Miao Jiaxin Studio — Attraction in New York

It's hard to review a service that was done for free. It's essentially reviewing the experience of being given a gift, which is not a normal social thing we do. But the request is for honesty, to be critical of the kindness. So that's what I'm giving a shot, here.

My first thoughts were that this is a great way to get murdered. Here I am face down on a massage table in a stranger's house, back exposed, pants on... wait, no, first thoughts were that it was weird that Miao asked me to leave my pants on. I wondered if there was something homophobic in that request, a need to frame this encounter as explicitly platonic as possible. But whatever, pants on it was! And then, as I was lying face down, I thought, oh no, I'm going to get murdered. He's going to go "wash his hands"? That sounds like an excuse as he goes to grab his axe and comes back in the room and I get American Psycho'd.

But I did not get slaughtered! Instead Miao rubbed the back of my body for an hour. It was a pretty good massage! Not the best, but not the worst. The thing that struck me the most is that it was repetitive, which in one sense was boring, but in another sense allowed for a kind of meditation in thought, as I wasn't distracted by new sensations of hands moving in novel ways across different areas of my body. It was mostly just a simple kneading around my back, occasionally moving to the neck or arms and legs. Free from distractions, I thought a lot, and thought about myself thinking, sometimes practicing mindfulness, sometimes focusing on my body sensations and breathing, and sometimes just letting my mind wander.

When my mind wandered, I don't think I accomplished much in the way of thought. I mostly just worried about things. And then I would remember that I was getting a massage, and that was nice.

The standout moment in the massage was absolutely the hot stones. Miao has wonderful technique with them, rolling them slowly to release a punctuated heat that just felt amazing. I loved it and wish there were more of it. Like maybe on my legs had they not been covered in denim! Stupid pants!

And while we're circling back to pants, Miao's pants had a wonderful pattern on them. I don't remember exactly what they were—green brown and black floral?—but he clearly has style. Miao himself is a lovely person, with an amazing studio and apartment space. He's lucky—life seems to be working out well for him.

And I'd like to end by saying I feel lucky, too. Lucky to have so many blessings, to live in New York, and to to have randomly stumbled across this project via Google maps: having had a stressful few days, I was looking for a massage place in Bushwick, and this is what I found! I'm lucky to have now had this singular experience with Miao, the artist, this person who feels compelled to create and share. The world often feels terrible. The massage felt pretty good. But Miao felt good—I...

Miao was very accommodating and let me schedule my appointment for 11am Saturday late the night before. His studio is clean and calm, and he's clear and communicative without being too conversational. I found the ambient piano music to be kind of repetitive. Like, I want to say the music was boring- but obviously that's the point. I prefer more sustained tones and bells and bowls to keyboard, but I have overly specific taste in ambient and drone music so I wouldn't hold it against him. I wish I could do 4.5, but since I can't I've been debating whether this is a 4 or 5 star review. There was some trouble with the scheduling that was out of his control, but despite the difficulty, Miao handled it great so I'm going to lean in to a 5 star because I imagine if I had come on a different day there wouldn't have been any issue. So what happened was, as he apologetically explained, unfortunately, he had a late-night incident regarding his neighbor which threw off his morning. When I arrived, he was still in the middle of his previous appointment and I waited outside a few minute before he came to let me in. But then he set me up outside on his nice balcony overlooking Bushwick with a nice cold Heineken, which I impulsively accepted- leading me to a spiral of thinking about why I make bad decisions that seem fun but really why do I need to drink a beer before noon? It was cold but left a bad taste in my mouth literally and emotionally. Again, I don't blame Miao for this any more than I would blame him for how many beers I had the night before at Grace Space where I bumped into him. Miao emphasized that he wanted me to relax, and he seemed really sincere about it. The massage itself was really nice. I have a weird upper spine lumpy shoulder neck. For some reason I've had masseuses and masseurs try to knead the spine out of my neck. Like, no, that is not a knot, that is my goddamn spine. Miao did not do this. He maintained a consistent level of massage oil on my back that never felt gross nor like stingy. The hot stone portion was particularly nice. However unfortunately again because the appointments are scheduled back to back, he had to leave to let in the next client in the middle of my session who in turn I'm sure would have the same delayed experience. That said, Miao didn't skimp or rush on me at all, and it was totally worth the wait. It would have been helpful if he had an assistant or someone to tend to his clients and cell phone so he didn't have to do it all. If this had been an expensive massage I would have expected there to be an assistant so he could focus on his clients. But this is not an expensive massage. This is also five star because for real, there is no better...

I was running a little bit late and luckily Miao was able to start a little late for me. He greeted me at the door and explained what he was doing, and the room itself was comfortable and basic- no candles/incense etc. He was very friendly. It was a little noisy outside but not a big deal. He adjusted the windows and lighting to be more comfortable. He put on some ambient sounds and heated up the hot stones. He started with some basic all over back strokes and then went to the neck. I was very tense and had tight shoulder muscles, and a lot was going through my mind too, and so because of that it was hard for me to relax at first. He did a repertoire of different kinds of patterns with and without hot stones- there was one that made me tense up a bit because it was overly ticklish, but I didn’t say anything about it. I think also because of having a tight back, some of the movements were a little intense and going over the knots in my back a bit like speed bumps. The music went to a commercial and he went over to fix it and seemed a little agitated by it. The best part was when he was getting more specifically under my shoulder blades. Lastly he massaged my calves which I wasn’t expecting, but it was very nice and by the end of that I finally felt actually relaxed. At the end he took some simple passport style photos which took like a minute- to get the reaction from the massage. He did a pretty good job. He offered...