juliana ong

By the Song dynasty (960 – 1279), the spiritual essence of fishing became deeply intertwined with Daoist philosophy, particularly the concept of Wu Wei (无为), or “non-action.” Rather than passivity, it advocates for effortless action, aligning with the natural flow of the universe instead of forcing outcomes through struggle.

“Ancient Chinese literati didn’t fish to eat,” says Cao, echoing the classic wisdom. “They fished to cultivate patience, to observe nature’s rhythms, and to achieve that perfect balance between action and inaction.”

In short: The first half of the twentieth century was about mastering the physical world, the first half of the twenty-first has been about escaping it.

This shift has moral as well as economic consequences. When a society pushes its citizens to take only financial risks, it hollows out the virtues that once made collective life possible: trust,... See more

Since Freud, psychologists have distinguished between theories of autoplastic and alloplastic change. With autoplastic change, the problem is the patient, and the patient must first improve himself. With alloplastic adaptation, the problem is the environment, and the subject should change his surroundings.

“Are your opinions your own or are they borrowed, without thought or scrutiny, as you have been too lazy to form your own?”

There is a new buzzword in marketing, advertising, and generally anything business-related in China, “活人感” (lit. sense of the living). It is a mix of brand personality and a pushback against the “dead internet theory”.

People who value choices over happiness never argue about it. They are proud of it. People who value happiness over having a life full of interesting opportunities get indignant over being accused that they made that choice.

In an age that rewards optimisation, Eros acts as an insurgency. It’s what happens when you stop tracking your steps and start noticing where you are actually walking to.

In both myth and theory, Eros is the same force: the spark that brings aliveness out of inertia. To live erotically is to stay attuned to that rhythm, to let the energy that animates the world also animate you. But that kind of vitality resists management, which is precisely why the modern world fears it.