Constantly Asking.

不耻下问。

It’s difficult to call any one place home. So I say I was born in China, raised in the US, and humbled in South Africa. I can make a home anywhere because I have learned how to adapt. Living perpetually as an outsider has given me the gift of unending curiosity. In conversation, people like to ask where I’m really from, how I can speak Spanish, and how I came to know so much about African geography. I’ve learned over the years to ask the same of others. Constantly asking.

Constantly asking led me to journalism school at Northwestern University and later working as a reporter and TV producer. Constantly asking then led me to documentary film and online video production. Constantly asking took me to places I otherwise would never have been and led me to people I would never have met.

Most importantly, constantly asking has forced me to confront differences I would have never known. Differences between the South and North Sides of Chicago. Differences between Johannesburg’s townships and suburbs. Differences between rural and urban China. As an immigrant and expat, I have seen communities grow on solid foundations of mutual understanding. Yet far too often, I have seen communities tear apart at the seams of suspicion, fear, and misunderstanding. I constantly ask for their stories because I want to know why we divide and how we unite.