Tammy Yu-Ting Chiang

江鈺婷

Author: Tammy Yu-Ting Chiang

  • book translation #10

    《當AI取得話語權，人類還剩下什麼？：以當代哲學與溝通理論探討AI的語言、意識與作者權威性問題》
    Communicative AI: A Critical Introduction to Large Language Models
    by Mark Coeckelbergh and David J. Gunkel

    “How has AI impacted your career?”
    “Um I translated a book about it…?”

    /

    My translation project baby #10 was officially born 🔔

    當所有產業都被AI大大影響，文字工作者更是開始深感飯碗被搶走⋯⋯？
    Reaching a sort of milestone with a book of this theme is actually prophetic, especially when it taps into the relationship between AI and authorship.

    /

    After having moved to Berlin at the end of 2024, I have attended several social events and met many new people. The first question I would get after them hearing that I’m a translator would 90% be: How has AI impacted your career? The topic of this book, needless to say, is very relevant to me, so when my editor asked me whether I was interested in this project, I said yes immediately – so that I can hopefully answer people’s question better.
    And honestly, the answer has been prominently evolving over the course of 2025, all the way to this point – the “impact” has been hitting harder and harder. In my localization projects, for example, my role has largely transformed from “translator” to “editor” who only post-edits machine translation. In fact, one of the biggest impacts I’ve experienced in the wake of AI is the change of mindsets of those who pay. Some would believe that machine translation would already suffice for their purposes and naturally cut the budget originally for human translators.

    /

    This book provides a critical introduction to LLMs and brings in philosophical, social and political perspectives – a nice interdisciplinary discussion on the topic of AI to bridge Humanities and IT. Knowing how LLMs fundamentally work sheds much light on the ethics with regard to AI usage.

    /

    Oh on a lighter note regarding AI – Austin and I were joking about how a contemporary love story could be titled “I Told ChatGPT About You” (in reference to I Told Sunset About You แปลรักฉันด้วยใจเธอ).

    /

    Just still trying to be the digital nomad I dream of in this economy 🥹

    • Peniche, Portugal, June 2025
    • Biel, Switzerland, August 2025
    • Berlin, Germany, September 2025
    • Bologna, Italy, October 2025
    • Helsinki, Finland, October 2025
    • Dahab, Egypt, November 2025
  • I Can’t Even Keep Track of Where I Am: Year in Review 2025

    I Can’t Even Keep Track of Where I Am: Year in Review 2025

    • photo taken in Dahab, Egypt, November 2025

    “Where are you now? Do you really live in Berlin?” People around me probably all have had this question at some point.

    “I can’t keep track of where you are anymore.” Me either, to be very honest.

    This year, my free spirit has probably peaked yet again, so has my P-ness (MBTI, iykyk). The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Qatar, Thailand, Taiwan, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Egypt, and Japan. I’m simply an opportunist and the biggest sucker of spontaneous adventures, and I’ve been loving how it has turned out for me. So no regret at all even if it was the most difficult year ever in my life financially.

    /

    Yes, you read it right – I’ve been the poorest in my life, wallah. Life has been the hardest ever this year. I had zero income for a few months and was seriously anxious. Well, for the record, I’ve been working. Despite less work than before yes, the main problem was that my clients didn’t pay me as they should have. So yeah, this is the reality of a freelancer’s life. Instability.

    But I’m also an optimist. I’ve been nothing but lucky throughout my career and life, thankfully. I believe the universe was trying to create this sense of urgency so as to force me to be brave and make difficult decisions. It burned my bridges, basically. But at the same time, I’m forever grateful for all the angels that have come into my life at the most fitting time, and especially for my German parents’ support as always.

    A friend told me: finding it hard means growth. I might’ve felt lost in the moment at times, but looking back, I know I’ve figured out a whole lot about myself. I’ve been doing so much self-reflection that I almost finished two journal books. Now I know better what I’m yearning and searching for; I know what I lack and what I have. Perhaps, at the end of the day, the one that’s holding the string to my kite is also me. It’s never supposed to be anyone else.

    /

    “Are you running away from anything?” Mom asked me when I told her about my decision to move out of Thailand two years ago. Partially yes, let’s just be very frank. But now I also know: this is what I want at this moment. And I’ve been making it happen mashallah, step by step (zack zack zack).

    I know I’ll still be learning, panicking, struggling and at times questioning myself along the way, but turning 32, I’ve also realized: I can be comfortable with running into the unknown WHILST feeling scared.

    Oh and one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this year, and am still practicing, is to allow myself to send out SOS signals and to be helped (not going into the Eldest Daughter Syndrome here).

    /

    I guess, being the most vulnerable ever, the theme for this year would be: ⚓️

    Hopefully my anchor can really fall where it’s meant to be, inshallah.

  • book translation #9

    《教出自主學習的孩子：德國名師教你使用成長型學習思維，找回孩子主動學習的動機與專注力》

    My translation project baby #9 is out, which means it’s time to update my personal website yay.

    適合身邊所有在教學現場或開始踏上育兒之路的朋朋，但對於自身的終身學習其實也很有幫助🤓

    /

    In retrospect, this book might have come to me at the most fitting time. It talks about how learning works for children and teenagers in particular but also about how developing the growth mindset would tremendously help with lifelong learning.

    /

    So I briefly became a student again in February. That experience itself was interesting, for after my own teaching experience I started to see “my” teachers’ teaching also from a different perspective, from a teacher’s shoes. That period of time roughly matched with the early stage of this book project, where I got to do a long retrospect of my learning experience as a kid. How could I do this well? Ah that technique was lowkey what I did! Meanwhile, I also examined and reflected on my own way of teaching as a high school teacher. It was informative and provided a ground for me to reflect what I did well and what not. (A particular moment popped up — a kid told me to also comment on the good parts, for it could be quite disheartening otherwise.)

    /

    I went to Spain in April. The trip inspired me in an unexpected way, reminding me how many more potentials I may have other than just being a translator. I started to draw again in May; I noticed how many former students and friends would reach out to me when they needed advice or consolation; new ideas gushed out, reigniting my passion for academic research. All to a point where I somehow got lost, in the sea of too many intriguing ideas and things that I had always carried and yearned to do. Then, a later part of the book covers how someone saw the author’s talents and passion for teaching before she even identified it herself. This part, surprisingly, somehow healed the part of me that wasn’t appreciated enough and couldn’t exert all she’d got. Once again, I was reminded: I can be whatever I want to be.

    /

    ถ้าเราอยากเป็นอะไร ก็เป็นได้ทุกอย่างเลยนะ

    不可能每次翻譯一本新的書都是在自我療癒🥰

    • Copenhagen, March 2025
    • Madrid, April 2025
    • Cordoba, April 2025
    • Barcelona, April 2025
    • Vienna, May 2025

  • book translation #8

    《工作還可以，但上司和同事不可以：七種雷包同事大解密，讓你成為職場神隊友》

    And then there’s my translation project baby #8 right away! (中文見下)

    You see to what extreme I pushed myself in the second half of last year hahaha, but thanks to my lovely editor’s trust, I was able to work on this super interesting book over a longer span of time.

    /

    And when I say “super interesting,” I mean it. It was an interesting reflection for myself during the process of translation where I lowkey kept a secret list to match all these categories with those in my office and my personal life hahahahaha no shame but I’m not going to spill the tea here 🤫 but that was super healing and also helpful in the sense that I could have more insights of how people’s psychology works. At the end of the day, it’s usually not about “you,” but “them.” It reminds me of what Earn once told me — try to be kinder to people because they might have been going through things that I did not know or could not know. But of course, there should also always be a boundary as to how much I should “practice” my understanding and how much bullshit from others I should or want to accept.

    /

    經過兩年半受僱於人、坐辦公室、類社畜的工作經驗，我還是要大聲地說我最喜歡、最適合的工作模式是自由接案哇哈哈哈哈！但在翻譯這本書的時候，真心可以把辦公室裡、生活周遭的人一一分類，除了可以暗自達到洩憤效果（？），當然也有學會更柔軟地去理解可惡之人必有可憐之處（？？？），但要不要接受是另一件事，劃定界線是每個人自己的課題です。

    /

    總而言之，以讀者的身分來說，這本書超級有趣啦（好敷衍），但你各位也不要顧著刮別人的鬍子，作者也有教我們怎麼先自己照照鏡子讚讚。

    以上。

    /

    Feat. Some of my favorite former colleagues. I love y’all

    • Laem Mae Phim, April 2024 – Our go-to Drift Bar
    • Chanthaburi, March 2024 – Weekday neighbors & weekend trip buddies
    • Bangkok, May 2024 – My nannies at work hehehehe
    • Tagazine, April 2024 – One of our most significant projects
    • KVIS, May 2024 – Last day in the office
    • Laem Charoen, April 2024 – One of our favorite getaways
    • Ratchaprapha, April 2024 – Always missed the time when we almost only had each other
    • KVIS, January 2025 – (Hopefully) decent office look

  • book translation #7

    《同學會》

    My translation project baby #7 is out! （中文見下）

    /

    It was also my first novel project – the experience was very different from translating non-fiction when you’re in a position where you’re also drawn into the plot as you work, and your emotions and patience and efficiency were also subject to the plot. Maybe it was also because the author Fitzek was just so good at controlling the pace and tension and all.

    /

    But again, the best part of the entire experience was that I got to work on part of the book on ICE in Bayern, corresponding to the protagonist Marla’s experience. And that I came back to Berlin and got to walk around Hackescher Markt, where a certain accident in the story occurred when the character was riding on an e-scooter (oh yeah, it was something we didn’t have a decade back! and man, I was legit just riding an e-scooter there two days ago!).

    /

    The most part of this novel was translated in Ash Coffee Project, a late-night cafe in Taichung. During that period, I basically sat in the shop from sometime between 1 – 3 pm (depending on whether Ash got up and opened the shop in time lmao) to 11 pm. That feel when it was super late and the plot got to a very eerie point!!! Sometimes I’d just be so shocked by how things turned out that I couldn’t help but drop my jaw and scream in silence at the bar. Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t want to actually stay in the mountains and in some random hut when I was translating it… but who knows, maybe I’ll still end up there at some point this year.

    /

    每次都要說差不多的話，但每次都只會感受愈來愈深刻——身為自由譯者最讚的就是可以在翻譯時身歷其境，而且是真的切切實實地走在某條書中提到的街上、騎著某個角色在那裡騎的電動滑板車。然後用每個毛細孔去感受多麼令人唾棄的冬季柏林哇哈哈哈哈哈。

    /

    除此之外，這本書有很大一部分是在菸灰完成的，深夜時的昏暗燈光、舒心香氛也跟雪山小木屋的想像夠貼近了，翻譯的速度與情緒與耐心全都緊扣著劇情，時不時自顧自地在吧台座位上摀住掉下來的下巴（嘿，我大概是那幾個月內最奇怪的地伏靈），然後在農曆七月半接近午夜時獨自騎在有點超現實的中區靜巷裡⋯⋯那個空間永遠會是我很珍惜的一段回憶（完全跟打書離題，變成打咖啡廳？）

    • Neuschwanstein, September 2024
    • Berlin, Oktober 2024
    • Taichung, Dezember 2024
    • Berlin, Januar 2025
    • Der erste Schnee in Berlin ❄️
  • Moving Home: Year in Review 2024

    Moving Home: Year in Review 2024

    • photo taken in Chiangmai, Thailand, March 2024

    Here’s a wrap for 2024 that I’ve been postponing for too long.

    It was a year of transition, a prolonged transition from my beloved sunny and beach-y part of Asia to the long overdue European Girlie Era of mine. It was a year of connection, numerous new serendipitous connections and precious re-connections with old pals despite a few heartbreaking disconnections with important people and places.

    /

    I spent the first half of the year saying goodbye to my Home: Thailand. I never experienced a harder goodbye than this, and the thought of this event and my most wonderful 2.5 years would still get me very emotional now. I don’t know why. Or actually I know why. But at the same time, I felt it very strongly in my gut that it was time to go, to see the world. Home is not a perfect place, nor a place where you have to forever stay. Home is a place that you will always come back to, in reality or in thoughts and dreams.

    /

    And then I found myself stuck in the KVIS-universe. Despite some disheartening interactions with the school authorities, I’ve earned way too many precious friendships from these past couple years. They have accompanied me through ups and downs (special shoutout to the Whatever Group It Is, who were there in many of my core memories in 2024) and brought me to see numerous new things. Most importantly, I feel safe and loved and willing to give all my love and support to these people.

    /

    A crazy fact I happened to notice: the number of my followers on instagram (new friends and acquaintances) increased by 100+ over the year. Each symbolizes a new inspiration and sparkle into my life. I’m lucky to have built stronger connections with some of them throughout the year. And I’m eternally grateful for my dear friends who have sheltered me both physically and mentally, and for the new members into the family who care for me more than one could ask for.

    /

    While thanking the universe for treating this lucky little blob so well, I also thank myself for being a go-getter who makes dreams come true: from Doolaylay to Krabi (absolute highlights), from the Lombok surf camp to the Bali trip with Andre to Oktoberfest to Cigarettes After Sex (the major pegs I put down for the shaping of 2024). Now the new chapter has officially started, so the theme for 2025 is: 🇩🇪

  • book translation #6

    《性、愛欲、人文主義：從文化差異到情愛取向，一場關於人類原始慾望的哲學思辨》

    My translation project / book baby #6 was published last month 🤓 (English below)

    新譯作出版，就要照（自己莫名其妙的）傳統寫一篇翻譯心得和反思兒

    雖然好友開玩笑說書名是流量密碼（順帶一提，書名通常都是出版社訂的，不是譯者FYI），但這個主題探討的問題之複雜與敏感，導致我必須調整一下分享受眾。圖片裡是我在過去這一年間寫下來的一些隨筆或抒發，歡迎一起來思索或討論！

    /

    So it took me longer than usual to come up with this post-translation reflection, for it’s going to be sensitive (or even controversial) in some of my “anecdotes.” Obviously, as an individual, a female, an East Asian, a daughter / granddaughter, a solo traveler, a former teacher, a comparatively young employee at my former workplace, a girl who happens to live up to many criteria of mainstream beauty standards in multiple societies, and many other identities, the complexities surrounding sex / gender related discussion are going to be relevant in some specific ways.

    I’ve always been grateful that I’m able to grow up rather safely in this world that can be ever more malicious than we can possibly imagine. But one of my earliest memories was how my grandparents at first valued my brother over me (typical patriarchal mindset; can watch หลานม่า) but gradually changed their opinion because of my academic excellence, and perhaps the fact that I’m the only grandchild who can drink with my grandpa? Joke aside, this can actually be related to how society expects males to be better drinkers than females. Don’t get me into how I hate those bartenders’ “Oh girls like this drink.”

    /

    Just over the course of translating this book, I’ve experienced (or witnessed or heard of) all sorts of “revelations” in my life, may it be in the (overdue) relationship, at workplace or just in society in general. All these reflections (in the screenshots below of my murmurs over the year) are in one way or another related to the book, and yes, the authors surely provide many more insights or perspectives if not deeper.

    /

    以上。

    Wonderfruit, Pattaya, December 2023
    /
    There we go.
    This was before I got traumatized by a dude who tried to rizz me up on the EDM dance floor. I was initially dancing alone, with a female friend resting aside. Dude approached me, and I didn’t mind chatting ofc. He was too tall (200+ cm lmfao) so suggested that we go to sit by my friend and chat. My friend thought I needed space so she left (not blaming her at all cuz she was also tired from the long day of work). Dude invited me back to the dance floor; by this time, I was not entirely feeling sure but thought it was still under my control. Tbh I was undergoing a terrible breakup, so I was somehow trying to convince myself that this was how you put yourself out there. Before I realized, dude got very touchy to a point where I felt very uncomfortable. I made an excuse trying to escape, but he followed me out the tent and offered to walk me back. Fortunately he probably finally got the hint and left.
    /
    I wouldn’t call it sexual harassment, though. Rather a failed attempt of flirting because I wasn’t comfortable with his approach. Having said so, I was very traumatized and disgusted. I didn’t feel safe to hang around on my own on the next day, but the person who was supposed to be the safest shelter and comfort for me at the festival failed to provide what was needed (that was another story). When he saw how I dressed and looked, though, he replied, “Oh I see why he was touchy. Sorry that happened to you.” I guess that meant I looked amazing so ofc people would want to hit on me. And I understand.

    • Songkran, Surat Thani, Thailand, April 2024
      Reflections in the following two pics 🔫💦
    • Reflections as a co-advisor to the KVIS Medic outreach program, June 2023
  • Life Is But a Dream: Year in Review 2023

    Life Is But a Dream: Year in Review 2023

    • photo taken in Coron, Philippines, October 2023

    人生如夢。

    Life is but a dream.

    /

    I’ve been thinking how to put my 2023 into words. A crazy year, been all over the Great Pacific, taking planes as if they were MRTs. So many things happened, yet they somehow felt so far away from me right away.

    Life just keeps rolling in. One moment I’m still working in the boonieland, the next I’m spending my weekend in Taiwan with my parents. One moment I’m diving around Beqa to see sharks in Fiji, the next I’m doing the Nevis Bungy and freefalling for 134m in New Zealand. One moment I’m experiencing an unprecedented euphoria on Koh Phangan, the next I’m swimming peacefully alongside a dugong in Coron, Palawan. One moment I’m trying to figure out visa for our move-in plan, the next I’m told we shouldn’t be seeing each other again.

    /

    This was also my last year before entering my thirties. “How was your 29?” I like to ask people this. So how was mine? It started off amazingly but had a bizarre, almost surreal turn towards the end. Someone wrote me, “You are like heroin and I’m an addict and I have no sense of self control,” which can almost be the best caption for my 29, too. So really, I believe it’s the universe helping me detox, may it be the tumor found in my right breast or the major source of emotional drainage, aligning with the theme I set for myself over the last new years: 🪬

    Perhaps this year is finally putting an end to my naïvety, my “teenage” state of mind. Looking back to this decade, a lot of things seemed to have lagged on my timeline. I might have enjoyed too long of a “fortune advance” in my early twenties, smooth and free from heartbreaks. Life then took a major plunge in my 26, which surprisingly led me into a dream life that I was almost going to sabotage for whom I thought was everything. That was also when I started to live most freely ever; got piercings and tattoos, learned how to smoke and whatnots, things I’d label as what people do in their teens or early adulthood. That year, I learned about blessing in disguise.

    Then this wide-eyed girl got to see the world on her own. Found a version of herself that she likes the most, and a “home” that she’d miss on the road. In fact, everything in life has been perfect, nothing much to complain about regarding work (let’s just not go into workplace politics), a lot of love wherever I go (and really, I’m grateful for the luxury I have to go wherever I want to go). But I’ve also learned it the hard way: how malicious the world can be to fail your sincerity, how destiny can bring you to something seemingly beautiful but you’re in fact only here to pay the debt you owed from previous lives, and how nightmares can be simply dressed like daydreams. But again, I hardly regret a thing. If I could choose, I would just do it all over again. After all, never try never know, it is what it is (bread bread cheese cheese), and I never for a moment fail my own heart. I’ve also learned a whole lot about myself, what past trauma has caused me and what I want and need in all sorts of relationships.

    /

    So of course I would say, that was yet another happiest year of my life. But Sharky Tammy may have had some very exciting plans for her landmark year already 🤭 I guess we’ll all just stay tuned! Because I don’t know either where life is going to take me 💖 I’ve already started to feel a new level of confidence and empowerment that people told me belongs to the big 30. And I aim to break the myth that everything will suddenly go downhill upon the entry of the club 😆

    So now, cheers to my new decade first 🍻 (spoiler alert? tihi)

  • book translation #5

    《在虛無與無限之間：科學詩人萊特曼對宇宙與生命的沉思》

    九月了，代表新譯作要出版惹🥰

    Dropping another new translation project of mine in these couple days: Probable Impossibilities by Alan Lightman.

    /

    無比感謝編輯李尚遠的青睞，上一本書一翻完馬上就問我要不要接這一本（然後我就去斯米蘭的船上與世隔絕想了一週）（翻完剛好再去柬埔寨晃個幾天）

    /

    作者以哲學的角度切入科學的探討，涉及天文學、宇宙學、物理學、歷史學、地緣政治學、化學、哲學，甚至文學，古代的博學家大概就是這樣吧。讓我想起小時候有好長一段時間很害怕想到「宇宙」的概念，光是這個想法本身感覺就龐大到把我壓得喘不過氣，身體彷彿知道自己有多麼地渺小，國中時甚至偷偷討厭讀地科第一章的關於宇宙。大概是幼兒園大班的時候，舅舅說有小行星在三十年後要撞地球，於是我每天睡覺前就會在心中默念無數遍不要成真直到睡著。國一的時候也盛傳著彗星撞地球、瑪雅預言之類的，我就這樣在童軍園地的樹屋跟 Pei-Wen Chiang 說我想到就鼻酸（？如果只是一個人死了，還有人記著他，他就還算存在，但如果全人類的記憶都被抹除了，那甚至究竟是否存在過，都不再會有人知曉。

    /

    而任何形式的生命存在於宇宙中大概就是如此特別吧，寄蜉蝣於天地、渺滄海之一粟。這件事本身在我看來就已經是個奇蹟。（附圖想表示的大概就是這個意象哈哈）

    /

    “Miracles come from the world of imagination, of dreams, of desire; science from the world of practicality, of logic, of orderly control. I’ve always been fascinated by our ability to live simultaneously in both of these apparently opposing worlds. Evidently, each reflects something deep and essential inside of us.”

    /

    How we as individuals came into existence from this whole lot of random atoms, and then how we arrived at the same random time and space from different corners of the world. If that’s not a miracle, what is?

    /

    不管宇宙究竟是以大爆炸的那一刻為基準、於時間洪流中呈現前後鏡像對稱，還是像Everything Everywhere All at Once形容的那種多重宇宙之存在，我肯定幾百年前就說過愛你（which, okay, on the cosmic scale, may be an understatement）（硬要寫歌詞哈哈哈）

    那這樣一來，山無稜、天地合，乃敢與君絕，好像也沒那麼偉大了？

    /

    And since I started to translate this book, those words like quantum cosmology in TBBT suddenly all began to make sense to me. I could also give some really cool ideas of chemistry or physics metaphors to my students who were writing university admission essays (God knows how chemistry was my biggest enemy in high school lol). Also “miraculously,” an article just popped up on Merriam Webster out of nowhere, talking about Occam’s razor, an expression that I’d never heard of until I had to translate it in this book.

    /

    胡亂抽象地寫了一堆，最後想說的大概是，讓我們好好把握在虛無與無限之間、每一個似乎可以掌握住的時刻吧。

    /

    打書之心得感想，以上。

    Configuring life events to a project after another.

    • Tonlé Sap, Cambodia, Jul 2023
    • How those zeros killed me when I translated 😅
    • Angkor Wat, Seam Reap, Cambodia, Jul 2023
    • Laem Charoen, Rayong, Thailand, Jun 2023

  • book translation #4

    《邊界的故事：邊界如何決定我們的地景、記憶、身分與命運》

    打書時間！*English below*

    相信每個人都有屬於自己的邊界故事，可能是祖先搬遷跨越疆界終於落腳某處、可能是出國旅遊求學經歷種種簽證申請過程，可能是國與國之間的邊界、部落與部落之間的邊界，甚至是人與人之間的邊界，台灣人大概最熟悉邊界一直被侵犯的感覺ㄅ（聳肩）

    又花了好幾個月的時間翻完了一本書，私心覺得原著很好看！述說了在世界各個盡頭的邊界故事，似乎很遙遠其實又跟我們每個人都息息相關，以下容我用英文murmur哈哈哈

    以上，どうぞよろしくお願いします。

    /

    Another book I translated is now out. I know my target audience is Taiwanese readers, but I just feel like writing English for some reflection this time.

    /

    So this book is about borders, all kinds of borders, literally or figuratively, physically or mentally. And again, there were plenty of moments of synchronicity throughout the months translating it, the experience of which still always feels fascinating to me.

    /

    Earlier in the book, a chapter talks about Sweden and this nomadic people that travel across the Scandinavian landscape (I will leave it at that). Then I was brought to the Thai-Lao border on a ‘family trip’ (shoutout to Earn Saenmuk) without me knowing where the destination was. There I was sitting by Mekong River, working on a bit of the book, and staring into the jungle across the borderline. Later, all descriptions about the Israeli West Bank Barrier came to life all of a sudden when 李彥廷 posted what he actually saw on his instastory. “Make Hummus, Not Walls” is as real as that, and at the same time, as surreal as that.

    /

    The most significant experience among all is that I happened to get into contact with an artist working on a theme related to borders during the border book project (shoutout to Navin Rawanchaikul and Tammy Yu-Ting Hsieh). So there I was later traveling around Mae Salong, a border region in northern Thailand and learning all about those border stories, including how people migrated from Yunnan all the way into the Thai border, and especially how descendants of this KMT troupe have been living on a sort of figurative border all their lives – Taiwanese? Chinese? Yunnanese? Thai? Or whatever. I also got an opportunity to walk into the Akha village, sitting at the intersection of all kinds of possibilities when they speak Akha to elders and Mandarin to kids at home and use Thai to connect with the outside world. Not just the Akha, there are more than many Mountain Peoples living in the region, forming a beautiful and somehow exotic scene within the Thai border.

    /

    Yet, all these stories can feel irrelevant and distant only until you actually experience it yourself. When I was to fly back from New Zealand to Bangkok just earlier this week, it cruelly struck me how the presence of borders is actually still so unshakable. I was denied onboard because I hadn’t got the required visa. Well, although it was largely due to my own negligence, I was not the only one suffering from this. My friend and her family had to go through a lot of hassles also because of the same issue, not to mention all these other people I saw undergoing the same thing in the airport too.

    /

    Too much about my own border story, but in fact, most people in this world would have experienced their own border story in one way or another. If you haven’t, or are not sure whether you have, this book is highly recommended. Highly readable, beautiful, but also kind of sad. Well, that’s just how our world is I guess.

    • The Akha village in Northern Thailand, Sep 2022
    • Vacation by the Thailand-Laos border, Jul 2022
    • Stayed on for another day in Queenstown because of visa issues, May 2023
    • Went diving at the Thailand-Myanmar border, Mar 2023