a very very intensive week of interviews just ended, with 8 interviews in 5 days.

I shared a very interesting time with artists, intellectuals, environmentalists, activists, and a magazine editor, talking about culture, identity, generations and, of course, city life. Is Beijing giving space to creativity and self?

I’ve been particularly impressed by d a i Q i n g, an old activit who likes to define herself as a trouble maker. and indeed, she’s been jailed in the past. but she’s so positive and full of energy! I really admire such kind of people, who dare talking loud. another very interesting interview was with Benjamin, a well known manhua author. Maybe more that others, manhua authors need to observe city and society, and Benjamin has a very sensitive, acute sense of what is going on. He is definitely quite negative, but he has a sharp way of experiencing and looking at things. A Japanese friend of mine used to characterize some people as “pure”, a word that I always felt kind of weird. I don’t think I could really understand his meaning back then, but now I would certainly define benjamin as pure – he’s just following his way and doesn’t pretend to be anything else than what he just is.