Form And Function

Can you tell us a bit about what you do for work?
I’m a UX writer in a fintech company. I was in advertising before, then I decided to go explore other options outside of agency life. This is a lot better than the agency life for sure (laughs). There are definitely things that you learn in agencies that you don’t get to learn outside, so I would say the agency life prepped me for everything else.

What do you do on the weekends or in your spare time?
I work at a friend’s cafe, Double Up, on weekends as a barista, usually depending on when they need help. That’s just something that I’m interested in, and I’ve been doing it for three years, on the side. Apart from that, I read and I cycle.

What’s the best book you’ve read in 2021?
There’s this one sci-fi novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin called The Three-Body Problem. That’s one of my favourites of 2021 for sure. It’s just mind-blowing. The premise is very simple: aliens are attacking Earth. I don’t want to spoil anything, but after that, everything else is just completely mind-blowing. You would think that a lot of crazy shit happens in sci-fi already, and nothing is going to surprise you, but you’ll be surprised by the stuff that Liu Cixin comes up with in that book. It’s only part one of the trilogy, so it gets crazier and crazier, in a good way!

In terms of fashion, how would you describe your style?
Comfortable and functional, I would say. As you can tell, I really like pockets—there are about 17 pockets in this shirt, because it’s a gardener’s shirt, so there are many pockets for tools. I don’t garden though, it’s just convenient to have pockets.

Can you tell us a bit about one of the interesting tattoos that you have, or one of your favourites?
I really cannot pick a favourite. It’s like picking a favourite child. As for one of the more interesting ones, I got this ice cream tattoo on my arm with my sisters. I have two younger sisters, so the second one has two scoops of ice cream, and the youngest one has three scoops (laughs). And it says L W, which is the short form for our surname.

You mentioned you don’t usually have a moustache. What made you want to grow one?
I keep it for Movember every year, it’s just that I haven’t gotten around to shaving it off yet. I’ve been doing this since 2018. I’ve always wanted to try growing a moustache, and when I heard about Movember, I figured, why not try to grow a ‘stache and raise money and awareness about men’s mental health as well? I think it’s important because it’s a rather sensitive subject, especially in an Asian setting where the notion of what it means to be a man is something so traditional. And it’s quite fun you know, to explore a different look every year and to see how much it can grow for an Asian man (laughs). But it’s definitely it’s a bit itchy.