Days after he arrived at Wabash from the Sichuan Province of China, Xingcheng “Merlin” Liu ’10 was surprised to spot a familiar sight on his walk from the TKE house.
“By the Chapel, and also next to Martindale, are gingko trees—the city tree of my hometown of Chengdu,” Merlin says. Called yin xing in Mandarin, the gingko is one of the oldest species known and grows as tall as 130 feet in China. Merlin insists that despite the pungent odor of the tree’s fruit, the seeds, used in traditional Chinese medicine, have a delicious “nut-like” taste when boiled in chicken soup or other dishes.
Merlin chose his nickname in high school in honor of the small and elusive falcon found throughout the northern hemisphere. “It represents freedom and sharp vision to me,” Merlin says, smiling as he adds: “I always choose the window seat on airplane flights. Even though you have to excuse yourself as you squeeze by people to get to that seat, there’s so much to see from there. Why would you ever want to miss it?”
A keen eye for detail in the cultural and natural landscape drives the chemistry major’s photography. He carried his camera to his internship last summer at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul and on travels throughout the upper Midwest, finding small moments and places long-time residents often miss.
Click here for The World Upside Down—A Photo Gallery
