Joseph Chan
Met 2024-11-24 11:00 at Shenzhen Marriott Nanshan, Shenzhen, China.Age 31 now. Parents moved to Shenzhen (from Guangdong 普宁 near 揭阳 Jieyang, a few hours away) when he was age 1, so he's grown up here, though doesn't feel completely Shenzhener since he speaks his parents' regional language at home. Refers to parents' birthplace as "my home town". Lives with them here. Speaks Cantonese too but just learned from growing up here, never studied it.
He's been blogging publicly since age 13, and keeps adding to it. He was influenced by Owen Young (who we met next) who was influenced by me. When I asked what he thinks of seeing his old posts from age 13, he said, "I was an idiot!" which made me laugh so loudly it echoed through the hotel lobby. He has different alias names online, and keeps them separate on purpose to represent different sides of his personality.
Parents (1 year younger than me) came to Shenzhen with entrepreneurial spirit, and encouraged him to have the same, but he started a business in 2017 that didn't go well, and now prefers to have a job. Working for a company that sells 3D-scanners on Amazon, and Joseph handles EU market.
Shenzhen is good place to make money, but if you want a more artistic or intellectual pursuit, better to head to a different city. (He listed 5-6 cities off the top of his head that have a better culture for intellectual/artistic pursuits.)
The air in Dali is so thin, because of the elevation, that it took him a couple days to adapt.