Useless (first issue)

A comprehensive magazine covering literature, culture, film, video games, education, history, society and politics, with a "heavy" attitude from content to design.

The so-called "heavy" is relative to "frivolous". Nowadays, there are many intentional and trend-setting voices on social media, which are noisy and chaotic, and few people are willing to sit down and read carefully. Therefore, paper magazines can serve as a balance to reject this trend.

The title of the journal, "Useless," is taken from Zhuangzi's "Inner Chapters: The Human World": "Everyone knows the use of useful things, but no one knows the use of useless things." I hope it will be a place for reflection, where a group of people gather together with nothing to do, discussing recent events. While there may still be elements of social engagement (or, for some, nation-building), that shouldn't be the primary purpose. Instead, I hope to write and read the journal through thought as a way of life.

Lin Wei Di was born in Penang, Malaysia, and educated in Taipei, Malaysia, and the UK. He currently works at Raffles Hospital in Singapore. He is a director of Grassroots Books, a director of General Publishing House, publisher of the literary magazine Monsoon Belt, and a director of Monsoon Belt Culture in Taipei.

Editor's Note
02——About the Magazine/Lin Weidi Literature
08——Crazy Woman of the Ganges/Zhu Jiahan
14——Unfinished / Zhu Jiahan
20——One Person's Classic of Mountains and Seas——Interview with Xinhua Poet Chen Xizhe
30——Blindness / Chen Xizhe Culture
32 - The Rise and Fall of Taiwan's Simplified Chinese Bookstore Empire / Chen Baiqing
38 - How difficult is it to decouple politics and culture? / Chen Shiwen Films
44——Image Analysis as Rhetoric: How the Film Treasure Box Empowers the Audience to Leave the Position of Spectator / Zhao Duo Video Games
50——On the Origin of Modern Game Players/Shi Qingyuan Education
56——A Brief Discussion on the Development and Practice of Tutoring in Taiwan's Education/Chen Guanting History
64——Death and Rebirth on the Tip of the Shoe——Cai Ruiyue’s Dance Life／Chaos
society
72——Reading and Learning from "The Python in the Chandelier": From Taiwan to Malaysia / Feng Chuihua
84 — Reexamining the debate over the naming of Wuhan pneumonia / Zhang Heng, studying politics
90——On the Hong Kong National Security Law/Lin Weidi