, Political Economy The TikTok Refugees In early 2025, the threat to ban TikTok led to a flood of American TikTok users to the Chinese app Red Note (Xiaohongshu). The exchange unveiled an unknown side of China to the average […]
Trip to Thailand
Trump’s Tariff
Will Trump’s Tariffs Spur Domestic Reform in China? Category: Social; Tags: China, Hukou, Op-ed The tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have dealt a blow to China’s export-driven economy, placing pressure on one of its primary engines of growth. But beyond trade figures and GDP forecasts, these tariffs may hold unexpected implications for China’s domestic […]
The Black Panther
The Black Panther: A Materialist and Teleological Critique 2025.3.25 Category: Social, Tags: Movie Review, Historical Materialism, Race The Black Panther The 2018 Black Panther was one of the first movies I watched after immigrating to Canada. Walking out of the movie theater, I posted the following paragraph: With magnetic levitation trains more advanced than our […]
You Speak Chinese?
The Journey of Getting UBC to Believe I Speak Chinese Category: Life; Tags: Casual, UBC 2025.3.13 UBC didn’t believe I, a Chinese citizen who lived in China for 17 years, speak Chinese—-but they also kind of did. What is all of this about? Flashing back to my last year at UBC. As I was about […]
On Abortion
↑ A pro-life protestor at my undergraduate campus at UBCO, whom I had a conversation with A Utilitarian Defence of Abortion Category: Theory; Tags: Abortion, Ethics The morality of abortion is first and foremost a philosophical question about intrinsic value (before it is a question of bodily autonomy, socio-economic impact, or law). To determine whether abortion […]
Military Training
Yes, that boy at the bottom left is me. I Hate Military Training Category: Life; Tags: China, childhood, military training, reflection Today, I was reading the memoir Useless Violence by Nazi concentration camp survivor Primo Levi. The book describes how Nazi concentration camps were filled with seemingly pointless violence and torture. For instance, despite warehouses […]
Snowpiercer
Reflection on Snowpiercer Category: Theory; Tags: assignment, political philosophy In Snowpiercer, Mason, justifying feudalism on the train, claimed that it is natural for each person to stay in their assigned position, just like shoes belong to the feet and hats should be on the heads (although later plot proves that rebellion can be natural as […]
Directing Envolution
Directing Evolution: A Utilitarian Defence of Human Genetic Engineering Category: Theory, Tags: Genetic Engineering, Ethics, Essay It is part of our biology that we can transcend our biology. —Ronald de Sousa Introduction New technologies like CRISPR gives new possibilities for human genome. Human genetic composition—once seemed natural and unalterable—is increasingly under our rational and scientific […]
The Confidence Cult
The Dead End of Confidence Culture and Body Positivity Category: Contemporary, Tags: Confidence, Culture, Essay Introduction Nowadays, confidence is viewed as a crucial and empowering personal quality that everyone should work to possess. A recent example is the trending concept of body positivity which promotes a self-affirmation and self-appreciation of one’s physical body as beautiful. […]