Tokyo is the Eastern Capital, a metropolis of mirages that has long enthralled and exasperated outside observers and residents alike.
As a Chinese American storyteller, Japan sits literally and figuratively between the homelands I claim. Perched in this liminal space, I’m using this platform to comment on the quotidian and to document my experiences of cultural forms.
This is less a newsletter about Japan, and more an interrogation of the physical and psychical elements that shape our worldviews and our notions of self and other—particularly in that murky space between America and East Asia.
I’m a PhD student at Waseda University and recovering New Yorker. A few of my recent essays can be found below:
“Worlds Within Worlds: Short Films Take the Stage at Sony Park Mini” for Tokyo Weekender
“Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Cinema of Stillness” for Tokyo Weekender
“Subaquatic Homesick Blues” for Public Books
I also write fiction, edit literary and cultural publications, and translate from Chinese to English. Feel free to drop me a line: maizi.fu [at] Gmail.
