After nearly a year of China and encountering the frustrations of needing a VPN (along with difficulty transferring currency) I realised I needed a new platform. Having spent years practicing writing, maintaining social media profiles to varying degrees and rattling off diverse blog posts I decided I needed a more wholesome place to pour my energy.
Finding Steemit was wonderful, and sifting through the variety of community contributions, and contributors, has been a slightly confusing joy. I'm partly going with the old adage 'lurk more' until I learn, and partly going to try posting from the off to renew good writing habits with tangible force.
The last year has been an ex-pat/immigrant adventure in the worlds most populous country. For 9 months I lived in the eye of the storm they call 北京(Beijing), air dense with dust and political presence, before shifting south. I've travelled some, learned some, and uncovered both the isolation and liberation that comes from leaving the comfort of your own culture.
My background is like a lot from Anglicised cultural space over the last three decades, my persona moulded by videogames, philosophy and the birthcry of the internet. I've walked through the valley of the shadow of death known as existentialism, replete with anxiety and depressive bouts, and come out the other end a slightly anarchic, tentatively optimistic, futurist.
My belief in the power of the internet not just as a useful network, but as the most major shift in human consciousness since mass literacy, lead me to up my life and fly across the world with little but some cheap t-shirts and a beaten up laptop. Partly I blame a diet of Cyberpunk and Anime, so awash with the inevitability of the rise of techno-asia, but I still could not have predicted boots-on- the-ground life in modern China.
It is nigh on unframable, with echoes of hundreds of years of history co-existing alongside bleeding edge technology. I frequently travel cashless and use QR codes to pay street food vendors, I've crossed the country on the fastest trains in the world and had a six digit door code to a fourteenth floor apartment in a towering, crumbling apartment block. That's before we even get to the ubiquitous nature of WeChat...
My focus in life is on understanding, on identity and reality, on how we frame the narrative of our existence and the impact that has. I believe the narrative techniques we utilise to shape, and re-shape, our collective identity will become increasingly powerful and malleable, blurring old lines and creating more novel, more empowering ones. Moreover, with the blockchain reinvigorating the original visionary aspects of the internet I increasingly witness it happening everywhere simultaneously.
I hope I am able to contribute meaningfully to this community, even if in some small way, as I attempt to negotiate it's idiosyncracies. The content I'll be outputting will have three major focuses; My time in China, contemporary culture and speculative philosophy. In the background I'll be working on utopic sc-fi/speculative fiction short stories, and if I remain dedicated enough will also post here.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far, I truly appreciate it. I'm off to slam on the AC, sweep the room for mosquitos and prep for another day in the Middle Kingdom.
Welcome to steemit
Wellcome to the community!
WELCOME TO STEEMIT :) Glad to see more people like you - here join the steemit! Being a steamboat is a great adventure! Here you can win money while blogging! At first it will not be easy, but it is not impossible. So just write it from your heart and everything will be fine. ! Applause! Wish you much luck! Greetings, @nova.sasmita
Welcome to Steem @retversus I have upvoted and sent you a tip
Thank you! Much appreciated.
welcome Retversus to Steemit ! . I hope you enjoy your time here, its a great community :) Nice post, i will follow your account, please follow me at @khunpoom
Hey @khunpoom, thanks for the warm welcome. Still learning the ropes at the minute but loving the encouraging wamrth from everyone. Have followed you right back!
Welcome!
Hey @havok777, thanks man!
Hello and welcome to Steemit family and our ever-growing platform. You have made a great decision by joining us and helping us to create decentralized entity that will change the way social media and other business models work in the future. I would like to help you out in your early days by using my steem power to upvote your first few posts. Simply follow my account and tag me by @czechglobalhosts in your posts and I will make sure to read your post and upvote you! Good luck and steem on! Tomas
Welcome to Steemit @retversus, I have upvoted and sent you a tip. Check my blogs if you are looking for tips on how to earn more Steem and SBD.
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STOPHii bro i found a new way to get unlimited. upvote (upvoteforupvote)
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