Hi I'm an ordinary human being...

I usually find it is one of the most difficult things to describe myself, no matter it is on a dating website or at a work related party.

I'm someone really into arts in general, but i'm not too sure about how good I'm at it, but I'm always trying to do something about it, no matter it is a vague discussion with some artistic friend of mine or an abstract doodles I did on the back of receipt when I'm bored. I even made some films i wrote and directed and edited by myself but i only show them to ppl secretly. Recently I'm kinda addicted to instagram and i had plenty indescribable fun on it and you are free to stalk me there (please stalk me indeed lol since i don't think my business of collecting likes are successful enough so far ;): https://www.instagram.com/helianzhang/

There are a few versions of me from my friends' views: (1) shy, quite, not much, what she 's doing there by herself anyway?; (2) sweet and cute; (3) open minded and thoughtful; (4) someone random but with great taste in music; (4) slave of my cat; (5) practical and grounded; (6)ridiculous and impractical; (7) such a weirdo. If you meet me, maybe you will meet parts or all of the versions, maybe you find out none of them can apply... hmmm... you need to find it out by yourself!

Ahhh i'm so excited to meet new ppl and explore new places and life (this statement is only valid for some moments in my life tho) !!!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Oh ya know I always have a huge crush on other people's couch!!! Because I started living by myself since I was 4th grade in elementary school and since then I never really have a couch in my place. If I can, I want to marry an American couch and have a life with it.

Seriously, I like to meet local people when traveling. It is kinda dumb traveling along in a foreign city by yourself right? You read the general advise and tips from a website and you have a glimpse of the official look of the place, and you can't taste a sip of the soul of the city. I want to hear stories of the city and people from locals, and visit the secret spots the locals would go to -- this feels more fun to me!

Also I'm kinda casually doing an recording project on my own. There was a 2015 NYC article about those 36 questions you can ask a stranger to know the other person better, i thought it is quite interesting and just started recording my friends who are willing to sit down and go down the questions with me. I especially want to do it with random strangers and think it might be a nice experience! here's the link of the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html
and the 36 questions: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html

Interests

• arts
• photography
• yoga
• reading
• music
• electronic music
• camping
• travelling
• spirituality
• film
• documentary
• bikram yoga
• healthy life
• hot yoga

Music, Movies, and Books

Books:
Doris Lessing, Carson McCullers, Oscar Wilde, Dostoyevsky, L'amant de la Chine du Nord (Marguerite Duras), Bei Dao (Poems), Paul Celan, Imre Kertész, Wang Xiaobo
Heart Sūtra
Etc...
Recently reading Spalding Gray

Top Movies:
Love Exposure(Sion Sono), The White Ribbon, A Seperation, La Haine, Don't laugh at My Romance (Nami Iguchi), Memories of Murder, Tess of the D'Urbervilles(1998), Ashes of Time, Manchester by the Sea, Leaves of Grass, Synecdoche New York, Apocalypse Now, Tree of Life, Blade Runner, Christopher Nolan, Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Dreamers), Stranger With A Camera, Stories We Tell, Documentries

Secondary Top Movies: (SKIP)
Slow (Steve McQueen), A Single Man (Tom Ford), Love Letter (Shunji Iwai), Miss Universe 1929 (Peter Forgacs), Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette), Abraham's Valley, Ichi the Killer, Leningard Cowboys Go America, Pina, Henry Fool, Cold Souls, Three Colours Trilogy (Krzysztof Kieslowski), Survuve Style 5+ (Gen Sekiguchi), Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), A Clockwork Orange, Akira, Satoshi Kon, Samsara, 12 Monkeys, Salt of the Earth, City of God, The Assassin, Winter Sleepers, Frank, The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo), Salome (Carlos Saura), Drive, Oldboy, Goodbye South Goodbye, Twist and Shout (Bille August), Clerks, Confessions (Tetusya Najashima), Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach), If... (Lindsay Anderson), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Green Snake (Tsui Hark), Under the Skin (Carine Adler), Quitting (Zhang Yang), In the Heat of the Sun (Jiang Wen), Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa), Frank (Lenny Abrahamson), Wild Combination (Matt Wolf), A Lot like Love (Nigel Cole), La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer), Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Night Watch, Day Watch, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, I Shot Andy Warhol, Go (Isao Yukisada), Takeshi Kitano, 20th Century Women
etc.,etc.

Night of The Foxes (12 mins) (Vimeo Link) -- great pacing

Shows:
Midnight Express (Japanese, 96-98, featured Takso Osawa)
Tokyo Love Story
Kobayakawa Nobuki No Koi
Palace of Desire (Li Shaohong)
West World (HBO)

Music:
Forest Swords, Tchaikovsky, Night Burger, Shostakovich, Puccini, Glass Animals (1st album), Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Joy Division, John Coltrane, Arthuer Russell, "Soil & Pimp" Sessions
etc., etc.
Percussion of jungle soul
Bolero by Maurice Ravel
パレード(instrumental) by 平沢進
Datum by Musette
Careful You by TV on the Radio

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being my own mentor since I'm a teenager and I'm really good at it.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: Filmmaking, Mandarin, Yoga tips for beginners
Learn: healthy life style, anything
Share: My life, my passion, my views

What I Can Share with Hosts

How to make a film
How ridiculous film industry is and you don't want to be part of it (half joking)
My music playlist
How to make a chinese breakfast style omelette
The stories of guys i dated (seriously?)
The story of my 3 month archaeology field trip when i was in college

Countries I’ve Visited

United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States