Author: Andy Yee

Andy Yee is a public affairs executive with experience in the financial services and technology sectors. He is currently Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Asia at Sun Life, and was previously with Visa and Google. He has also held roles in public institutions including the Hong Kong Government and the European Union Delegation to China. He started his career in investment banking and capital markets. He is a published author on finance, technology and geopolitics, and his works have appeared in leading academic and policy journals. He is an Industry Associate at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies, a former Payments Committee Co-Chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, and a 2017 AILA International Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Information Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and a master’s degree in Pacific Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He speaks Mandarin, English, Japanese and Cantonese.

Freedom by Coercion

Andy Yee

Fanatical experiments cannot be sustained without creativity. To paraphrase a wise man from the last century, the way the Nazis or the Communists sell their holy causes is no different from the way capitalists advertise their Gucci bags or cigarettes. The techniques we found in the imperialistic tendencies of the Nazis and the Communists are… Continue reading Freedom by Coercion

Skin in the Game

Andy Yee

Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses two criteria to filter ideas and books. First, the Lindy Effect: the more the book has been around, the longer its future life expectancy. Second, the more skin in the game, the more convincing the idea is. In practice, I am attracted to books that look ancient, and look at how far… Continue reading Skin in the Game

Architecture in a Post-Truth World

Andy Yee

Büro Ole Scheeren took the needle of the tower and bent it back into itself to create a loop. There is no beginning or end. Walk around the base of the tower, and you see it go from strong and imposing to unstable and fragile. It’s the perfect symbol for a post-truth world.

A Guide to Reading Pu Songling

Andy Yee

In vernacular Chinese, the Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is regarded as the supreme novel. In classical Chinese, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡) has the equivalent status. Mao Zedong claimed to have read the Red Chamber five times. I say you need to read Strange Tales two times. Read it in English the first… Continue reading A Guide to Reading Pu Songling

My Notes from the Underground

Andy Yee

Come, gentle night I run away from the Crystal Palace, and aspire to be a sick man, a spiteful man, an unattractive man. Greedily storing up impressions, one day I, too, will emerge from the underground, and master the path to chaos.