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Liu Yan

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Liu is Currently Reading

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None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary

by Travis Alabanza

bookshelves: currently-reading, fluidity

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Liu Yan said: " I am listening to Travis Alabanza’s audiobook None of the Above. I am blown away by her honesty, humility and her deep insights in questioning her own identity. Although I am a mother to support a trans girl for 5 years, I still feel that there are s I am listening to Travis Alabanza’s audiobook None of the Above. I am blown away by her honesty, humility and her deep insights in questioning her own identity. Although I am a mother to support a trans girl for 5 years, I still feel that there are so many blindspots and unconscious biases that are expressed through my interaction with my daughter and other people who identify themselves as transgender.

The first chapter, " So, when do you know?" shows that knowing is such a crucial safety and comfort factor for everyone in society around fluidity, to pinpoint a time, a place, an event, a cue or an ah-hah inner exclamation all give us a sense of assurance. Although the author admits that deep inside herself, she doesn't know, she never would know, and she is ok with this fact... but people around her NEEDs to know in order to act in accordance, the doctors, the medical system, the parents, the school...etc because fluid challenges the structure and order of the binary system we live in. So at the end of the day, the transgender person has to conform to make up a "moment" and a "place" where they "know". The "when did you know?" chapter resonates deeply because it reveals something uncomfortable: the question itself is an act of gatekeeping. It requires a trans person to construct a narrative that satisfies other people's need for certainty, not their own lived experience. The story becomes a passport to being believed.

The second chapter: "What's proper?" again it is about being able to pinpoint between male and female, and the space in between is not recognised as proper, or finished... but in reality, gender is a verb, it is a constant changing phenomema. One thing that hits me the most is that, the queerness is not problem of the queer people, it is the problem created by the binary society. ---- I am because you are - that's Ubuntu philosophy. The idea that selfhood is inherently relational. It's interestingly placed here, because it cuts both ways: my daughter's identity is partly shaped by how I see her, and my understanding of myself is being expanded by who she is.

Half way through the book, I decided to buy 4 of them for myself and anyone whom I believe would benefit from reading this amazing book! ...more "

Mar 04, 2026 10:56AM · see review

Liu Yan is currently reading

Compassionate Counterterrorism: The Power of Inclusion In Fighting Fundamentalism

by Leena Al Olaimy (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 08, 2022 01:07PM

Liu Yan is currently reading

Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing through Other Patterns

by Nora Bateson

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jul 17, 2020 07:47PM

Liu’s Quotes

“When we think of coconuts or pigs, there are no coconuts or pigs in the brain.”
― Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity

tags: coconuts, cognition, correspondence, pigs, the-brain, truth

9 likes

“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
― Confucius

786 likes

“There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.

There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination
they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of
them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

tags: colors, creativity, diversity, idic, innovation, inspirational, invention, music, problem-solving

482 likes

“Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.”
― Lao Tzu

132 likes

“Inequality, in fact, is a logical outcome of meritocracy. What the education system does when it selects, sorts, and hierarchizes, and when it gives its stamp of approval to those 'at the top,' is that it renders those who succeed through the system as legitimately deserving. Left implicit is that those at the bottom have failed to be deserving.”
― You Yenn Teo, This Is What Inequality Looks Like

10 likes

More of Liu’s quotes…