Author Archives: Christopher Chong

“Harlem” by Langston Hughes

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This poem is on page 67 of our handy dandy “Poems of New York” book. The poem is written by the Langston Hughes and it goes like this:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

     Or does it explode?

I saw this poem and immediately recognized the first three lines of the poems. They are famous phrases that I immediately associate with Langston Hughes (as well as the “Life ain’t no crystal stairs” from Hughes’ “Mother to Son”). In the poem, Hughes is questioning what happens to a person’s dreams when it is halted. Hughes is talking about the progress of African-Americans, which is subject to White oppression in the early 20th century. In my 10th grade English class, I remember seeing Lorraine Hansberry’s film “A Raisin in the Sun”, which obtain its name from this poem. The film focuses around the lives of a black family in Chicago who strives to get rich, but their “dream is deferred”. The poem is short, crisp and to the point, yet powerful and has a deep meaning behind it, which I think makes it a good poem to go over in class.

 

~Christopher Chong

One World, Zero Tolerance

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A friend of mine that currently attends MICA (Maryland Institute College of Arts) told me that I must must must must must go to MoMA PS1 to see its exhibits, any exhibits. This assignment gave me an excuse to go there.

I suggested to our group to use this place as our third arts place, but we didn’t choose an exhibit to see until we got there. We wanted to go see a couple of exhibits and decide based on how we liked it. We ended up seeing three exhibits: Retrospective, Zero Tolerance, and The Flat Side of the Knife. Of the three, the most powerful one and the most influential one that we thought was Zero Tolerance.

Zero Tolerance depicts the political turmoil and demonstrations for rights by citizens of different countries from the 1960s all the way to present time. The exhibit included posters by John Lennon and Yoko Ono against the Vietnam War, demonstration at a church in Mosco by Pussy Riot against Vladmir Putin, attempting to breathe air into Tiananmen Square to revive the dead, crashing a car into a tree in St. Petersburg, rap video by a group of Turks, etc. All these strive to show the ill in our society, and the “zero tolerance” citizens have for the world.

The exhibit is presented from October through till March 2015. Even at present many other political tensions in the world could be incorporated. Look at the Umbrella Revolution/Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong, the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, People’s Climate March in New York. Maybe some of the worlds leaders should take a journey to Long Island City and reflect on themselves.

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And here is our favorite: Lucius

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~Christopher Chong

Nam June Paik: The Visionary

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“Becoming Robot” is an exhibit located at The Asia Society in the Upper East Side. Our group decided to go see it because Lucius actually has heard of the artist, Nam June Paik.

The exhibit was very simple. It wasn’t the robots that most of us expected it to be like. When I think of robots, I think of like those in the labs where they move around to accomplish some job, or the ones that flies into other planets and moons to collect data. Paik’s robots were different. The first “robot” we encountered was probably the closest to the prototype for the word “robot”. The robot was built with a complex intertwine of wires and metal. At one point in 1982 he had actually displayed this robot in Manhattan, but a car had bumped into it, knocking it over. In another display, he used closed-circuit TV’s (the robot) to capture objects, including a chair, a golden Buddha, etc. There was also a family of robots built out of TV, the father, the mother, and the baby. It is interesting to see Paik’s concept of a robot that was so advance for his time.

 

~Christopher Chong

Privilege- Straight White Men Reactions

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As Tony and Chloe have mentioned in their reactions to “Straight White Men”, the music as people entered the theatre is not what you would expect. I was laughing as we (Anthony, Lucius, and I) entered the theatre. The music was very pumped, very vulgar, and for me, it didn’t seem to fit the audience, which was predominantly old white folks, with some college students like us. A few people were very into the music though, bumping and enjoying it.

The performance starts of very comical, especially with the two younger brothers playing around, annoying each other. Yet at the end of the performance, it was very serious, and only the eldest brother was left on the stage, contemplating by himself. The main point that the play was trying to convey was how certain people have it very well in life, namely, men who are white and straight. The two younger brothers, Jake and Drew, were able to see this and use it, while Matt, the oldest one, can’t seem to accept it. The father and two younger brothers strive to help him, pay for his loans, give him mock interviews, yet he resists their attempt, and wants to earn his way in life by himself.

Young Jean Lee attempts to convey this message using certain topics that we often avoid talking about, and even titles the performance “Straight White Men”, which gives an emphasis on what she wants people to see from the play. If you haven’t seen the play, you really should go. The performance strives to be comical and hilarious, but it also brings up certain sensitive issues that our society often avoids.

P.S. For some reason the setting and feel of “Straight White Men” reminded me of the show “Three’s Company”.

 

~Christopher Chong

The Hotel Chelsea

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Located at 222 West 23rd street between 7th and 8th avenue, the Chelsea Hotel, commonly referred to as Hotel Chelsea, is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The history of the building dates back to its construction between 1883 and 1885, and it was one of the first apartment building complexes in New York. It eventually became a hotel, but allowed for long-term residents. It became famous for it was where poet Dylan Thomas had stayed prior to his death in November 1953, the site where author Charles Jackson committed suicide in 1968, and where reportedly Sid Vicious stabbed his girlfriend in 1978. The place was home to many artists, poets, musicians, and more during the 1960s and 1970s.

With regards to Just Kids, Hotel Chelsea was the site where Patti Smith had heard that had cheap rooms and that they can pay in art temporarily ahead of time (Smith 93). Inevitably, they got the smallest room in Hotel Chelsea, room 1017, as described by Smith (94-95). At Hotel Chelsea, Patti and Robert met many different people. The first person Robert met was Bruce Rudow, who took him under his wings. Others included hotel manager Stanley Bard, Sandy Daley, of who was describe as “the most influential person we met” (101), Matthew Reich etc. The Hotel Chelsea was a place of art and intellectual hub during this era, where famous people such as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix had stayed. A lot happened there.

Currently the hotel is under renovation, and is scheduled to reopen in 2015. In 1966 it was named one of the New York City landmarks and in 1977 it was put on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

~Christopher Chong

Subway Riders Can’t Miss This

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Without a doubt, the acronym “MTA” has a negative connotation do it.

Nonetheless, we all use it. In the recent years MTA has implemented a program called “Arts for Transit”, which displays any form of arts in the stations, in the trains, basically anywhere in the transit system.

I remember we read a poem in the beginning of the year called “Construction Site, Windy Night” (Pg 201 in Poems of New York). The thing that I most remembered from it was some sort of scaffolds, plastic sheets that was flying from the building. Today, as I was on the D train going back to the dorms, I notice a poem titled “Scaffolding” by Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). The poem went something like this:

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seems to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

This beginning of the poem is pretty straight forward. The first two stanzas pretty much depicts a mason’s job when they begin to build. However, the poem starts to change in the third stanza, when the speaker seems to be sad that the scaffolds are falling. This however exposes the beauty of the building when its done.

The fourth stanza is the highlight of the poem. The speaker speaks to someone he cares, someone he loves, most likely a mate, and it reveals that the relationship between the two may be “falling apart”. But he ends up with the fifth stanza, saying that whats behind that scaffold is something stronger, something more beautiful.

So next time you take a ride on the MTA, check out the arts and all the stuff you see just may very much surprise you! See if you can spot this poem as well! 🙂

~Christopher Chong

Scribner’s Bookstore

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Located at 597 Fifth Avenue, between 48th and 49th street in the heart of Manhattan, Scribner’s Bookstore is located inside the Charles Scribner’s Sons Building, right near the Rockefeller Center. The building was built in 1913 and designed by a guy name Ernest Flagg in a Beaux Arts-style exterior. Beaux Arts style architecture was a style of architecture that heavily influenced the United States during the turn of the 20th century. Some characteristics of Beaux Arts Style include flat roof, arched windows, arched and pediment doors, classical details, symmetry, sculptures, murals, etc. In Just Kids, Scribner’s Bookstore is significant because it was the place where Patti Smith got her job after being fired from being cashier because she didn’t charge a Chinese customer tax on an expensive Buddha. The job was referred from Janet Hamill, a friend she met from college. Smith described her job as a “dream job, working in the retail store of the prestigious publisher, home to writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and their editor, the great Maxwell Perkins.” (Smith 55). Smith also felt very lucky to be working at “such a historic bookstore”, with a higher salary and being able to work with Janet (Smith 55). The bookstore announced its closure in 1988, and officially closed in 1989, ending the 76 years of business. Today, it is currently a Sephora cosmetics store, with the name of the building, “Charles Scribner’s Sons”, still written on the building itself.

 

~Christopher Chong

It Piles Up!

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I did a little research to see where the trash from New York City goes. Most of our trash is sent to landfills in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, as well as upstate New York. But they can and often do go as far as Ohio and South Carolina and points further west and south as well. It costs New York City $300 million each year to dispose of this waste. So next time when you throw something out, think about this. Maybe, just maybe, that material you are trying to throw out can be use in many crazy different ways, like how Vik created art.

Source:

  1. http://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/100000003131953/where-does-our-trash-go.html (3:13 to 3:24)
  2. http://nyc.sierraclub.org/2012/08/new-york-city-trash-where-does-it-all-go/

 

~Christopher Chong

P.S. The Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island closed in 2001, and is now on its way to become a new park.

 

99 is not 100

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Ahh yes, something my father would always say to me.

The Waste Land was probably one of the best documentary films I’ve watch. Little did I know that the host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has such a background to it. And little did anyone in our class know either! Vik is a truly talented man for being able to create art out of garbage, something we wouldn’t expect. In fact, his art is probably one of the most moving thing some people have ever seen. For the catadores, some of them realize who they are for the first time (I think it was Suelem). My favorite character was perhaps the elderly Valter, of whom kept reminding everyone that 99 is not 100, and that 1 single soda can can make a difference. There was one thing I was wondering. Was Vik trying to expose the complete other side of the spectrum, of people who work in dumps to raise global awareness? Or was he just trying to create art from an angle that rarely people expect? Nonetheless, Vik was able to be part of the catadores, and was able to put himself as equal then to stand over and authorize the process. This reminds me of a show in Britain called Art Attack (not from Canada as I said in our meeting after watching the film). At one point during the show, the host would take random items and create a piece of art from it, similar to what Vik did.

 

~Christopher Chong

 

St. Patrick’s Cathedral- Christopher Chong, Justin Roach, Lucius Seo

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“There exists in this era, for thoughts written in stone, a privilege absolutely comparable to our current freedom of the press. It is the freedom of architecture.”

-Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris

Some people say that the cathedral is built large so that we can feel the great distance between God and us. Some people say that the cathedral is built so beautifully to show the political power of the Catholic church. Some people say many things in front of the cathedral, watching the edifice in fear, like the way the Romans would mutter their quibbles at profanum, lurking around the boundary between what they hope to be sacred and what they hope to be vulgar.

Cathedral tells a story. It is not built magnificent to drive away people who, as Socrates would put it, speak as they do in the marketplace. Back in the time when not everyone had the privilege to learn, cathedral was a great building which told stories to the illiterates. It is an experiment ground on which many things can happen; the very first of all civil rights movements and one of the greatest petitions for freedom.

The beauty of all cathedrals that broke the boundary between the vulgar and sacred, common and noble, rich and poor, is also seen in the story of St. Patrick. Although he was once captured and enslaved in Ireland, he chose to come back to the so-called barbarians. He did not force the people into belief through violence; he took the shamrock, which was a sacred plant to the people who lived there, and explained the concept of Trinity.

St. Patrick's Cathedral 2St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in that sense, is exemplary. It was a shelter for the Catholics in New York. Its foundation is the same as that of America: freedom, equality, coexistence, harmony, and all traits thought to be admirable and American. The true art of St. Patrick’s Cathedral is not from the aesthetics, but from the value and motive, which still lives today.

Taking a look at the Cathedral’s architecture, the building has a neo-Gothic style structure. The Cathedral started it’s construction in 1858, but didn’t finish building until 1878, which was in part due to the Civil War. Today, the church is open to public visits daily, except when mass is being held. It is located on 5th avenue, between 50th and 51st street at the heart of Midtown Manhattan.

We really believe that a visit to St. Patrick’s is worth anyone’s time. Currently it is under a massive 5-year renovation project, but it is still open. If you ever take a stroll through midtown and have the time, do go visit.

 

~Christopher Chong, Justin Roach, Lucius Seo

St. Luke the Magnificent, Plus Crazy Guy

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Ahhh, where shall I start?

I was anticipating that this night would be a great night. It definitely was. Like Pun, this is my first time stepping into the Carnegie Hall. I couldn’t stop looking around at the architecture of the place. The architecture was simple, everything was very smooth and rounded, and surprisingly I didn’t see a fancy chandelier hanging down from the middle of the hall. This all adds up and concurs with the fact that Carnegie Hall has one of best acoustics of any halls. It was probably one of the nicest halls I’ve seen as well. Even with seats up in the balcony everything sounded very crystal clear 🙂

On to the pieces: I think all the performances were executed very well, though I personally preferred the first half of the performance prior to the intermission.

Henry Purcell’s Suite from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Appetizer! What a great way to start! The pieces were very hip and flow very nicely for me. It reminds me of the Bach Invention pieces. In those pieces, the right hand would usually play a part, and the left hand would play the same part after the right hand stopped while the right hand accompanied, and so on. It has a back and forth feel, and thats how I felt when I heard the Purcell piece. I especially like these two, i-I and ii-VII. Here is the full suite for the orchestra:

And here is ii-VII:

Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest, Op. 18: This piece was probably the main course! Tchaikovsky was extremely talented in creating this piece, and it was executed very well by our conductor Pablo Heras-Casado! I especially enjoyed the sudden soft and loudness of the piece, which makes me feel very calm one minute, while alert the next! I was especially attention to the violinist, who’s bow was flickering at the speed of light at one point in the piece. This piece reminded me another piece that I enjoy hearing as well, Robert W. Smith’s The Divine Comedy: I. Inferno. This piece is based on Dante’s Inferno, and creates a auditory stimuli through how Dante perceived hell was like. Here is a performance of the piece (this is played by a band, not an orchestra):

 

 

Luigi Dallapiccola’s Piccola Musica Notturna: I don’t really have much to say. The piece was executed fine, but I didn’t feel that this piece was as rich as the others, especially the first 2.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60: I don’t know how I feel about this piece. The sing along part was definitely a plus, plus the ending was probably the best part about this piece. I guess this piece was the long and fulfilling dessert the finished the course of dinner!

Ahh, how can we forget, crazy man in front of the hall.

Just when we thought the night was over, a random man, presumably drunk, approached us and started talking to me. No fear, the guy just was trying to make new friends, gave me a fist pound, and talk about the cops of Connecticut, some cause and affect, and murmured some other stuff. Thanks for the reassurance guys LOL

And then, diner after diner, time for some diner food! 😀

 

~Christopher Chong

Carnegie and Me

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I don’t know if it is just me, but I am really looking forward to the upcoming performance at Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall is known for its prestigious nature in the classical music and performance world. I’ve never actually been there before, but as a pianist, I know that it is a place where all musicians strive to be and play one day.

Carnegie Hall was named after Andrew Carnegie, the steel guy who’s worth billions in the turn of the 20th century. He was a philanthropist who in turned gave money to build buildings like Carnegie Hall, raise money for universities like Carnegie Mellon University, and much more.

Fingers cross for this Thursday! Looking forward to it!

 

~Christopher Chong

BAM BAM Six Characters in Chaos

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Professor Drabik asked us if we hated her.

The play itself was, in all honesty, very confusing, but thanks to a brief explanation by the awesome Nabila on the 4 train afterwards, everything seemed to fit itself perfectly.

I didn’t pick up the story until the actors started to mimic the characters. The French itself was probably the biggest barrier for most of us in understanding the story, but I liked it in French. I was able to understand the basics and even predict what they were going to say. Haha, Angelika and I were speaking french before we entered the theatre.

On the performance itself: The performance was on the idea of reality vs fiction. When the boy killed himself and the little girl drowned herself, was that all real? All the “characters” disappeared at the end, was this whole thing all just fictional? The show ended kind of abruptly, and I really wasn’t expecting that. I guess the cliff-hanger was the best part of the show- it is left to the viewers discretion to decide whether it was real or not, just like how the director doesn’t know, and had to call of the rehearsal.

To answer Professor Drabik’s question, we definitely don’t hate you. The performance may have gather some negative critiques from the class, but we are not entitled to like everything. If anything, we still appreciate you taking us to these performances that we probably had never heard of, and chances are, might not get the chance to go again! 🙂

 

~Christopher Chong

 

P.S. I wished the subtitles were like the ones at the Lincoln Center Met Opera House, because it was kind of hard to follow both the performance and the subtitles.

Dancing with the Stars

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I am not a dancer. I cannot dance, never been to any dance concerts, never had an interest in dance, definitely cannot critique dance.

Going to the Fall For Dance event at the City Center was probably the first time going to a dance event. Not going to lie, I didn’t want to go. I thought it was going to be pretty boring and well I guess I had the same attitude I did for the opera.

There is a first time for everything, and I guess my judgement has been wrong. I actually thought the first dance was pretty messy, as I had responded in Joshua’s post. I felt like I couldn’t follow everyone.

The second dance, the ballet, made me want to fall asleep. I’m sorry if that got anyone mad, but I guess I just didn’t really like ballet and that.

But wait.

It gets better.

Post intermission was when everything went wild. Absolutely loved Sebastian Ramirez and Honji Wang’s performance. I was totally not expecting that. It was actually a little ambiguous at first, the performance was so good between the two. A few of us even got to take pictures with the stars of the performance after the show (Check Chloe’s post out!).

The last performance was even more unexpected. It went from one man just doing his dance moves, to a group of people dancing with the guy at the end not conforming. I guess they were trying to get the point across, conformity is not always the case, the best (Could that be why the first one i felt was messy?) The best part was when they started to pull people up to dance in the front, and we all thought that the girl in the plaid shirt was our very own Sam! 🙂

In any case, the night turned out to be great and after pictures with Ramirez and Wang, it was Halal Guys! Like Erica said, go to the iconic 53rd and 6th, “it is all part of the New York experience!”

 

~Christopher Chong

High Line, Cloud Nine

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This picture was not taken on October 11th, 2014. It was taken on September 23rd, 2014.

The day was gloomy, and instead I decided to choose another picture I took that was still within the time period of this class.

I invited a friend from Hunter College to explore the many places of NYC with me, and the two of us found our way to the place in the picture above.  They say that you are not a “true” New Yorker until you have encounter yourself with this place, The High Line. The two of us held Starbucks as we walked from Hunter’s Brookdale Campus on the East side to the High Line on the west side, traveling for about 30 minutes on 23rd street.

The picture above was taken at the newest section of The High Line Park, which opened just two days before (9/21). I wanted to choose an interesting photo that has a very interesting point of view. This photo is taken from the perspective that we often don’t think much of, looking from one track and see it as it leads to somewhere. In this picture, the convergence of the two sides of a track makes the picture “come together”. I also wasn’t really trying to take the pictures of the mother/daughter in the background, but it definitely made the picture tell a story behind. Happy day for those two! The mother holding on to the daughter as she carefully walks on the track, attempting not to fall. The photo gives me a sense of warmth and it seems like there is always happiness down the road.

 

~Christopher Chong

American Journey

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Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Taking pictures is an art, and like Robert said, you need passion AND purpose.

The documentary presented us a guy who went around and took pictures of what he saw. What I probably liked most about his photos were its complete randomness. Robert took pictures that ranged from the flag with the boy in it, to outside his hotel at Butte. And to compile it into a book and called “The Americans”, Robert Frank had to have a lot of guts, because like they said in the movie, Americans got very defensive about it. It showed the “American Dream” and the “American Nightmare”. I truly admire Seclier for taking the time to follow the footsteps and piece back everything. It is rather a tough task.

For some reason this film kind of reminded me of the book “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer. It follows the journey of a man who took a journey across America. Anyone else think this?

 

~Christopher Chong

O is for Opera

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To say that seeing this opera was an eyeopener would be an understatement. Who knew an opera was going to be this intriguing?

This actually is not the first time I’ve come to the Met Opera House here at Lincoln Center. I remember taking a tour here at the opera house in 9th grade when we had a tour of the place. Who knew I would be back again some 4 years later to actually witness an opera!

The word opera never meant much for me. I mean, if you were to ask me to give you a word that begins with the letter “o”, the first word to come to mind with probably be orange or Oreo or something, and I don’t even think I would ever say the word opera before saying Oprah, LOL.

But last week Thursday, September 25th, was a complete 360 for me. I came with the attitude that it would just be snobby rich affluent people watching a four hour show that I would have absolutely no interest on whatsoever.

I was wrong.

Well, there probably were some snobby rich people, but I saw very diverse people there as well. People came from all over the world to see these performances.

And the best part was, I enjoyed the opera. At intermission I just couldn’t believe what I just saw, and there was more after that.

The best part of the opera was probably the fact that it was not in English. It forced me to try to go along with the people who are performing. The subtitles definitely helped, but I felt that I could probably follow along a bit even without the subtitles.

Mozart, I have to give it to you for the music. You, my friend, are a savant. A true talent.

~Christopher Chong

Keep Spinning, World- Reactions to LTGWS

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It’s kind of intriguing to see how the World Trade Center has such an effect on people in the last half of the century. From the time construction started in 1968, to its opening in 1973, to its tragic incident in 2001, and even extending to now in 2014, and to the future, World Trade Center is and will always be a symbolic representation of New York. This thought really hit me while I was on the E train today, one that was bound for none other than World Trade Center.

My Japanese class made 1000 cranes and attached it to one of the trees in the 9/11 Memorial. The 1000 cranes symbolizes hope. (March 8th, 2014)

Upon finishing Let The Great World Spin, I’m really disappointed- disappointed at the fact that it had to end. I started off with an indifferent attitude to it, since it just felt like a lost piece of novel. I didn’t understand what anybody had to do with each other. It was like a puzzle, with pieces fitting in as the novel progresses, jumping between different people’s viewpoint. It really shows what a small world we live in. I guess the whole “Six Degrees of Separation” thing is true!

In the story, World Trade Center acted as a reference point for everything. So does our lives today as New Yorkers. It symbolizes that even though we were attacked in 2001, we didn’t give up. We get up, rebuild, and are stronger than before. I guess the “world” can mean the World Trade Center in Let the Great World Spin (play on words, doesn’t mean that of course).

~Christopher Chong

Reactions to Man on Wire

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Damn. If I had the talent to walk on wire/cable at even 10 floors above ground level, I wouldn’t be here composing this post right now.

Philippe Petit is probably one of those guys where you just don’t have the correct adjective to describe him. Crazy? Brave? Idiotic? Heroic? To perfectly plot this whole event, and not get caught is definitely an incredible feat. I mean, he wasn’t at the 10th floor, the 20th floor, but the 110th floor. What could’ve possibly been going through his mind?

What I probably most liked about the documentary was the fact that it seemed to made me feel like I was in the moment, especially when they were describing how they almost got caught and stuff. If Petit’s timing was not correct, August 7th, 1974 might’ve just been another ordinary day for all of us, and the prisons might just have an extra guy in there.

However, in exchange for his fame and glory, Petit lost his friends, lost the love of his life, lost everything he had had before August 7th, all because of the 45 mins on the top of the World Trade Center towers. I mean, I don’t know if that’s worth it.

~Christopher Chong

About Me, Christopher Chong

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One of my closest friends, my Japanese teacher, and me on Graduation Day!

你好! That means “hello” in Chinese, pronounced as “ni hao.” My name is Christopher Chong, and I would like to introduce myself to everyone. Probably the most unique thing I can bring to our table is that I was born in British Hong Kong. Why do I say British? Well I was born on June 28th 1996, 1 year and 3 days before the return of Hong Kong back to China, and so at the time I was born I am technically a British subject. I even had a BNO (British National Overseas) passport when I was born! However, I don’t consider myself British, but rather, I am Chinese. I have lived the first 9 years of my life in Hong Kong, being raised with Cantonese as my primary language, with Mandarin and English as close second languages.I am fluent in all three languages, so if you want to learn how to say anything in Cantonese and Mandarin, I’ll be glad to help!

Airplanes!!

I came to New York when I was 9 years old, and I have reside in Long Island since then, in a town called Valley Stream, about 15 mins east of JFK Airport. The transition is hard to describe, but I eventually got use to it. I attended Valley Stream Central High School for my last 3 years of high school, and graduated as the valedictorian of my class. Giving a speech in front of some 2000 people is quite tough, but I made it.

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My Japanese host family and host students!!

I currently reside in The Towers, where I have made lots of new friends and hope to meet many more. I am a Physics major, which was primarily inspired by my AP Physics teacher as well as Dr. Michio Kaku, who teaches here at CCNY! How exciting is that! Hopefully I get to be in a class that he teaches. Although I am a physics major, I aspire to become a commercial pilot, and since I was young I had a interest in airplanes. I had motion sickness on airplanes before, but I have learned over the years to somehow suppress that, and I really want to fly airplanes! I love dealing with the instruments and the challenge to navigate an aircraft, plus I love traveling. To name a few, I have traveled to Hong Kong (obviously), Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou in China, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Yokohama in Japan, Seoul in South Korea, etc. Other stuff that I like to do include playing piano, swimming, badminton, tennis, trying all sorts of new food. I like listening to K-pop music, and watching Asian TV shows.

The Fifth Solvay Conference, 1927 (Basically a bunch of scientist and physics professors)

Well, that’s me. Feel free to ask me anything!