Introduction
Greetings Visitor(s)!
Many of you have come across this site because, in one way or another, we share interests. This site strives to provide a gathering place for like-minded individuals.
With material we feel adds value and perspective, we hope to inspire others to create and enhance both their lives and those around them. We acknowledge there is a lot of excellent content on the web. There is just no way we are able to bring you all of it. But some of it? That’s a solid accomplishment, in our opinion. Enjoy your stay. Come again. Keep sharing!
–We Share Interests–
Why is this site English-based?
There is nothing inherently superior about English. In fact, it is a mess of a language with all kinds of inconsistencies and borrowings from other languages. It just happens to be the lingua-franca of today’s world and more importantly it’s the only language the founder of this site really knows. There was really no other choice, here.
Some of Our Values
Most importantly, we do not pretend to know everything about everything. In fact, we’ll be the first to admit that given the volume of information in the universe, we don’t know much. We Share Interests was, in large part, created in order to get us off our rears and do something about this.
We do not try to focus too much on stories of today. You may see articles on subjects from weeks, months, years, or even decades ago. Sure, they may be from a time in the past. That does not make them bad and that does not make them any less important. Dates are often just details and a good story is still a good story.
We champion equal rights and opportunity for all. We recognize that individuals regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status can excel and meaningfully contribute to progress if provided a level playing field. We do not care where you are from or what you look like. We just want good ideas.
The Categories
Arts
A broad category. Articles here are Arts related but outside of fashion, film, music, literature, and architecture which have their own categories. In Arts, one might find features on photography, illustrators, sculptures, dance, comics, toys, video games, origami, marionettes and more.
Science
Another broad category. Topics covered could include zoology (with a large weighting towards entomology and marine life), paleontology, the mind, plantlife, crystals, disease research, space exploration and more.
Fashion, Film & Music
Fashion, film, and music are closely linked industries and they all take queues from one another. That’s why they are together, here. See what styles we think look nice, what shows we think are fun and/or thought provoking, and what music gets us moving.
Social Sciences
Topics found here could include soft power, African American history, origins of racism and other forms of discrimination, business scandals, sports heroes and failures, ancient civilizations, war crimes, social change and more.
One group we like to explore is game changers, especially ones from groups that have been historically marginalized. Despite adversity, they have shown the will to fight and create a new world for themselves so that they don’t have to live in someone else’s.
In addition, we are especially interested in unique stories about groups underserved by mainstream North American media outlets.
We want to know more about Asia diaspora stories and cross cultural engagement. Taking that a step further, we want to know about the diaspora stories uncommon to what has historically been presented to the Asian Canadian audience. For example, hearing about the lives of third generation Chinese in Mauritius. That’s interesting!
Food
Discussions about food can branch off in countless ways. From restaurant reviews, to eateries we dream of visiting, to cooking shops, to different preparations for meat, if you are interested in food, you’ll find something good here. How is lamb used in different parts of China versus parts of Turkey versus parts of India? What does rice noodle mean to the Cantonese versus Vietnamese? Possibilities are endless.
What you will not see here are only nice articles. There is a blogger who said he would only write favorable articles for restaurants. For this site, we are interested in raising standards. We aren’t picky but we know overrated. When a brick oven pizza is supposed to be “famous,” it cannot have a soggy middle with a radius of 5 inches. It cannot be soggy anywhere.
You will also not see a price range measured in dollar signs like “$$$$$” for something pricey. We find this system vague and annoying. Instead, we will tell you exactly what prices are and what exactly the menu’s price range is.
Literature & Vocabulary
This is where you’ll find literature written by We Share Interests contributors. There is a focus on relationships between Asians of different backgrounds. Why? Because that’s what we know and it’s what we think is interesting.
Short stories, character ideas, scripts (which will be casually formatted due to a lack of formal training), random thoughts are included. We’ll also comment on books we find interesting and they will not necessarily involve Asian themes.
You’ll also find a list of the useful words we have put on this site in our Featured Phrase section and have come across via Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day segment. We can only feature one word at a time on our page so this is our way of providing the words the permanence they deserve.
Travel
We look at amazing places we dream of escaping to. One of these days…
Architecture, Interiors & Landscaping
Palaces, skyscrapers, tree houses, we look at all kinds of buildings as well as gardens, furniture, light fixtures and anything else that makes for a tasteful interior/exterior. We mostly let the images speak for themselves. However, we do have some commentary to share.
Upcoming
This is a section sometimes at the bottom of a page where a special time of the year is promoted be it, for example, International Women’s Day, the Your Kontinent Festival, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, or Asian Heritage month.
Featured Phrase
Sometimes we don’t know how to say something ourselves. Luckily, someone else has found a way. This is in the bottom right of every page. A record of the words shown here are found in the Literature and Vocabulary section.