Love Pillowbook top, Stefanel blazer, Nike sweatpants, Nike sneakers.

Every time I’m walking into a hutong, I feel like I’m back playing Pokemon on my Gameboy Color and Ash is walking along those grassy areas and eek! a wild Caterpie appears. Except in a hutong, it’s more likely to be an elderly Beijinger shouting at you for being, well, you.

Anyway. What I’m trying to say is that you always end up finding something magical and unexpected. Even the faint whisks of toxic smog add some charm to these walkways. Yep, I just made pollution #romantic.

These photos were shot by Irene the other day outside her Hutong studio. I’m wearing a dudou top from her label Pillowbook. You can read more about it in the interview I did with her here. Also since I’m not allowed to wear anything but sneakers for the next half year because of my damsel-in-distress of an ankle, I might as well join the sneakerwear bandwagon officially and cop some new stuff. In the meantime, here are my Nike Air Forces, falling apart and all.

I’m back home – back to where it all began, before I really started to grow into myself. I don’t think I’m myself 100% yet, but flipping to old blog posts where we shot in this exact same white space, I can feel the changes. And it excites me. Anyway, I’m leaving to Milan in a few short hours. Talk to you on the other side 😉

After a non-stop half a year in Beijing, travelling to Hong Kong (where I turned 22!), and last minute packing for my visit back home, I’m really ready for a month of re-centering and working on the next issue of KNEON. Besides detox and some quality bullying time with my sister planned, I really just want to roam two things: the pretty streets of Vienna, and the internet minus VPN. Hehe.

I haven’t been back in Vienna in almost half a year. It definitely feels different this time around, like I’m wearing a visitor’s pass. But this kind of works in my favor, because I’m ready to collaborate, meet new creative people and hustle on, with the comfort of mom’s cooking waiting for me at the end of each day.

Beijing’s a little ahead, so it’s already December 31st. I can’t believe this is the last of 2014. What are your plans? I’ll be celebrating it with some of my favorite people in Beijing tonight. Right now, I’m working on compiling a recap post… the last time I made one was back in 2011. Kind of funny how my aspirations and dreams haven’t changed since then. Am I still the same overly-ideallistic kid living in a world furnished by Tumblr? Whatever. Keep dreaming.