Beyond Academia

🎼 Music

I am a mediocre drummer. I have played for the UW Chinese Orchestra Club (滑铁卢大学民乐社) and With Respect to Time (the University of Waterloo’s Engineering Jazz Band) during my PhD.

I enjoy listening to music a lot and appreciate most genres. Here are some of my favorite musicians and bands that you may find interesting.

• Jazz: Aaron Parks, Keith Jarrett, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Art Blakey, 上原 ひろみ, Buddy Rich
• Rock: Pink Floyd, 万能青年旅店, Queen, 惘闻, 伍佰 & China Blue, Shanghai Qiutian, 老王樂隊, 五条人, The Cranberries, King Crimson, The Beatles, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 縱貫線 SuperBand
• Folk: 安溥, 朴树, 林生祥
• Electronic: 坂本 龍一
• Classical: Frederic Chapin, Ólafur Arnalds, 朗朗
• Fusion: 福禄寿 FloruitShow, 行草 Grass Walkers, Yanni

📚 Books

Reading is an important part of my life, or rather, it breathes more lives into this one. I like how Harold Bloom talked about reading in How to Read and Why, saying that reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can offer, through returning oneself to otherness and as such alleviating loneliness.

Here are some of my favourite books:

Novels

• 红楼梦 by 曹雪芹
• The Master and Margarita by Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• The Castle by Franz Kafka

Short Stories

• South Highway by Julio Cortázar
• Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
• 地獄変 by 芥川 龍之介

⚽ Sports

I have always loved playing soccer, but sadly, I got seriously injuired in an intramural game in the summer of 2024. Hopefully I will be able to play again soon. Besides, I am a big Liverpool fan.