Yanjun (Iris) Long

Between the iris and the dragon, the soft and the fierce, I move.

Iris: a flower of layered elegance—tender, yes, but also a messenger between realms. In mythology, the iris bridges heaven and earth; in the anatomy of the eye, it opens the gate of perception. I take the name as an invocation: to perceive deeply, feel relationally.

Long (龙): my surname, meaning dragon in Chinese. In ancient cosmology, the dragon is no monster, but a divine force—fluid, shapeshifting, and attuned to the rhythms of wind, water, and time. It flies not to conquer, but to connect.

Anthropologist by training, designer in practice, writer at heart. I move with curiosity, write to think, and treat empathy and tenderness as tools of research—ways of listening deeply across difference.​​​