- I’m a real “Frankfurter Mädsche” – a Hessian Frankfurt girl.
- 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 had been 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 in 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 you.” I therefore think that communication training in schools makes sense.
- I used to want to be blonde and blue-eyed.
- I wore a perm for 3 years.
- I speak 3.5 languages: German, Spanish, English and have basic knowledge of Mandarin.
- When people ask me where I come from, my short answer is “Frankfurt” and the 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, and that’s 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 have inferiority complexes and I think one should be able to be open about inferiority complexes.
- I am a continuing education junkie. 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, 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 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 do nothing.
- I only wanted to get married, if I 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 lived in Jimei, near Xiamen (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 want 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 in the sea of cyclists, which until then I had only known from 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.
- In a public Japanese bathhouse, for the first time in my life, I felt I blended in visually.
- I lived in Barcelona (Spain) for 4 years and studied fine art 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 never smoked.
- I do things I’m afraid of to lose fear. 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 and prevention for me.
- I often feel guilty when I see the poor living conditions of others in the world.
- Although my father earned above average, I grew up thinking that we were poor. For example, we only had second-hand clothes and furniture or furniture from the bulky waste. At first, I wasn’t given pocket money either, but I got 10 pennies for each A4 page that I wrote full of Chinese characters. When it came to money for school trips or sports club fees, it was always stressful for me to ask for money, because I had to listen to my father for months telling me that I should earn the money myself. That’s why, for example, I never handed in my membership application for the handball club to my father and joined without being registered. When I read about child poverty in Germany, a slight feeling of familiarity creeps over me.
- I love travelling through a country as a backpacker on public transport, because it gives me a more intense experience of the country and its people.
- I feel I belong to an international group rather than to 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 getting to the heart of complex things visually.
- I have won international design awards for my work and 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 entertainingly presented non-fiction.
- I rarely go to concerts, although I like music a lot.
- My first elementary 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 the audition. However, I didn’t want to 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 could never got enthusiastic about Mozart and Beethoven. Until I discovered jazz and new music. But by then I had given up on it.
- As a child, I dreamed of a car-free world and for that I wanted public transport to criss-cross the world like paternosters.
- I don’t just want to experience the beautiful, wholesome things about people, but also the not-so-beautiful, vulnerable, dark things. That’s what makes a person for me.
- I always want to know WHY something is happening or has happened and WHY something needs to be done.
- I used to be able to tell all the local bird calls apart.
- I have been a member of Junior Chamber International since 2009 and have Senator status, the highest award for outstanding commitment to this international organisation.
- 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 that have no 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 bought 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”.
