Reflections on 10 days in India

I wrote a very short email to a good friend soon after my trip to India; I now find myself referencing it to jog my memory. I should have recapped on this 10-day experience sooner, as I find my impressions and reflectiveness on the experience slipping away. I’ll avoid any details of planning or site […]

Flickr uploads from Yunnan Province

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season :) The recent few days of public holiday in Hong Kong have been rather nice for the Christmas season. As a result, I’ve finally had the chance to do some end-of-the-year cleaning of photos. And I’ve gotten around to editing photos from all the way back in […]

flickr uploads: food

Just a short note and update, since I don’t have internet set up at the new apartment yet! I’ll be uploading all food photos posted on my blog into a flickr album: Enjoy the archive here! And some photos previously posted from this summer below: 我只写一个短post因为在我新家还不能上网。现在我开始关于食品的照片会在flickr。 让你们看看 :)

flickr uploads: Suzhou and Zhouzhuang (苏州和周庄)

Suzhou, known as the Venice of China is famous for its canals (many of which have now been filled in), but there are also many smaller towns around Suzhou also built on the canal system. Zhouzhuang is on of them. A true tourist destination, having to pay RMB$100 to even enter the town as a […]

flickr uploads: Hangzhou and West Lake (西湖, 杭州)

Definitely one of my favorite trips: Our trip to Hangzhou was oddly perfectly (un)planned… trying to save money on one nights lodging, we decided to take a slow train (7 hrs) and get sleepers on the train instead of taking the typical 3 hour ride from Nanjing to Hangzhou. We arrived Hangzhou at 4:30am… just […]

flickr uploads: Nanjing (南京)

Back in May, I mentioned taking a trip… and have finally uploaded photos! Nanjing was once China’s capital and from the visit to the lovely garden in the Presidential Palace to the Nanjing Massacre Museum there was a lot to take in for a short 2 day stay. Even when I’m in Beijing, I’m constantly […]

Flickr uploads: the Great Wall

During the long weekend of QingMing back in early April, I camped and hiked on the Great Wall (长城, Chángchéng) with schoolmates. Yup, camped. We stayed overnight in one of the barracks/watchtowers which is rented out by a local businessman from the Great Wall. He provided us with a delicious feast for dinner cooked by his wife, […]

happy lantern festival!

Signifying the end of Chinese New Year celebrations, the Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the new year. I headed over to Qianmen Street, south of Tienamen Square, to see crowds and crowds of people along with beautiful handmade lanterns and not so distant fireworks. See a few more of my photos on Flickr.

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Graphic Design: Paying Tribute to Hong Kong’s Markets

I haven’t blogged in so long, I don’t even know where to begin! I’m launching a new project on Kickstarter and here’s the Press Release: Paying Tribute to Hong Kong’s Markets with Graphic Design A unique poster series celebrates the disappearing street markets of Hong Kong A unique poster series celebrates the street markets of […]

Art of Print: an afternoon at Wai Che Printing Company

Back in August of this year, a RISD friend invited me to one of their alumni events here in Hong Kong. It was called “Word Jamming” at Wai Che Printing Company (伟志印务公司) — translation is “great aspiration printing company” — and we went to visit the old, Chinese print shop in Sheung Wan. At Wai […]

Packaging: the pull-tab of a chocolate bar

I’m impressed yet again by packaging for something as simple as a chocolate bar! Of course, it would be a Korean company to think of something clever like this… But is it ‘over-designed’? Did opening a chocolate bar really need such ‘innovation’ and rethinking? In reality, does adding this ‘simplification’ actually complicate the action of […]

Slick alcohol wet wipes

I’ve never seen wet wipes packaged like this before! And also never spent time to think of the possibility for improving such packaging received in restaurants. I’m liking the simplicity of this one found at a Japanese yakitori restaurant in Causeway Bay.

An encounter with reverse culture shock

I traveled back to the US for a few weeks this fall and had sincere encounters with reverse culture shock! I’ve been living abroad for over 2 1/2 years now (how time flies!). And it was over a year since I had been back to the US. I’m keeping this post straightforward — so here […]

bike sharing vs. bike sales

I saved notes for this post back in Sept 2010! Wow, I am so behind. Here’s a quick recap and a few thoughts: Beijing may not have bike sharing, but they sure sell bikes at very reasonable prices. At the beginning of the typical school year, September, I added 500RMB to my phone card at […]

[Homeland] by Asa Li

Check out this beautiful video and get a glimpse of the life, variety, and energy that is Hong Kong. It truly makes me love this place more and more :) Won’t you come visit?? Don’t forget to also watch the short clip of his homemade-dolly in action! [ Homeland ] – with my DIY motion-dolly […]

Take 5

The subway car I normally ride.

Another look at Beijing’s Hutongs

It’s been almost a year since I’ve left Beijing and I still think about how the city landscape was in such dramatic change while I was there, as I’m sure it still is. At that time I also met Jonah Kessel (via Twitter), who filmed a series of short videos for Asia Society, the first is titled “A Disappearing World.” […]

PMQ Render_Tiffany Wan Writer

Interview: Billy Tam of Thomas Chow Architects Limited

As you’re all aware, community involvement is core to our philosophy here at Design Museum Boston, and we’re not alone. As I dig and dive deeper into the design scene in Hong Kong, I’m learning that this idea and importance of community is becoming increasingly vital to the artists and designers in this financially driven […]

“Kinky Vicious”: an iPhone photo exhibit

A couple weeks ago I attended the photo exhibit by Liam Fitzpatrick, titled “Kinky Vicious”, showcasing his panoramic iPhone photos with a focus on Hong Kong’s harbor. The first exhibit of it’s kind, the pieces were entirely captured and edited on his iPhone 3GS. The imagery of shadows, contrast, and lighting were intriguing to say […]

HK Food Re-caps

I returned to HK yesterday from another trip to Xining, China… and looking forward to a pizza lunch in Central. It’s been a while since I’ve had American food (though it seems that’s all I write about)! This is just a quick update to share what I’ve been writing for VeggieWala. Check out a few things […]

亲爱的日记 (或亲爱的网络)

三月底的时候我用英文写了一个博客文章,让我想多了。现在我想试试用中文写一张。首先,不好意思,我非常长的时间没写(打)中文了!还有,这个主题自是过去年的印象,印象也对自己的想发,等等。好了,我试试开始! 很有意思啊,我写了英文张博客的时候是刚从青海省西宁市回香港的。我现在写这张,也在西宁了!太重合了!:)

Dear Diary (aka the interwebs)

**The following is a bit of self-reflection, ranting, sentimental thinking, and whatever else is in my train of thought. You’ve been warned.** A year has passed. I’m a year older. And I’ve moved to another city. A lot happens in one year. A friend passed. Old friendships continue to grow, other friends have drifted, and […]

Hong Kong brings World Peace

Recently, I’ve actually been eating a lot of humus! Haha, proof with the newest snippet of my contribution to VeggieWala: I recently took another trip to Hong Kong and encountered a pleasant and tranquil surprise. In the middle of one of the world’s most international financial capitals and densely populated cities is The World Peace Cafe […]

TEDtalk: How Westerners can make sense of China (And some rambling)

Watch this 20 minute TEDtalk by Martin Jacques, which gives some wonderful insight into China and how Westerners can better understand China and its growth. Jacques identifies some key points of  Easterners being more knowledgable of the West because they have been forced to learn from these powerful, developed countries. In the time that I’ve been in […]

Lucky Bookstore, Shanghai

It’s a week into the Year of the Rabbit and I’m wishing everyone all the best for the new lunar year! To keep with the luck, perhaps a visit to the lucky bookstore is an order: Happy Chinese New Year! And there couldn’t be a more fitting way to be greeted into the year of […]