Hey.
Zhongyi is my real name, but strangely enough, my guoyu hen cuo, wo geng xihuan guangdonghua!
I am an academic. I specialize in the general study of Asian Americans, but specifically right now Chinese Exclusion. I use a sort of quantitative historical methodology using relational databases to analyze data. I used to be a literary theorist, and I like Michel Foucault's work a lot. I used to like Marxist literary interpretation, but find it too mechanical; I like deconstruction but I think they are Taoists in new bottles, if you will; I suppose you could say I now like cultural studies and critical theory, without the jargon. I am a populist at heart.
While I have progressive politics, I suppose you could call me an old school Cantonese nationalist with some Confucian spiritual beliefs. My father's side of the family for the last eight or nine centuries has lived in Taishan, until of course 1949. For the last two generations, my family served in the armed forces of the Republic of China. My grandfather, raised on the remittances of laundrymen, was a blueshirt back in the day, and was political secretary of the Kuomintang in Taishan after WWII. My mother's side of the family has served the people of Hong Kong for several generations.
For the last six or more years, I was a dotcom veteran who worked in the no man's land between the creative and technology disciplines. I am a technology agnostic, and use both Unix and Microsoft technologies, as well as Macromedia and Adobe. I love graphic design.
Why, yes, I play the french horn, but my upper register sucks hella hard. That's G to C above staff.
I live, work, and play in Chicago Chinatown. As a South Sider, I like the Chicago White Sox.
I have been all over much of the first and second worlds. I still like Chicago the best.
I practice hung kuen, a Southern Chinese martial art tradition.