1. (Hong Kong)

She who is only 29, beautiful but unmarried, works two and a half jobs to meet ends for her mother and sister, is diagnosed with stage III cancer. Struggling to pay for her treatments, she is practically taking out rice from her families’ bowls.

While that happens, I dared to feel sometimes unsatisfied about my life just because I did not get what I wanted. The truth is, I didn’t even deserve to get what I already have, and I knew it.

2. (Tanzania)

Those millions of children whom were born without access to clean water, nutritious food, education and other basic rights are crying in vain, while we are talking about modern minimal design, artistic symbolisms and architectural poetry.

Naturally, we have all learned to accept the things we cannot change, haven’t we? These are the things we can’t change, aren’t they?

3. (Yunnan)

Everyday, out of disgust, many of us cut & throw away one of the most valuable resource in the animal world – body fat. We were in Yunnan that year, my Dad, Kelvin, Ting and I, and we were offered by the villagers the best of the food – a piece of smoked pork fat straight up. The skin was chewy and inside liquidy – like a ziplock filled with pork fat. We tried our best not to throw up. We have came so far in acquiring material wealth, that we are so naturally disgusted by ‘too much’.

It has also become OK to not finish the food you ordered if you don’t want to. After three years of lonely practice, I have been invited back into the club.

4. (Tokyo)

Strumming my guitar, singing Blowin’ in the Wind in the leftover space between the old and the new facade of our guest house, a tiny thread in the back of my head led me to the time when I used to be a Boy Scout. My dad would pick me up at the end of the session, and as he drove home he’d play English folk songs (it was a privilege to have a CD changer in the car back in those days), and ask me to try understand the lyrics. We’d listen to Bob Dylon, Simon and Garfunkel, Carpenters, Brothers Four, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Phantom of the Opera), Peter, Paul & Mary……

And just now I realized where my obsession with lyrics came from.

I remember the time when dinning at home was the most boring thing you could do for a Friday evening. And that didn’t seem so long ago at all.

Last Friday, when I was able to get off work rather early (8:30pm), all I wanted to do is to go to the supermarket on the way home, buy a pack of Saba (鲭鱼) for less than ¥400, cook a lot of rice in the slowest rice cooker I have ever used (even in its express mode), and toast my fish to perfection with browned, crispy skin. A touch of Cupie mayonnaise sprinkled with pepper sealed the deal. I felt far more content with this meal than some that I have paid many times its price.

And then, talking with friends, learning languages, watching a movie, they all were just what I needed. I would’ve instinctively described this whole dinner as a 家常便饭 in Chinese, literally “Home-Common-Casual-Rice”, except that I would realize that it wasn’t so common afterall.

In one of Kengo Kuma’s essays ‘Weak Architecture’(弱い建築）he discussed his sensibility to materials. He likes materials that are weak, and when weak things come together in harmony, they form an equilibrium that is in many ways stronger than what we have come to understand as strong in today’s society. He also compared these ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ elements to audio, that ‘the intrusion of a loud voice can make whispers inaudible.’

Hasn’t the construction of our society been so loud that we have long lost the sensitivity to hear the whispers of nature? How about the loud dogma that drowns the inner voices of our hearts? Strength, so it seems, is only our escape from the knowledge of our weaknesses, not a solution.

In the quietest of evenings, I realized what I heard was the whisper of happiness.

今天，突然想起小时候学的一个成语：刻舟求劍。

又想，会了这个成语都十多年差不多二十年了，究竟用过了一次没有？想不起来，大概是没有。

再想，在日常生活里面，到底有谁会苯到犯上这样愚蠢的错误呢？

正好，今天朋友见到一个美女在咖啡贩卖机旁边徘徊。朋友是要去买咖啡的，跟那位女士目光交流了一下。还是没鼓起了勇气。只是在心里刻了一下舟，期望下次可以再见。

或是我自己，还有一点青春，一点梦想，看着公司里面做得筋疲力尽的年轻人，每天两餐是从公司逃出来吃的，到晚上十一点以后才回家，或更甚，不免会想知道我们到底是为了什么如此的消耗着青春，牺牲着跟重要的人在一起的时间。是为了未来的幸福吗？是为了家人的快乐吗？我们其实会不会都正在愚昧地刻着这时间的舟呢？

2009年，奈良東大寺。中间一块意为「祈求每天可以带着笑容，幸福地跟重要的人一起生活」

“Buildings of this technological age aim at ageless perfection and do not incorporate the unavoidable and mentally significant processes of aging. This fear of the traces of wear and age is related to the fear of death.”

–Juhani Pallasmaa, Eyes of the Skin

Inside the studio there was not a hint of a ‘special’ day. It was not until I met my friend Stephanie for lunch and she said to me ‘Happy Easter!’, that I realized it was that day again.

Remember back in kindergarten and primary school, we would celebrate the day by decorating eggs and what not. Then in middle school we were forced to listen to story of pure myths told as truth. Of course, for someone as areligious as me, there was really nothing much to celebrate for, except, my first 3D print was done, and, just so happens, Jielu had a basket that I borrowed to carry my goods back up to my studio desk.

Beth reminded me not to put all my eggs in one basket. I ignored the advice, trusting that my luck is more reliable than wisdom. Well, they arrived safely at my desk, ready to be assembled soon into the final model of the final project of my first year at the GSD.

And here:

‘Happy Easter’, to those who still cares :-)

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, four days from review, I read the book* The Language and Medium of Architecture by Moshe Safdie.

The book is a mere 30 page read but in it a world of condensed thoughts. I would like to share with you the last four paragraphs of the book, assuming that many of you would not find the time or care to read the whole.

“To be sure, the world has always been filled with injustice. Nevertheless, from time immemorial, most human building activity has been directed toward creating and searching for the Garden of Paradise. In my own work I feel committed to this search for serenity, to seek out the dignity of man—the Greeks’ antithesis to hubris—in a search for honor, rispetto and filotimo.

“In the end, I return to the idea of being entrusted with the design for a school. When one thinks of a school, one thinks of education and learning, and of well-being—all found within a wholesome environment. I find myself wondering, Why do we not dare today to use the word happiness?

“In 1982, I concluded my book Form and Purpose with a poem I wrote that summarized my thoughts at the time:

He who seeks truth shall find beauty;
He who seeks beauty shall find vanity.
He who seeks order shall find gratification;
He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed.
He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings
shall find the joy of self-expression.
He who seeks self-expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance.
Arrogance is incompatible with nature.
Through nature, the nature of the universe and the nature of man,
we shall seek truth.
If we seek truth, we shall find beauty.

“I should have realized then to leave the writing to the writers. Oscar Wilde said it more succinctly: ‘I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.’

*Borrowed from the generous Jenny Lee.

So here it is, the 40 dollars New Year’s Blessing delivery. 23 Recipients total between me and Jielu (15 for me, some hand delivered).

I regret that we weren’t able to produce more of these cards but I swear I would’ve liked to include at least 10-20 more people into this list. Now if you DO get one from me, you know that you’re very special. OK?

The three places where I spent most of my day.

My father always told me about this 20/80 rule: one should always use 80% of one’s time and energy to work on 20% of his/her (most important) tasks, and the rest of the 20% of time and energy for the rest of the 80% of less important tasks.

In the coming four years, I’ll likely be able to attend less than 20% of all the lectures and enroll into less than 20% of the classes offered.

Today, my first studio at GSD begins. The expectation that it will take up at least 80% of my time and energy, leaving at most 20% for all the rest of my needs – maintenance of health and friendships, enjoyment of sports and food, pursuit of love and intimacy – leads to the only option of giving up some of those needs.

Which ones should that be?

Refurbished iMac 27-inch 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7