I grew up in Karlsruhe, Germany. I still have some close friends and family in Karlsruhe and I feel at home whenever I go back to meet them. But I’m also local in Feldkirch in Austria. That’s where I used to work. Rituals such as Thursday night drinks at Bunt – my friends’ favorite bar – made my time there special. Today, I live and work in Shanghai, China. My parents grew up in China and many things remind me of my childhood here.

Where I feel local has a lot to do with work, studies, school or simply where my friends and family live. Today, my days are mostly determined by work – getting up and preparing for work, getting to and off work. 

I have often experienced racism in my life. Not in an open antagonistic way, but through much more subtle and skeptical means. People always try to put me in a box – a box they can clearly understand, a box that easily fits their known norms.

– Yuan