Peony

About me: I was born in 西湖村-- in the desert, in a suburb of LA. Educated (I use the term loosely) at Berkeley (BA: Philosophy) and Madison (MA: Japanese literature), I now reside in Japan where I work as a freelance Japanese<English translator and ocassional writer.

Before Japan, I spent time in Yogyakarta and Ubud studying dance. Nowadays, though, I have a fantasy of spending days on end in a labrinthine library （東洋文庫） with a man called Borges (he knows who he is). In addition to dance, I have had the opportunity (and great pleasure) to study Japanese tea ceremony and calligraphy.

Sometimes when I close my eyes before sleeping at night, I see the colors of the murals at Alchi-- and surrounded by these colors, I dream of taking a long trip with my baby from Ajanta to Dunhuang and then all the way across to Horyuji-- on the mural express.

Because it was the only place I have ever truly felt myself, I daydream of someday returning to Hong Kong and living out the rest of my days on Lantau. For now, I mainly travel through history books and paintings-- sometimes in bowls of tea. Remaining loyal to a Song dynasty emperor and to a philosopher in Berkeley who teaches Heidegger like he is writing persian love poetry, it is probably only a matter of time before I start drinking my booze out of a brown paper bag. And so I jot down things here to help me remember what I was thinking.  

For more about the blog: see this post Coming Alive in the Tang Dynasty. I've also collected some of my personal favorite posts in the Best Under Heaven category, which would be another good place to start reading.

Getting in touch with Peony: If you'd like to get in touch with me, the most direct method is leaving a comment. Comments are forwarded to my main email address and I won't publish any private correspondance. You can also email me at peony via this blog site (That email, however, is forwarded to an account I less frequently check).