Activities – Go / Weiqi

            I didn’t choose Go at first. It arrived in my life all because of an accident. In 2nd grade, I accidentally broke my arm and couldn’t do those competitive sports that I loved. Everyone else raced past me but I sat frustrated. What should I do? I wonder how to challenge myself without being on the field.  That’s when my parents introduced me to Go, a game seemingly simple but felt even more intense and strategic than any sport I played. Go became part of my life, to exercise my brain instead. 

            Go seems calm, but it is not. It forces me to think so much further ahead, to picture millions of situations, to value patience over speed, and to accept mistakes and wait for the chance to come. It filled my time quickly while becoming the center of my intellectual life. 

            After spending hours replaying professional games, studying patterns, and learning how every small move could change the whole board, I advanced through tournaments. I found myself climbing in the ranks because after numerous tries, I think I’ve found the way to compete confidently with strategy and big-picture thinking.

            My journey didn’t just stop there. After reaching an advanced non-professional rank, I started sharing with others what I had learned, as a way to build community. I have had precious experiences of teaching younger students who are also interested in Go, organizing chats about strategy and encouraging others to see Go as a new way of thinking. I also started a series of online teaching programs on Chinese social media where I design lesson plans and share with beginner players. 

           As of now, after more than 10 years of playing Go, Go is more than a board game for me; it is a lens through which I think about problems beyond the 19x19 grid. When I approach academic projects, leadership roles, or questions about business and society, I find myself applying the same mindset: look at the whole board, consider the trade‑offs, think a few moves ahead, and remember that every decision shapes the next set of possibilities. What started with a broken arm has become one of the most defining experiences of my life, teaching me how to turn setbacks into new directions and how to lead with both logic and humility.