- I’m a real “Frankfurter Mädsche” – a “Frankfurt Girl” – that’s how they call a girl who was born in Frankfurt.
- I used to be addicted to salsa dancing.
- For me, there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.
- I once rode on the back of a truck to the Tibetan side of Mt. Everest Basecamp (5,500 m).
- I didn’t want to have children of my own for ecological reasons, but then adopting was too complicated.
- I have a list called “Signs I’m growing up”. It has things in it like, “First grey hair” and “Started shaving my armpit hair.”
- I created a calendar every year for a while and sent it to my clients. The first calendar was about dogs from behind.
- I haven’t done any sports for 30 years.
- I am a synaesthete. I see letters, numbers and musical notes with colours.
- I was one of three women in the advanced maths course and the only one in the first computer science course of our high school.
- I don’t have a car driving licence.
- I remember well when a boy in my class said to me in front of everyone: “Tit-fucking. But that doesn’t work with yours.” I therefore think that communication training in schools makes sense.
- As a child, I always wanted to be blonde and blue-eyed.
- I wore a perm for 3 years.
- I speak 3.5 languages: German, Spanish, English and some basic Mandarin.
- When people ask me where I come from, my short answer is “Frankfurt”. My long answer is: “I was born in Frankfurt’s Marien Hospital and went to school in Offenbach. We then moved to Langen, 15 km south of Frankfurt, where I grew up. My mother comes from Taiwan and my father from Southern China. They met in Heidelberg.”
- I did an Executive MBA at Germany’s best business school.
- I often feel insecure and I think insecure persons should be more accepted.
- I love to learn new things!
- I don’t like beer.
- As a schoolgirl, I wanted to go to India and work in an orphanage. But my mother didn’t allow me to go, because she thought it was too dangerous.
- My favourite neighbourhood in Frankfurt is the international railway station district.
- As a child, I devoured Heinz Sielmann wildlife documentaries and wanted to become a wildlife filmmaker.
- I often wear black clothes because it’s uncomplicated.
- I am a fun and pleasure person. I love delicious food, people with a sense of humour and also, from time to time, just doing nothing.
- I only wanted to get married when I would have children. Because, if I like being with someone I don’t need an official status.
- I’ve been wearing Chucks since I was 15.
- I have lived in Jimei, China, for a year when I was 15 and studied Chinese language and calligraphy.
- In Jimei, I was often a head taller than the local men. I was told that I would never find a man who would like to marry me.
- After graduating from high school, I lived in Beijing for a year and studied Chinese language and ink painting. I enjoyed riding the bicycle in a sea of cyclists. Until then, I had only seen it on television.
- I studied communication design at the university in Darmstadt.
- I did my practical semester in Taipei and worked there on a trade fair stand for China Airlines. Afterwards, I travelled through Japan and China for a few months.
- When I visited a public bathhouse in Japan, I felt that, for the first time in my life, I perfectly blended in with my environment.
- I have lived in Barcelona, Spain, for 4 years and studied fine arts and later worked in design studios. I still carry the sun from that time inside me.
- I haven’t had a TV for 25 years.
- I love hiking. My longest hike was 6 days in Tibet during the rainy season.
- I don’t smoke and never did.
- In order to lose fear, I do things I’m afraid of. For example, I joined a diving club when I was a teenager, because I didn’t swim very well. Since then, I am no longer afraid of deep water. My fear of heights has become less since I go rock climbing from time to time. I am in a public speaking club to reduce my fear of speaking in front of people. A few years ago, I was voted best speaker in a debate duel.
- I hate to throw away food and often carry a container with me to take along my leftovers.
- Sleep is medicine, prevention and pleasure for me.
- I often feel guilty when I see the poor living conditions of other people in the world.
- My father earned above average, but he didn’t wanted to spoil us. We grew up with second-hand clothes and furnitures that were discarded on the streets. At the beginning, I wasn’t given pocket money like everyone else in my class. I needed to earn it: I got 10 pennies for each page that I filled with Chinese characters. When I asked for money to pay for school trips or sports club fees, it was very stressful. My father would tell me over and over again: “You only live to ask for my money. Earn it yourself!” Hence, I never gave my membership application for the handball club to my father and I joined the club several years without being registered. For many years, it was hard for me to ask for money, and for many years I felt I don’t deserve it.
- I love travelling through a country as a backpacker using public transport, because it gives me a more intense experience of the country and its people.
- I have a stronger sense of belonging in an international group than in a culturally homogeneous group.
- I eat very slowly because otherwise I can’t taste the food.
- When people ask me what I like to eat, I always say “something tasty”. Because something can be prepared deliciously or not deliciously.
- I’m very good at simplifying complex things visually.
- I have won international design awards for my work and have worked a lot to get them. Now I often forget that I have them.
- I like to watch arthouse films and read thrillers, crime novels or entertaining non-fiction.
- I rarely go to concerts, although I like music a lot.
- My first primary school certificate stated: “Shau Chung likes to sing and dance”.
- My sports teacher told me that I danced “like a peasant”. After that, I discarded the plan to become a member of a dance club. After 10 years, I didn’t care anymore and took dance lessons again.
- I was one of two students in my class who was selected for the school choir at an audition. However, I didn’t join the choir, because I didn’t like the teacher and because there were only “nerds”.
- I took piano lessons for a few years, but never got enthusiastic about Mozart and Beethoven. Until I discovered jazz and new music. But by then I had given up already.
- As a child, I dreamed of a car-free world with public transport criss-crossing the world like paternosters.
- I don’t want to experience only the beautiful, wholesome things about a person. I also want to know about the not-so-beautiful, vulnerable, dark sides of a person. That’s what makes a person for me.
- I always want to know WHY something is happening or has happened and the reason WHY something needs to be done.
- I once was able to identify all local birds by their song.
- I have been a member of Junior Chamber International since 2009 and have Senator status, the highest honour for outstanding commitment.
- I am a member of the Frankfurt Working Group for Family Members of Individuals Living With Mental Illness and advise family members on a voluntary basis.
- I started reducing my waste a few years ago. I buy more at the weekly market and also at the supermarket I try to buy things without packaging. I reuse the plastic and paper bags from the market, bakery, etc. or bring my own containers. I have also tried making my own washing-up liquid and washing my hair with rye flour. Both with not so great results, so I’m currently still sticking to ready-made products. Someday I’ll try again.
- I did a 6-month communication course for parents.
- I travelled from Moscow to Beijing in 7 days on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
- For a while, I crocheted personalised penis dolls. First as gifts for friends, later as commissioned jobs.
- I created and sold notebooks with pornographic titles in different languages because I wanted to encourage everyone to spend time on their passions.
- My motto is “live and let live”.
