In November of 2021, I came across an official account called “white space”. This account opened a passage to a virtual space where people could express themselves authentically. Writers and artists could delve into their personal experiences and share fiction and poetry without fear of consequences. I had a remarkable experience as a reader of “white space” and I am delighted to welcome J, one of the co-founders, to share some of their experiences as a content creator and current English major.
How would you describe yourself as a child?
I would say I used to be a really self-centered child and a huge troublemaker to the people around me—I still am but to a different degree. It was writing that taught me the importance of love, compassion, and understanding towards others.

How did you discover or realize your passion for storytelling or writing?
I think I can trace my affinity towards storytelling from a few subtle things. Back when I was in primary school, I really enjoyed reading The Adventures of Tintin(back when I didn’t know that the first episodes are incredibly racist, though many of the post-WWII ones are iconic), and I also liked to imagine wild backstories for my extensive toy animal collection.
We are looking for stories and unconsciously creating them all the time. During our childhoods, we often create imaginary friends, cities, or alternative worlds. We might become unsatisfied with the ending of a novel, movie, or even song, and we would do all we can to build an alternative vision of reality. During dark episodes of our lives, we may imagine our life if things happened differently. These are all forms of storytelling and to write fiction, perhaps, is to extract these moments and mold them into a form. When I was an editor for my school’s magazine, I would say that people are all born writers, it takes time for us to realize it and find the best way to express ourselves.
I am immensely grateful to the Chinese and English teachers who helped me during my journey through high school. They showed me what good stories are like, helped me develop confidence in my interests, and supported me to accept and live with the dark truths of the world. If I never met them, then I would only be able to talk about tips for college application and guides for a computer science major.

What is the purpose of storytelling to you?
I think the ultimate function of writing is to record and preserve the lives of a particular group of people for eternity. In the earliest stage of our written history, poets in the form of wandering folk singers and historians in the form of scribes would (this is my own speculation) view writing and composing as an embodiment of divine power, that requires spiritual devotion and a substantial amount of sacrifice. Even though I really admire their way of living, of course, that would be impossible in the modern world; a perhaps different belief I hold is that my writing shouldn’t be about me—it should be about something greater, and devotion and sacrifice should be its ultimate goal. My own wishes and desires are nothing in relation to the suffering of others that are supposed to be on the pages. So, I see writing as a part of the service industry, even though I still can’t see a clear future for me entering into that industry [Laugh].

Why did you create “white space”?
I’ve always wanted to run a platform, like a website or a blog, that allows me to enjoy the sheer satisfaction of posting, even if it’s not my writing. This dream culminated in a public account (my personal translation for gong-zhong-hao) I co-created with a few friends that has the best name I ever came up with, “white space”. The most important function of this platform is to unconditionally post submissions that we’ve received while trying to make them beautiful. The latter requirement largely failed to be met as I gradually became the dictator of this account, because I had such a nerdy taste in formatting and only minimal knowledge in graphic design.
There’s one thing I want to point out: “white space” has always been a group project. The best articles always involved multiple creators; the ones solely made by me are usually young and naïve mumblings. I would do the daily chores for the account and finish a few things that I felt no one except me would have an interest in doing, such as the account’s internal page, where I created an intricate system of buttons with links (which I don’t think any of my friends noticed).

Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start a blog, etc.?
From the 14 months of posting on this account, I would say if you want to create a blog, an account, or a website to express yourself, don’t hesitate, just go for it. You’re going to love it. It will be super fun and it’ll teach you lots of things, from what it is like to be an “influencer” to how to be a nice, communicative person.
I used to worry about the low number of reads we got, as the statistics for many of our most decorated articles have been disproportionally low, but I eventually stopped caring. The numbers of reads on any social media platform are purely arbitrary and don’t say much about your work’s true quality or your effort.
There’s a story to tell for nearly every single article we’ve posted, so instead of bragging more about this platform, I’ll give my readers (massive thank you to all who are reading this) a few key takeaways from the personal rules I’ve followed and the mistakes I’ve made:
- Please try to acknowledge every work you’ve used from others and credit everyone who participated in the process of creation. Especially the pictures. Please don’t plagiarize: it’s a crime. Think about the act of copying and pasting what an author spent months to write in three seconds. And sometimes you can get into real trouble, due to the rules of the platform.
- Watch out for the potential grammatical mistakes you’re going to make, especially the Chinese ones that are easy to miss: try to proofread every to-be-published article. Some typos are so embarrassing that make you want to delete the post.
- One of my biggest regrets while running “white space”: it’s a really questionable act to use others’ works for free, especially the artworks that sometimes take way more labour to create than those using language. It might be different if an artist willingly places themself as a core member of a project and produces works regularly, but the definition of “willingness”, the extent of “willingness”, and whether they should work wagelessly are all important things to consider. During my time running the account, I believed in too much of my project’s “meaningfulness” and took too much help for granted. I would like to sincerely apologize to everyone that I may have offended. So maybe you can just think a bit more on this matter. At least buy them some bubble tea.
- Especially if you work inside a group, try to downplay your opinions. Maybe they matter, but this is a collective effort and someone’s ideas may need to be unfortunately sacrificed. Most of the greatest rock bands in history broke up because no one was willing to make the sacrifice. Maybe doing this could be hard sometimes, but companionship and collective achievements would be the ones you would look back upon more after several years, I guess.
Why did you choose to study English Literature for your undergraduate degree?Aside from all the noble reasons I could’ve made up, I chose to study English literature because of a very practical concern—I have nearly no knowledge of subjects other than literature. Maybe I could have chosen linguistics, which requires me to sit for 12 hours a day studying IPAs and the origins of Northeast Caucasian languages. If I had been born twenty years ago, maybe I could have quit school and joined a band.

Has your perspective of your degree changed since you started calling yourself an English student?
I do think as a literature student, I possess an abnormal amount of interest towards subcultures instead of high cultures, if you know what I’m talking about, and I’m also interested in some subcultural mediums of expression such as visual novels and vtuber streaming. I think our definition of creative expression should not be constrained to the classics and, if we utilize the new technologies to help us seek artistic depth, it can lead to many interesting artistic creations.
As a humanities student, you have to read lots of material you don’t enjoy—please be prepared to find a way to deal with this…My perspective towards this degree hasn’t changed much, except that maybe I became even more aware of how the role of history (imperialism) and power dynamics have shaped our literary canon. So, let’s find our favourite books with this in mind.

Looking forward, what are your plans for the near future if any?
Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe I would change my major after my final year. Maybe I would hold very different views and become someone that I can’t even recognize. But I’m glad to be here and I feel fortunate to be sitting down and sharing this now.
Thank you, Jessica, for having me here and letting me act as if I’m a big deal. Thanks to everyone who has become a temporary (or is it?) reader of “white space”, and everyone that has been part of its insignificant history. Thanks to everyone who has reached the end of this article, and I hope my words will help you in some way. Thanks again and enjoy The PVLSE.
If you want to share your story or experiences, please contact The PVLSE at thepvlsemagazine@outlook.com