Tag Archives: David Feng

David Feng Announcement

Statement of World Citizens David Feng and Tracy Liu

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What has happened in Switzerland recently (regarding in particular the anti-foreigner sentiment in the country) is beyond shocking — my latest joke is that we have just created the new “island continent” of Helvetia, Latin for “Switzerland”. Of course it’s a bad joke, and it’s also bad what has happened in Helvetia today.

United we stand, divided we fall. We (Tracy and I) were never for sums that took things away; we always liked sums that had a “plus” factor. Of course Switzerland today failed us and it will probably have to make do with knee-jerk reactions, not least negative impressions and disappointment, as well as other measures.

Tracy and I have decided that beginning tonight, we will be World Citizens. The countries of China and Switzerland will only have nominal “special-ness” as they were our countries of origin by birth (and Switzerland is currently the country of my nationality). We plan to travel the world and will no longer feel happy permanently locked up in Beijing or Zurich.

We have decided to come together to promote better understanding amongst cultures, and to this extent we have decided to tell everyone we work with that discrimination in any form will not be tolerated. We hate racism and condemn xenophobia; these have no place in modern society. Where we previously may “misunderstand” a culture, race, or country, we might actually very well be travelling there — to see how things “really work”.

We will no longer subscribe to “blanket tags and stereotypes” of one specific country or the other. We firmly believe human beings of all races and nationalities are the same. We believe the different countries of the world add up to a holistic whole for our planet. We believe humans and everyone, everything on this planet has the ability to “add up for good”.

We will integrate concepts from any society into our daily lives, wherever it is used for our good. We will learn and speak multiple languages and truly have friends all over the world. In future, we will let our next generations live in international environments where they have friends from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. We will travel to as many places, both old and especially new, by any means of transport. We look forward to shaking hands from persons of any country, and we look forward to sharing voices freely with everyone on the planet.

We are World Citizens David Feng and Tracy Liu. We love this planet and we love all on Earth.

David Feng
Tracy Liu
10 February 2014

David Feng Announcement

The Big e-Move

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I’m moving all old posts from my previous sites to the present davidfeng.com site.

Does this warrant in itself a post? Probably not… because it’s irrelevant to most of you (especially if this is your first visit to the site). But… actually, yes, it might make a little bit of sense if you have been following me since the very early years.

In 1996, Mr D’Arcy, my computer teacher (read: Mac teacher), encouraged everyone to create, using basically “raw HTML code” at that time, their own web sites. I did mine, and the only thing I was happy about was text that blinked. Today, if you do that on the Interwebs of 2014, your design is in essence put on Cyber Death Row. (No sane soul does blinking text any more!)

I had no idea why Mr D’Arcy liked my page as one of his favourites — it must have been the blinking text, right? Grand stuff… well, back in the day, it certainly was. This page came out probably 3 years before Google — in the weirdest of all names, I named it based on my then-Hanyu Pinyin given name and the word Net (a la Internet): yaNet (yep, it sure was case-sensitive).

(I’ll leave you to pronounce that on your own — I do not have an officially approved pronunciation here…)

So as I’m getting ready to hit That Great Big Twenty in terms of online presence, I figured I’d have to move quickly before 30 September 2016, which is when (I think) the site first made it online, and get those old pages back up again — as much as I can recover (especially recover sense in them). You see, on that date in 1996, without me knowing too much about it, Mr D’Arcy fell in love with the site and hosted it on the school’s web server for the low price of zero. (The Internet Archives / Wayback Machine currently holds copies of these pages as “early” as 12 April 1997.)

And internic.net was not informed… (which was less of a big deal, since my site was not on its own separate domain!)

I do admit that a 14-year-old “thinks different” than a 34-year old, but I have never been a fan of secretly rewriting history. Some of the restored pages (which will include quite a few from my 2005 Raccolta Online site) will, obviously, have to be modified “to suit the times” — but you’ll be told that “minor changes were made to this post based on the original”. Some things aren’t for sale (and won’t suffer massive mods): personal views, independent opinions, and the willingness to be different (without being too different to the extent you get loads of others mad), so I’ll keep previous posts unmodded as much as possible.

The e-move will happen gradually — there are no clues as it’s probably not the best thing to send out a press release every time a page is recovered! Within about two years, though, you’d have experienced something quite interesting “weird and wonderful” (which was how they called my very first site): the whole world of David Feng since 1996 in one site.

Archive.org, breathe easy. If you can’t take care of my stuff, I’ll do it on my own…

David Feng Announcement, Media

Important Announcement to All Media / Interviewers

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Please note that, in order for me to best time and organise your interview request, compulsory registration for media interviews will apply for interviews to be held on or after midnight on 03 December 2013. (You apply here online.)

This applies to all media. It applies equally to those affiliated with both the Communication University of China, as well as Chinese railways media. There are no exceptions — even if we’ve known each other for a fair bit, you still need to register. (Let’s actually not make it “that scary”: registration means I can actually remember your request — and makes it easier for us to finalised on a date, time, and venue. Your time is as important as mine!)

Important: This notice still will not apply for media interviews which occur during public events.

Registration isn’t really “that” per say. I would say the more proper term is “application”, in actual fact, since there are no scary-as-heck ID codes and passwords to be remembered.

Two other things to mention:–

  • You won’t probably be the only person with a microphone, as per arrangements, all interviews held on and after 04 November 2013 will also be taped by me. No, I am no secretive NSA agent(!), but this is mainly done as a backup solution. Let’s say your recorder gives up the ghost halfway through (I have had cases where dead batteries made microphones completely useless in a large class. Ack!). What a pain! You are saved, though: upon request, you may request the “known good copy” that I have. (This announcement also requires you to give permission that a copy of your final, published interview will be placed on this davidfeng.com web site.)
  • You’ll need to ensure that the place you want to meet me isn’t somewhere I consider insecure or problematic — check the list (as per the 03 December 2013 announcement) and make sure you do not choose one of the above places.

Other than that, we should all be set for the interview. Oh, and by the way: I am free to interviews where multiple devices are used: you can use traditional notebooks, microphones / recorders, cameras and video cameras all at the same time and I’ll have no problems at all.

Thanks for your interest!

David Feng Announcement

David Feng’s 28 November 2013 Announcement

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(A more “personal” post about these changes, as announced below, will be published tonight at 22:00.)

After 12+ years in Beijing I am ready for the next level. I’d like to go to new destinations, get involved in new endeavours, and listen and share new stories.

These include, but are not limited, to:—

• continued residency in Beijing whilst also actively travelling outside the city and the country
• further academic involvements, especially for ones outside of Beijing
• continued independence from any kind of government work, especially of an official nature
• the realisation of a “bilingual China” and a “Chinese language environment overseas”
• writing more about China and introducing the country, uncut, from an independent point of view, to the outside world
• introducing the outside world to China from the point of view of an active international traveller
• improving education so that “force-fed teaching” is officially retired; and that students become active members with independent minds
• the sharing of stories with people local and global, in any form as appropriate

In layman’s terms:—

• I’m not going to absolutely chain myself to the Jing any more
• If and when needed I’ll get something as an “add-on” to my academic credentials; or teach in other places
• I’ll never get involved in government; I love being a private citizen
• Yes, locals need more English, and the world needs more Chinese
• I’d like to present a very unique, personal, and independent POV about China
• I’d also like to tell locals about the outside world — again in a very unique, personal and independent manner
• I’d like to let students swot less, learn “happier”, and think more
• I’d like to keep on sharing stories (this means: I am looking for more with regards to blogging, lecturing / taking part in seminars, public speaking, and hosting events and / or media shows)

Railway and Subway English commitments for China will continue.

David Feng Views

It’s Always Nice To Stick A Few Personal Principles On You

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In 1999, I saw this ad on CNN (a “self-congratulatory one”, may I add — as it was about itself). That ad featured a resident of the Middle East, closing with one tagline I won’t ever forget — the human without information is nothing.

Please allow me now to create an “add-on bit”: The human without principles is nothing.

A few of mine here…

  • There are eight things I will never do — ever: get drunk, smoke, do drugs, do racy content, gamble, do offences of turpitude, be unfaithful, or rub my people (as in: my family) the wrong way. And of course I’ll always stay legal.
  • I’ll never join or found a political or religious organisation.
  • I’ll never serve in any government, domestic or international (international means UN). (There’s an exception: honour roles in international organisations of a non-political nature.)

And here are the whys and why-this-makes-sense-s…

  • The first eight are just bad, baaad behaviour. Drugs kill. Getting drunk is bad. These “eight noes” came with me: it came from my mum, dad, and wife. It is the kind of stuff I grew up with (OK, the wife came two years ago).
  • “Communist China” didn’t teach me the bits about politics and religion. In fact, I picked up Flanders and Willis’s 1998 masterpiece — Web Pages That Suck (the book) — and it was there I got my cue: don’t do politics or religion… it kills many a conversation…
  • Some of my beliefs are so different from those in my home country / countries (Chinese by birth, Swiss by passport) that it makes “mutual political compatibility” pretty awkward; also, whilst I don’t mind doing media, I’d rather do it as a private individual.

I have no regrets I hold these principles.

David Feng Announcement

Good Bye (Let’s Hope), Spam…

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The probably most immediate result in me posting this is that I will be spammed — because the title of this post contains those sensitive four letters.

I’ve just redone my messaging system. I can’t tell you the email addresses “just like this” — because, well, those obnoxious spammers are still out there. I’d say they’ll leap into action even if I embed my address in a YouTube video. As a result, I’ve had to set up a form which submits your message via email — don’t ask me how it works, it just works!

Those reasons are probably not worth a post but here’s what’s worth the post: I will be using a separate email address for most of my online accounts (except for the ones I use the most — again, nothing in open to deter the spammers). The thing is — if I respond from a different account and tell you this is my “main” / “real” account, you should use that instead.

In a previous era, my SNS account messages were in the same inbox as my other messages, and most crucially — I gave my email address “away”, which kind of aggravated the whole thing. These days, all my devices are now set up to use these new addresses. It might be a few years before my inbox gets flooded with spam again. But at least now, I’ll be more responsive online…

David Feng Announcement

It’s Easier Now to Email Me

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I’ve just put the finishing touches on a brand-new form (which gets sent by email) which you can use to email me. It’s on my new HTTPS secure server, dfsecured.com.

However, with this recent “Snowden / leak / mess” thing, I can no longer say a creepy government will never find out about our emails. Still, security is pretty decent at the new dfsecured.com site. Let’s put it this way: If you trust folks with your credit card number, the degree of security at dfsecured.com is much the same. Update: HTTPS / SSL remains “on/off” for the moment… not a good idea to send over credit card numbers… but hey, this was never an e-commerce site, right?…

If a determined “bad guy” is — like I said — determined to find out that we’ve been emailing about, say, the Beijing Subway, well, there’s nothing I can do about that. But most of our conversations, I’m sure, will be less “sensitive”. ;-) Me donning on the new HTTPS service is just another way for David Feng to say: I value our conversation, and I like it as private and as safe for you as I can.

I also have a totally new email address, but because this is the creepy-crawly Internet, where spam crazies are all over the place, it’d be a little “e-suicidal” revealing it here. Not to worry, though: as long as you use the new Web email form to contact me, it will go straight to my new mailbox.

These were some tough late-night tweaks at 02:30 (AM!), but heck, when you come to test drive the whole new thing, you’ll feel it was worth it. :-)

David Feng Announcement

I Will Be Addressed By David Feng — And By No Other Name

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A train ticket I am proud of: the first David Feng ticket.

At present, my passport bears my name (especially my first name) that belongs to someone who used to use this name — before 2004. On the first day of that new year, I made it very clear that I will dump my Pinyin first name.

With good reason — previously, my Chinese Hanyu Pinyin first name (“Yan” Feng) spawned for a whole load of unauthorised would-be clones, such as…

  • YANG FENG
  • YAN FENK
  • YAU FENG
  • YAND FENG
  • YEN FENG
  • YENG FENG
  • JAN FENG
  • IAN FENG
  • YANN FENG

…to the extents that the moment I approached a mic and read my name out, I felt great unease. I later told counselling experts that I was uncomfortable with using my Chinese Hanyu Pinyin first name in public — a major reason, obviously, being that the name would be toyed with. Nobody knew how to pronounce the thing. So obviously using a Pinyin name in the West was surely a tall order!

Obviously, I’m a “legal” kind of guy (simply put — the strict codes that were put in place by Switzerland upon its residents meant that there was a law for everything — men were supposed to sit on the toilet throne after 22:00! — and that was a pretty extreme example; and being resident in Switzerland, I became a strict follower of the law books). I was told that an instant registration re: the name change with the Swiss embassy was a bad idea — since nobody knew me with the new name (yet). So I decided to engage in a little bit of nomenclatural schizophrenia: I’d use my Pinyin name “with anything that has a .gov in it” (as in passports and diplomas, which have to be provided according to government ID names), but in everything else — such as media interviews, and more lately, train tickets in China, I’d use David Feng.

As of late, I’ve been using a crass excess of the name David Feng that now, if you Google me with my Pinyin first name (“Yan” Feng), you’d get this on the right hand side from Google (nicking its content from the Wikipedia):—

Yan Feng is a Chinese international footballer, currently playing for Dalian Aerbin in the Chinese Super League.

Oh excellent. And the first entry? “Yanfeng USA Automotive Trim Systems, Inc. held opening ceremony.” I’m a railways guy — I’d dump my car for the rails!

Meanwhile, if you help yourself to a Googling of David Feng, the first entry, bang-on, would be this website (davidfeng.com).

The increasing acceptance by all members of society at large of my new name, and my increasing prominence as David Feng, means that I’m now at a time and place where I have every last right — indeed, to prevent others from being confused, an absolute duty — to change my passport name to David Feng. It does society at large a massive disservice if they still have to get two names for me. And I’m not just on about the huge waste of ink…

My name is an absolute, inalienable human right. It does all of society a favour when my passport bears the exact same name as the name I use on an everyday basis — in particular if that name is one that I feel at home with. International conventions guarantee the right to a name as one of the most fundamental human rights. I will no longer go about daily business with a name which has been mutilated; I will be called the way I wish to be called.

I will be addressed by David Feng — and by no other name.

I’m hereby announcing something big:—

  1. I am ending recognition of my former name (in English) with effect from 01 May 2013 (for government ID, with effect from 01 January 2014) instead of 01 January 2024.
  2. I am ending recognition of my former name (in Chinese) with effect from 01 May 2013 (for government ID, with effect from 01 January 2014) instead of 01 January 2027.

This means that on and after 01 May 2013, if you call me by my former name, I will only respond three times — every time with a notice about my name change. To make sure people are totally aware of the new name, I have to take such measures — but that will be for the good of society as a whole.