I’ve realized I’m actually very observant. I used to think I wasn’t—because all my friends back then always said I was clueless. But I’ve come to see that I really am. Even during core creative meetings—where each lead would bring two department heads, at least two assistants, and a producer, adding up to nearly 30 or 40 people crammed into one meeting room—I could still pick up on many people’s states, movements, expressions, and thoughts all at once. That ability helped me a lot in my work.

When they were describing objective, rational things, I could quickly pick up on their real intentions through their body language and expressions. Even when some of the vocabulary was unfamiliar, I’d gradually understand the meaning as the words were used again and again. I used to think the language I grew up hearing was the “correct” way to speak Chinese. Only later did I realize—there really are huge differences. To the point that I could understand every single word… and still have no idea what the sentence meant as a whole. Words like “sè er” or “jìn qù le”—phrases like that.