About

My name is 徐秦宇 (xú qín yǔ) — 徐 from my dad, 秦 from my mom, and 宇 because it rained the day I was born (雨 → 宇). I don't have an English name and I'm not planning on getting one. A simple version for English speakers is roughly chin-you. As for the last name — don't even try (it's roughly like "shoe," but I think that analogy is so weird that I'd rather you just not attempt it). You'll survive.

PhD student by day. Boring by self-assessment (someone disagrees). Interesting by accident. People say I'm innocent — they're probably right. If you're a cute and interesting guy — or happen to know one you'd recommend — say hi on Instagram. I also think about serious things.

Life

Grew up in a small town near Shanghai. Native speaker of 苏北nese, which you've never heard of. Moved to New York in 2025 for grad school, which means I traded one kind of not-knowing-what-I'm-doing for another, but in English this time.

Also recently started learning how to be gay, which is its own kind of grad school.

Most of my life happens at a desk on 60 5th Ave. The rest happens on any random corners around the city.

I'm still figuring out most things.

Now

• obsessed with city pop and desperately want to be シブヤ系, secretly want to be a JR運転士
• rotating Harry Styles's new album — Pop especially
• bouldering from scratch (currently: v1 [3/15]good news, now v2)
• trying to make latte and matcha art, better than this guy
• learning to run faster with people who are already fast
• can't figure out how to afford Roosevelt Island Racquet Club
• weekly pilgrimage to Flushing for 螺蛳粉 and 鸭血粉丝
• obsessed with the 8th Ave express structure under Central Park, want to build a max flow simulator for mta

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