Liberating ourselves by segregating ourselves

Back in junior high school when I was unknowingly suffocating from living a double-layered monolithic life in a Japanese (layer 1) suburban (layer 2) area, I was thunderstruck during the sociology class by reading in the textbook about the mythical diverse culture...

Art is about seeing things in a different way

I used to define art only as a creative activity and as a counterpart to design. The following had for years been my definition of art and design: If you create something because you simply want to or have to, you are making a piece of art. If you have a purpose more...

Why Staying Underground for a Week Helps Us

I spent the Chinese new year holidays underground. It was a Buddhist retreat, but instead of staying high up on a mountain or out there on a beach, we spent nearly a whole week inside a facility.What do we do in a retreat? It's not like we collectively sit in the...