There is one trait that runs in my family: a foolish kind of persistence. We are foolish enough not to realize how hard something is — who would knowingly choose the hard thing? Foolish enough to keep going when nothing comes of it — who enjoys getting nowhere? Foolish enough not to mind standing apart — who deliberately strays from the crowd? And yet it is precisely the way this foolishness and persistence feed each other that lets us get certain things done.
“That boy Zhengyang — if he sets his mind on something, he’ll make it happen. But if he doesn’t want it, no one can help him.”
Either my mother said that or my father did. In any case, it certainly wasn’t me.
Sometimes we need other people to show us who we are. It was only after hearing those words that I realized: so this is the kind of person I am.
There is nothing wrong with being a little foolish. Stupid is another matter.
Zhengyang Yao
Beijing, August 16, 2026