Welcome to this blog.
I’ve always enjoyed writing, but the endeavor has been less consistent and lonelier than I want it to be. Having failed in a few blog attempts before, I recently started this new one hoping to build a better space both to track and share my writing.
In terms of genre, I am a fan of creative nonfiction, which means I base my writing more on life experiences than imagined events, and I try to make it interesting. I’m also more comfortable with prose than poetry. But as my writing journey grows, experimenting with other genres is probably inevitable and healthy. I also believe that the deeper the writing goes into itself, the less it matters what box it could fit in.
I write mostly in Chinese and English. I switch between the two languages depending on my mood and what I think is suitable for a piece or who the intended reader is. I often get caught up by the question of which language to use. Knowing multiple languages, ironically, has been more of an obstacle than an advantage for my writing. To go beyond the language issue I try not to think too much about it now. Whatever possibilities or limitations my choice entails will unfold themselves with each piece.
What’s harder to pin down are the topics of my writing. They change as I grow, and from them I see where my attention goes in each period of my life. What seems to grab my interest now are issues of family, childhood, relationships, and psychology and spirituality. When living abroad I wrote more about cross-cultural experiences and travels. An ongoing topic of interest, which I don’t tackle directly but sometimes explore through writing, is how the individual and the collective, the inner and the outer, see themselves in each other.
I will continue to make changes and additions as I work with this space. In the meantime, please leave comments and feedback wherever you’d like. Hearing from people on writing — and the rich inner life that it tries to grasp — is one of the best things I can hope for.
Aria
Early 2020