About

This is unpleasant. But it must be done.

I was a student for a long time. Then I was a lawyer, for quite a short time. I decided “It’s not for me” or that kind of thing. Running away? Or a higher calling? Who knows.

Now, secretly and not so secretly in parts, I have hatched a plan to go overseas and to become a writer of an award winning novel, or at least an entrepreneur who doesn’t have to sell the time God has been so liberal in allocating to me – so that I can write my award winning novel about something.

But let the above remain a secret for those who would exploit it.

I will write in third person now, as it is more comfortable for the subject matter:

Shanghai Jin comes from Shanghai. He grew up in Sydney. He will live in Tokyo soon. He can speak English, Chinese and Japanese. His favourite books are by Murakami, Graeme Green, Kurt Vonnegut, Proust, Borges and F Scott Fitzgerald. He acknowledges the unique and outmoded nature of this list, but asks the reader to note that he reads much during his days and nights from all the libraries of the world. He enjoys a myriad of topics, but he is far from a renaissance man. His pretences are only to being fashionable but different, and being cosmopolitan. He does not like the corporate world, but would like to run his own corporation in the future, for financial reasons only particularly if the novel does not win an award, or worse, it does not sell. He is fearless in the sense that he has been thrown about and brutalised by the world in the past and now cares little for the opinion of others and of officialdom and of what dire fate might befall one who does not fall in line, amor fati?

In his blog he likes to write about whatever he likes to write about, it is free play and some of the opinions expressed may not even be his because he believes men are extremely malleable.

He openly acknowledges a couple of things: He is more or less a human being, a human being is a faulty thing but we make do, we are doomed to die, loving is very nice but somehow not enough, Japanese people make the best green tea ice cream bar none.

At the moment he uses the following technology: Mac book Pro 2012 13″, Samsung galaxy 2, Nexus 7. His favourite brands are: Burberry, WANT les essentials de la vie, and Bottega Veneta. He does not like consumerism that much, but he believes that enough is enough, so he will wear his bottega’s into the ground someday, but at the moment he wears desert boots because they hide his cheap and questionable socks.

His favourite movies are those directed by Wes Anderson (The life aquatic) and Wong Kar Wei (2046), and Lost in Translation. He’s a bit soft in this regard. You will never catch him at a midnight screening of scream or psycho, or even ET.

His schedule is this: He wakes up, runs (he runs at least 5km a day) sits down answers emails (only twice a day) eats showers and then gets to work. He works until 5pm where he must either go out or go to work. He tries to sleep early, but it’s impossible.

After this period of his life he will probably go ride the tour de france as a spectator and then offer his time to an orphanage or some other humanitarian project in the poorer parts of asia or africa. This is because he believes that life is short, and a well-pampered life is boring, having grown up in a upper middle class suburb of Sydney, this is a strange thinking indeed, and is rooted in greed probably, greed for experience, time. Not money or things.

He can be contacted on this blog and welcomes any discussion on the following subjects: books, writing, culture, movies, art, business, technology, language, finance, law, fashion, cars, sports, love, food, music etc.  He is unconcerned, but not indifferent. He is not lonely, but by himself.