This summer, I met Fan’s colleague Henry, who studied at Harvard for his bachelor’s degree (I’m not sure if he also did a master there). I read some of his blog posts, and they left a strong impression on me. In one from 2019, he reflected on how his “passions” were developed rather than discovered, and how his research interests shifted over time.
I feel the same with my own current interest: How do drug users fight against stigma and reclaim their rights to space? I still remember a typical afternoon at the campus library, when I randomly picked up a book by a senior social worker. It was based on her field observations in a therapeutic community (TC) in Yu-li, Hualien — a community built for chronic psychiatric patients who were stable enough to reintegrate into society. At that time, Prof. Wang encouraged me to write a conference paper on the topic. Long story short, I failed the submission. The draft has been collecting dust ever since. And yet, even though it wasn’t a success, the experience still matters to me.