The city is inside of me and I am inside the city.
I’ve lived in non-urban areas: suburbs, towns, and rural areas. I almost always feel not exactly myself, as though I am suffocating or as though I am not able to express myself, my being.
Even when I travel, my favorite places to go are cities in other countries. Hong Kong thrilled me with its densely packed retail spaces (one on top of each other as high as the eyes can follow). I fell in love with Istanbul, the myriad variety of things to see, people to watch. And how cool was the underground city in Montreal! My birth-city, Seoul, bustles non-stop working, shopping, eating, buying, drinking, smoking, playing, studying, doing.
The city I call home, New York, has secrets upon secrets. Each neighborhood is unto itself: the small ribbon shops jammed against each other in the Garment district; beautiful Japanese restaurants tucked into Midtown offices; the cool hip kids hanging out at 2 in the morning in Koreatown, the hushed silence along Fifth Avenue at 1 in the morning; the vast wideness of Park Avenue after office hours. I love suddenly realizing that I am across the street from a Louis Sullivan building or the white, calm shell of the West Chelsea Frank Gehry.
A lot of people think of New York City as just Manhattan, including many New Yorkers. But for me, my first New York City is Queens, that borough bursting with immigrant dreams. Many are the tongues that are spoken. Flushing, the very first area I lived in as a child, has a main strip to rival most major cities. One has to walk along quickly or be overtaken by a flood of people. When I was a child, it was mostly Korean, Japanese and Indian. But as with all immigrant groups, demographics quickly flux. Now, it’s mostly Chinese and Flushing is the destination for some of the most delicious Chinese food to hit the U.S.
What I love most of all is how endless the city is. It changes before my eyes, whether I am moving through it or not. It is endlessly amusing, fascinating, trying, perplexing, grimy and beautiful. People put on a show, for others or for themselves. People dress up, or they slouch along. It lifts you up or it tears you down. But it’s never boring.
