Hou studied history at cambridge university and went on to get a master's degree in philosophy. He felt that the sort of things he was interested in, though they made use of the humanities, weren't actually things that needed to be interpreted in an academic way. The career of one person in particular was absolutely decisive to him. And i remember that as a young man, i would sometimes look at them just to gain inspiration,. like a religious person might look at an icon to fill themselves up.