About Me

Hello! I'm Michael — a 22-year-old writer, content designer, and independent researcher. Spawned in the tar pits of Los Angeles, raised by capitalist wolves in Hong Kong, and educated on the frozen tundra of Vermont, I now terrorize Cambridge, MA.

Currently, I'm the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator of the Learning Games Network, a non-profit spun out from the MIT Education Arcade that aims to innovate for game-based learning. I also run 21CB, a blog about Asia's cultures, entertainment, and politics (currently on hiatus).

My research and practice focus on identifying and leveraging the best parts of the new media ecology. I'm interested in the evolution of narrative and aesthetics, as well as the platforms and communities which facilitate it.

I was previously a junior producer at the interactive design studio yU+co. [lab]. Before that, I held stints at Geekosystem.com, Gothamist.com, and the South China Morning Post. I received my B.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College in 2011.

Here's my resume.

Projects

  • 21st Century Boy (21CB)
    Asia's Pop and Digital Cultures

    21CB covers culture, society, and politics in East Asia and its diaspora.

  • Xenos-ISLE
    Play Games, Learn English

    Xenos-ISLE is LGN's online language-learning game environment platform.

Research

  • You Don't Know Me
    Social Media, Identity, and Brands

    How do we represent ourselves online and engage with brands, culture, politics, and events?

  • Now Playing in Consoles
    Video Game Promotional Culture

    Considering the narrative and aesthetic potential of promotional texts for video games.

  • After The End
    Apocalypse and Narrative Theory

    How and why we tell a story when The End has already happened.

  • The King of Pirates
    Manga Scanslation Communities

    Probing the tenuous relationship between manga scanslators, publishers, and fans.

Portfolio

Blog

Too Suen? is an erratically-updated collection of thoughts and stories about media, narrative, design, culture, and whatever else is unfortunate enough to catch my eye.

Let's Talk

Questions? Inquiries? Want to be my best friend? Want to be my archnemesis? I'm always up for chatting, freelance work, new collaborations, or connecting like-minded people.

E-mail me or find me on Twitter at @poetichentai.