After leaving my home country of Taiwan at the age of 16, I spent many years traveling before
matriculating at Maastricht University as a mature student on the Arts and Culture program, of which I have just started my second year. I have visited over 60 countries in 5 continents. I have been chased by an orangutang, pounced on by a hyena, stalked by a stingray, I have trod on a crocodile, herded
goats, spooked a bear and been slapped by a colobus monkey (okay, one of these is not true...). Dr Johnson wrote that all judgements are comparative. Seeing different places and learning history has
given me a frame of reference against which I can make judgements about the subjects of my writings, judgements not made in comparison to an imagined ideal or future utopia, but rather to what is and has been extant.