I’ve long said that I’m past the age of favourites. When I was younger, I had a favourite colour, number, food, and book. Picking something as an unqualified best is equally juvenile: best movie, book, number, restaurant, country, city, or friend. Perhaps I’m just fickle, and uncomfortable with a single…

I talk a big game. I portray myself as decisive, spontaneous, and true to my desires. But this past week, I made a decision that was anything but, and I hope it won’t haunt me in the future. Relax, this title is pure melodrama unless you get the basketball reference…

An opinion that has seized the millennial popular consciousness is that “traveling is not a personality trait”. Though it has logical roots, I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe that traveling is a personality trait, or at the very least lends to a list of easily attributable values and beliefs. …

Welcome to Lost in Translation, a collection of articles where I explore terms that don’t have simple translations in English. These terms might be personal to me or might be interesting simply because of the ideas they convey, but the question answered at the end of each piece is if…

This is a part of my series on pop culture. Part 1 can be read here. Herein lies the eternal paradox: any discussion of pop culture would be woefully incomplete without acknowledging the existence and importance of memes. On the other hand, any discussion of memes outside of a reference…

7/10: Good. Because there was nothing else that I wanted to watch on the plane. Longtime blog readers know that I fiend Asian American art. Perhaps it’s the only thing that I feel that I have a legitimate perspective on: not because I’m Asian American, but more so because the…

This is the second part of a series on pop culture. Part 1 can be read here. Pop gets a bad rap. The surest way to self-aggrandize and demonstrate purported taste is to criticize what everyone else likes. A reaction is all but guaranteed, and by the nature of popular…

Once upon a time, there were two ill-tempered elephants who lived in the jungle. They were the only two elephants in the jungle, both male and bristling with animosity and competitiveness. In this jungle, there were no tigers, no lions. These elephants were undoubtedly kings of this jungle, ruling capriciously…

Of late, I’ve felt a revival of interest in liberal arts and the classics in general: it seems I can’t go a month without reading an ardent defense of the classical college curriculum, and how it develops a well-rounded thinker in a way that no other regime can replicate throughout…