This is my Lala Land

Goodbye 2011, you have been amazing to me!

Xiao Chen — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:51:48 +0000

On 30 December 2011 morning, I read a New York Times article about the urgency for our generation to get away from distractions, to slow down, to find time and space to think. The night of the very same day, I watched ‘Into The Wild’, a poignant movie about Alexander McCandles’ ‘Alaskan Odessey’, about his …

Sunday Musing

Xiao Chen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:03:02 +0000

Charlie Todd, the founder of ImprovEverywhere gave an entertaining, hilarious and refreshing talk about shared experience of absurdity. Be it the seventy synchronized dancers in storefront windows or the ‘ghostbusters’ running through the New York Public Library (he even staged a prank at his own wedding!), Todd shows us how he uses these public scenes …

Xiao Chen — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:41:47 +0000

My brother earns less than RM2000 a month as a fresh graduate in Malaysia. It’s peanuts, many would think. But upon receiving his first salary, he gave my mom RM600 to pay for his car installment, and another RM50 to my dad as allowance. Sometimes, one doesn’t have to look too far away for people …

Happy Birthday, Malaysia

Xiao Chen — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:39:12 +0000

Beneath those wrinkles and scars, etched not because of age, but a result of those who cannot overcome each other’s differences, you’re still beautiful. Remember me? The bright-eyed and bushy-tailed small town girl who used to believe in the dream of Wawasan 2020? Now she’s standing just a narrow strait away, in a foreign land …

The Debt Conundrum

Xiao Chen — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:08:29 +0000

Following the US raising debt ceiling negotiations was like watching an afternoon soap opera. After the prime-time drama in Washington and the House of Congress finally reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, there wasn’t even a pregnant pause to breathe a sigh of relief before Standard & Poor decided to downgrade the US credit …

Paris, Je T’Aime

Xiao Chen — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:23:40 +0000

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” – Ernest Hemingway Inside the small black Polo luggage Vikram was holding was few of my favorite dresses. As I stepped …

Noise and Time

Xiao Chen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:16:04 +0000

Even when the fall-season-like summer is coming to an end, I still occasionally wonder if my decision of taking three months off was completely decadent (when friends are either doing internships or building startups), especially when graduation is just less than half a year away. But every time when this doubt penetrates my mind, a soothing yet …

Previously in India

Xiao Chen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:50:19 +0000

“All influence is immoral – immoral from the scientific point of view. Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. …

My time with Aid India Part I: Conscience vs Adequacy

Xiao Chen — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:33:09 +0000

One of the most common questions I got when I first came back from India was, “Was your experience life changing?”. Not in these exact words, but the intent was more or less the same. To be honest, besides confirming the fact that I am indeed a crazy chick, there hasn’t been any epiphanies or …

The Crises of World Inc.

Xiao Chen — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:00:24 +0000

I still remember how excited I was when the first KFC opened in Rawang. It was as if the fast food chain was a symbol of validation, that our small town was worthy enough. Up until two years ago, I still cannot imagine how a non-capitalistic world will look like. Multi-national companies are flowering in our neighboring …