Graduation

My graduation 2009

Eurovision night!

Cheers for DK that night, but Norway is the big winner:P

Barren World?

Still remember the 6-minute special comment delivered by Keith Olbermann last year, rousing and emotional, to be against the ban on gay marriage.

"... yet this vote is horrible. Horrible... This is about the human heart." He firstly went through the history of marriage in the United States, where not only that marriage between black and white people used to be illegal in 1/3 of the country, but even illegal between slaves...

The rousing and emotional part is his plea after for love and the spread of happiness: "The world is barren enough... with so much hate in the world, so much meaningless division... this is what your religion tells you to do?... this is what your heart tells you to do?... You are asked to stand now on a question of love."

Is that a fact? To be frank, I did not feel much of the barrenness before and do not today; on the contrary, I am basically experiencing the inner struggling of relieving any of my truest feelings, and do unconsciously close the heart to people who get closer... please forgive a heart being deeply wounded before; on the other hand, deep down that heart, there is still what she always believes: serendipity, and love.

Identity

There are so many novels talking about a person's IDENTITY search in post-colonialism or feminism literature works: extremely pessimistic ones as Pecola in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye; confused and struggling ones as Gemmy in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon, whose first sentence uttered was "I am a B-b-british object", and all his life, he was regarded as something in between.


In Chinese, we have a term "Bu Zhong Bu Xi" (not exactly the Oriental, not exactly the Western), some creature in-between. After all these years’ westernized education, working and living experiences in another country ... Who am I? What is my real identity now?

For example, the standard of being a real woman/lady, the real femininity, as I always believe that the world is a balanced world, we each (male and female) should play their roles well; on the other hand, they talk so much about feminism in Western world, and how women should be regarded the same as the men...I really have trouble understanding it...

Besides, concerning bigger picture as how the society works, and smaller picture as how the family works, there are so many differences: the way how Westerners are independent from each other, and being private; and the way how the Asians stick together, being collective, and heavily rely on each other, etc. Sometimes I get troubles fitting into my own community, such as understanding their jokes: one of my favorite girlfriend making fun of me all the time or poking me as a way showing friendliness; and another Asian girl calling a friend "Fat Boy" as the first thing to show closeness, and I start to get slow in getting the humor and point there.

Anyway, this is a topic have been troubling so many great writers, thinkers, poets, and philosophers as the human history started. I doubt I can find the answer out right away, and it can be a long and painful process.

My Sweetest Dream

‘I don’t know who invented the high heel but all women owe him a lot"(Marilyn Monroe)

Valborg in Sweden

randome thoughts in Easter!

Another Easter! Time Flies!
Woke up this morning, suddenly feel like the Gypsy!

14-year-old, moved to the best boarding school, 2 hours by car from where my parents live; I see parents once a month.

3 years later, moved to my university, 3-hour-train distance from parents; I see them once every three months;

20-year-old, got my first full-time teaching contract. 16-hour-train distance from parents; I see them twice a year(summer holiday & winter vacation);

After 3 years' teaching, August 2006, flew from Shanghai to Kolding, Denmark, the first time I officially arrived Scandinavia; after a short stay in Kolding, took train for 12 hours from Kolding to Falun, Sweden, I started seeing parents once a year!

One year later, moved from Falun to Copenhagen, living in Nørreport for 8 months, traveling back and forth between CPH and Lund for my studies, until finally got a place in Lund. (a few times of moving among different places in Lund are not even counted).

Have been through the most difficult times, but all in all, I learned: Be strong, and be positive to life, as you are the only person can be responsible for your own life:P

That's it! Not a great poet, isn't it? But that's best thing I learned:)

Femininity

I know gender is a socially constructed thing today. I am perfectly fine with that.
Meanwhile, I think real "Femininity" is of critical importance for the balance of the world:)))

stuck in the middle

Porter mentioned "stuck in the middle" as the bad idea for the company's strategy.
I just related to myself.
It has been such a long time since I spent some quality time with friends. And one of my biggest competitive advantage is my network. These networks/strong ties were accumulated through years of experiences being the best friend for friends. And now I started to forget best friends' birthdays, or no time replying emails or phone calls.
I am this close to be "stuck in the middle" now, and be careful, Jessica!!!

some random thoughts

Firstly, I always think that it is a once in life chance to study and be together with all the smart brains from all over the world. I have never been inspired this much in my previous life.
And one of my biggest observation is that, you have to be modest and ready to learn from others , to improve yourself and progress personally. I guess one of my biggest "competitive advantage" should be that I seriously and sincerely see the "shining"/good points of the others and always find something I can learn from them. And from my experiences and observations, people are always willing to help the ones who wanna learn. Then you can really have chance to develop yourself as a person.

the song I like very much recently!

too late to appologize