I am interested in exploring the nature of self as an emergent property that arises at the intersection of individuals and their cultural environments. Cultural forces provide potential resources for agency when internalized but they also confine our experiences within a set of space and time. Human behaviors are of different quality within the space and along the border: within, we are often open and cooperative, while along the border between self and other, conflicts, power struggle, and violence often occur; and our psychology and perceptions change accordingly. I choose to write in fiction because I wish to use a personal journey to unravel this invisible yet intimate process and our potential for expansion, which is embodied by and can only be shown through our individual life. Works such as Siddhartha have been useful as an inspiration for they show such a process. However, I wish to examine trauma – its corresponding psychology and perception – more thoroughly so as to explore why those great thinkers such as Nietzsche or the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming and colonial writers such as Glissant and Fannon have gazed into the darkness and come back with extraordinary insights about humanity.