I was walking down the street the other day, you know, enjoying how the Scottish winds make me feel like Mulan in battle when, suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder, scaring the bubbles out of me. ‘Hey, I noticed your braids — do you like reggae?’ It was a guy around my age. I replied ‘No.’ with emphasis on the period, and power-walked on.

Today I want to dedicate this post to just telling you a bit about the history and background of my head-full of snakes, which I’ve been proudly sporting since May. And yes I’m aware I sound like a Stepford wife about to gloat about her recipe for The Perfect Pancake, but allow. It’s time to get #Braiducated.

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I’ve been waiting a while to write this post. In the last few years since starting university, I’ve thought about quitting blogging quite a few times. It just lost its appeal, mainly because, I admit, I cared too much about what others thought of me and I didn’t want to be known as this vain and superficial girl taking photos of herself the whole time. I had KNEON and photography and school, so I just always pushed blogging to the side.

In the last few months, however, I’ve rekindled a connection to this space, mainly because I now have a new direction in mind for my work and I just want to be able to curate it all into a space that makes sense visually. So I think it’s time for me to embrace change and rebrand the shit out of this little safe haven that has been my homepage since I was a 15-year-old noob.

The ‘Banana Finding Home’ story is quite a common one already, so I want to just take it up a notch and solely dedicate this site to documenting a brand new China I’ve gotten to know during this past year. I just want to introduce you to the beauty within the everyday chaos that I’ve seen every single day of living here, and the talented creatives without arrogance I’ve met who are pushing the boundaries on what is expected of the term “Made In China”.

I’ll be saying goodbye to China in a couple of days to head back to Vienna and then Edinburgh to finish my studies, but I want to continue this conversation that I started here, between the modern and the traditional, and between the East and West.

And, between one millennial to another, thank you for reading. I’ll talk to you soon in my next post, which I’ll be writing from good old Wien.

Love always, Vic

p.s. The braids are here to stay.

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.

I’m currently back in Vienna for one more day. Then off to New York for a good two months. This post introduces my first collaboration with GIF-master Hong Meow. She also runs a dope online store called Inu Inu that Tumblr princesses would divorce their Prince Charmings for.

gif by Hong Meow