Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

In the day and age when the economic and international political power of a rising China is no longer doubted, the image of the country abroad has, at the same time, been declining steadily. While her economic freedom has increased, there is increasing criticism regarding a lack of a corresponding increase in political freedom. And what's more worrisome is the fact that the continued strict social controls are bound to make her proud export- and investment-led economic growth to ground to a halt as people get both wealthier and older in age.

My family rarely finds itself as a complete whole. With my attending school in Connecticut and London and running all over Asia-Pacific in between , and my father running his own research lab in Shanghai and attending conferences around the world, the family is often split up in three pieces, three countries, and even three continents. Its only so often that we can actually have family meal together, especially on my birthday. The rare coincidence called for a quick visit to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant on the eve of my birthday . Physically speaking, San Diego and US as a whole certainly has not changed much during my one-and-a-half-year absence. But just by going to a meal in the restaurant, the superficial sameness goes away, and much gloomy changes reveal themselves. Specifically, I can say after a single meal that the general economic conditions in the US, after that financial crisis of 2008 , has not gone back up (as some expected), but pretty much stayed the s

Let's be perfectly honest: since coming back from working full-time in Korea, I have been a complete lazy stay-at-home bum. After applying for UK visa for the second time after that heartbreaking first-time rejection , I have been doing little more than hanging out with friends, watching TV, and updating this blog. Ironically, I tend to write the best posts when I am stimulated by the many personal experiences I get traveling around the world , yet it is often times like now when I am not traveling (and thus have little to write about) that I have the most free time to do casual writing. And being unproductive is not the worst thing. Even after landing in American soil for more than a week now, I am still having trouble staying up beyond 10pm at night, and almost promptly wake up at 7am everyday without alarms or noises. And during the day, the constant tiresomeness, characterized by pains in the eyes and headaches fading in and out, just would not go away. Even the daily e

In the quiet confines of my room I welcome the addition of another year to my age. Without much fanfare (even less compared to the little I had last year in China ), but the quietness before the storms of a whole new episode in London is giving me just the environment needed to contemplate exactly what I want and need to do as a 23-year-old. In a year when the title of a new college should start to wear off, whole new characteristics and undertakings are definitely to be pursued and achieved. As wishes of happy birthday stream in from Japan and Korea (where it is already the 30th), I am slowly coming to the grip with the fact that I am turning a year older, and one more year closer to fully independent adulthood. Obviously, a few short paragraphs cannot detail all the little things I would like to do to complement my step forward toward that "full adulthood," but I would still like to at least summarize a few general directions I would like to pursue in my "New Ye

Walking on the streets of America after more than a year of absence from permanent residence, I cannot help but notice that many of the fashion trends prevalent during my years in high school and college have not changed much. In fact, if anything, the trends have been greatly intensified. For instance, the most noticeable one has been the affinity of the American youth toward loose-fitting pants that are pulled down to the level of their butts. After all these years the pants seem to have only gotten looser and the level of the pants' waist have become lower and lower. In contrast, the trends in Asia have moved in the opposite direction. The adherence to the American urban dress culture (loose jeans, decorated T-shirts, sneakers, etc) has been significantly altered along Asian tastes in the past few years. Jeans have been becoming noticeably tighter, T-shirts are becoming increasingly abandoned in favor of causal dress shirts, and the Asian love for black-rimmed glasses

Four years of economics courses at Yale has not prepared me for in-depth analysis of the global economic, not to mention financial, system. While Yale can be partially blamed the lack of technical knowledge she infused into her curriculum , it could be fairly said that no amount of so-called "economic expertise" can prepare one for the realization that the "expertise" is worth little in the constantly changing conditions of global economy. Especially with a global financial industry at its helm, the global economy becomes so volatile that no theory can last without constant revisions and updates. Despite sounding condescending, I must say that the controlling factors governing the future directions of economic health are just too complicated to understand for the average layperson. And after watching a documentary on the supposed causes of the 2008 financial crisis, such realization becomes more established and deeply rooted. "The Inside Job," as