In Writing and in Love, "Don't Play by Other People's Games"
This blog is about criticism. I have spent probably more than half of the blog scolding Japan to the very details of her people's attitude and daily life. At the same time, I have not forgotten to keep up a constant rate of fire on the often politically originated indecencies of Chinese mentalities. And do not even get me started on America. The arrogant attitudes of the American people is and will always be a subject of constant scorn. Add a few criticisms of the countries that I have briefly traveled to and even briefly lived and worked in, and out comes the perhaps the darkest, most unfriendly sounding blog on the entire cyberspace.
Many a faithful reader has questioned whether the incessant criticism really means something. As I mentioned from the very beginning of the blog's existence, I intend the blog to be something of a personal diary, a forum for my thought to be jotted down, along the same lines as wherever my mind decide to land at those very moments. And from the current criticism-filled contents, I suppose that one can extrapolate that I am just a very dark kind of a person, only capable of seeing the worst things in each place.
And it is the rationale that many people (and myself included) has used to justify why I can never get satisfied staying in one place for a long time. But such way of characterizing me is definitely oversimplifying who I am and what this blog is really about. First of all, there are plenty of positive things that I wrote about to balance out all the negative contents. Both the positive and the negative contents are indeed direct verbal reflections, without any modifications or reservations, of my firsthand observations.
And if anything, the content being mostly negative do show the ability of myself to see through what is mostly normal and functional in society and discuss those intricate details that can be improved...or perhaps that what most people consider as perfectly OK and even desirable as something totally wrong, unacceptable, and irrational result of mindless conformity and brilliant brainwashing from the top. If all such observations are indeed missing, then the blog really has no originality and purpose for continued existence.
Back when I was in Korea, a superior of mine always reminded me of staying true to who I am without falling for the desire of imitating the actions of others. He consistently told me to stay calm and "play by my own games" no matter how successful others seem to be. Indeed, there is absolutely no guarantee that the successful methods employed by others can be directly copied. Behavior is often highly relative to personality; without the right sort of combination, there cannot be good overall effects no matter how perfect either of the constituent part is considered to be.
At the time, he was referring to how one should approach girls, but the point also rings true for writing. Begging for readership is not that dissimilar to begging for romance. Both involves creating great first and lasting impressions through well-coordinated self-expressions. But according to him, both would even more depend upon the need for complete honesty, to stick to self-expression that include only genuine information and not any beautiful yet temporary flourishes meant only to be attention-grabbers.
Such integrity beyond on displaying only what is genuine is sometimes the most difficult task both lovers and writers have to face. At least as a writer, I am trying to strip my attitudes down to the bare basics, i.e. bringing in the pure criticisms without making any concerted effort to somehow hide my disgust. Yes, by writing in such a way, I would no doubt draw the anger of many different groups of people over a whole spectrum of completely unrelated issues, but if they cannot bear my honesty, perhaps they should not be reading my writing in the first place.
Writing, just like romance, is after all, foremost about expression of individuality, not seeking an audience. After showing one's true self to others, it is lucky if one can find an audience agreeable and mature enough to tolerate or even fall in love with oneself. But even if one does immediately find such a devote fellowship, it is not a big problem. Some day, somewhere, at least one such person will come along, and that is when all magic shall start...
Many a faithful reader has questioned whether the incessant criticism really means something. As I mentioned from the very beginning of the blog's existence, I intend the blog to be something of a personal diary, a forum for my thought to be jotted down, along the same lines as wherever my mind decide to land at those very moments. And from the current criticism-filled contents, I suppose that one can extrapolate that I am just a very dark kind of a person, only capable of seeing the worst things in each place.
And it is the rationale that many people (and myself included) has used to justify why I can never get satisfied staying in one place for a long time. But such way of characterizing me is definitely oversimplifying who I am and what this blog is really about. First of all, there are plenty of positive things that I wrote about to balance out all the negative contents. Both the positive and the negative contents are indeed direct verbal reflections, without any modifications or reservations, of my firsthand observations.
And if anything, the content being mostly negative do show the ability of myself to see through what is mostly normal and functional in society and discuss those intricate details that can be improved...or perhaps that what most people consider as perfectly OK and even desirable as something totally wrong, unacceptable, and irrational result of mindless conformity and brilliant brainwashing from the top. If all such observations are indeed missing, then the blog really has no originality and purpose for continued existence.
Back when I was in Korea, a superior of mine always reminded me of staying true to who I am without falling for the desire of imitating the actions of others. He consistently told me to stay calm and "play by my own games" no matter how successful others seem to be. Indeed, there is absolutely no guarantee that the successful methods employed by others can be directly copied. Behavior is often highly relative to personality; without the right sort of combination, there cannot be good overall effects no matter how perfect either of the constituent part is considered to be.
At the time, he was referring to how one should approach girls, but the point also rings true for writing. Begging for readership is not that dissimilar to begging for romance. Both involves creating great first and lasting impressions through well-coordinated self-expressions. But according to him, both would even more depend upon the need for complete honesty, to stick to self-expression that include only genuine information and not any beautiful yet temporary flourishes meant only to be attention-grabbers.
Such integrity beyond on displaying only what is genuine is sometimes the most difficult task both lovers and writers have to face. At least as a writer, I am trying to strip my attitudes down to the bare basics, i.e. bringing in the pure criticisms without making any concerted effort to somehow hide my disgust. Yes, by writing in such a way, I would no doubt draw the anger of many different groups of people over a whole spectrum of completely unrelated issues, but if they cannot bear my honesty, perhaps they should not be reading my writing in the first place.
Writing, just like romance, is after all, foremost about expression of individuality, not seeking an audience. After showing one's true self to others, it is lucky if one can find an audience agreeable and mature enough to tolerate or even fall in love with oneself. But even if one does immediately find such a devote fellowship, it is not a big problem. Some day, somewhere, at least one such person will come along, and that is when all magic shall start...
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