At age 10, I moved from a small county town to Chengdu
To be honest, I followed my mother to Chengdu because I loved food and wanted to eat KFC there, since our county town did not have one at the time. When my family held a meeting and asked whether I wanted to go to Chengdu with my mother or stay in the county town with my father, I pictured fragrant fried chicken and said I wanted to go to Chengdu.
At age 18, I moved to Changsha
I went to university and majored in Materials Science and Engineering. Although it was a Project 985 university, the quality of education disappointed me. At the same time, a breakup left me depressed. I really wanted to drop out, but my parents stopped me, so I forced myself to finish my bachelor’s degree.
At age 20, I moved to Dalian for a year
I went there as an exchange student. It was my first time living in northern China, and it took me a long time to overcome my mental block about using a public bathhouse. I was grateful to spend a year away from the environment that had made me depressed, and I was very happy there. It showed me just how important a change of environment can be for one’s mental well-being.
At age 24, I moved to Hong Kong
I went there for graduate school. To fulfill my dream of studying literature, I chose a literature program, then stayed and became a mainlander living in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I learned Cantonese and English, and my outlook on life, values, and views on love were all reshaped. I am deeply grateful to this city. If Chengdu is my first home, then Hong Kong is my second.
At age 31, I moved to Paris
I went there for a second master’s degree. To work remotely and settle abroad, I decided to switch to programming, then stayed and became an expat in France. With only a limited foundation in computer science and French, I went through many more bouts of culture shock here. Eventually, I slowly adapted to French culture—a culture that is both carefree and slow-paced.
Such a rootless first half of my life has made it inevitable that I am not someone who longs for stability. I know that a quiet, predictable life whose course can be seen at a glance is not for me. From another perspective, I have always been a passerby in this world, an outsider. No matter where I move, I never truly fit in. I simply do everything I can to experience, observe, and live.
I do not know where or how I will move in the future. Every time I relocate, it feels as though the cards of my life have been reshuffled, as if I were jumping between my own parallel universes. These leaps have also brought me many benefits: I feel free, I am not weighed down by many burdens, my friends are scattered across the world, I have opportunities to explore more possibilities, and I have become the person I wanted to be.