Who am I?

I'm Yi Han.

I have a german name, 'Hans', but I don't usually use it unless it's for foreigners who may have problems with chinese names. For me, I am proud to use the name my parents gave me and imbued with their hopes and dreams for me.

一涵 means the number one most gentlemanly person (最有涵养的人）. This is their hope for me! =P

I believe in living my life to the fullest. I don't believe in an afterlife. For me, this is it. It may have anything between 1 second or 100 years more on this world, but in any case, it will be finite. Therefore, I don't want to waste a single second doing something I feel is not worth my time.

I have no official religion, but I learn a lot from various religions and philosophies. To me, there is much timeless wisdom in these religions and philosophies, and it would be a waste to avoid religion completely or restrict myself to one religion just because that's the norm.

I recently read a quote by the Dalai Lama that echoes what I feel about religion:

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” - Dalai Lama

I try to cut down my meat intake for ethical and environmental reasons. However, I'm not a full vegetarian. Some people question whether this means my principles are flexible. However, my principle is not to avoid killing animals altogether. My principle is to have compassion for all living things, including myself. I feel happy whenever I can avoid killing animals. But if for example, I can't find any vegetarian food, I will still eat meat. I don't subject myself to unnecessary suffering.

You may criticise this stand, but I would never have made it so far if I didn't feel happy with merely cutting down.

I believe very strongly that we must take a stand for protecting our Earth. The way humans are extracting resources from the Earth, polluting it, destroying the biodiversity and causing climate change is simply unsustainable. If we have compassion for the animals that share this planet, and the poorer people and indigenous natives who will be the first to suffer from environmental degradation, then let's rethink how we're living our lives.