Who inspires you?

A lot of people and stuff around me inspire me. My background about art studying was different from other people. I didn’t want to learn art for the first time. I was worried about which high school that I would go to, so I asked my dad for some suggestions. And he said that as a girl, you should study art (kind of unusual then other parents, because they thought only bad students study art). China is different, there are lots of competitions when lots of people are around. Thus, if you want to go to an art high school, you need to take an art test, like Sketch head, still life watercolor, character sketch. I spent two years learning drawing stuff and being ready for the drawing tests. I took two times, the first time I filed. Howere, at high school, I still needed to prepare for college. It was a high level of the same art tests. Sketch head, still life watercolor, character sketch everyday in my high school life. The only thing that I really appreciated was that teachers would want students to learn more knowledge about Chinese art and western art, instead of only preparing art tests. That was how I saw about Chinese current art education(at least in that time).

I did not say that was bad, it kind of helped people to have better basic art skills. However, it also lost a lot of creativity. I needed to find out what I really like, want to create or what my art style was, instead of only copy other great artists’ work to improve my drawing skills. Thanks to my high school, I knew a lot of artists, like Nicolas Fagin, Renoir, my high school teachers (Fangzheng, Tongyan Runan, Chen Tao) and many Chinese illustrators.


Are you a minority?

I am Chinese. Right now, I am an international student who studies in America.


What does being a minority means to you?

It is more like standing in different aspects to consider things. Telling people who are outside of this group what happened inside, and vise versa. During this time, some details will miss and some truth will exaggerate. It is really hard to tell what is right or wrong, but there might not be right or wrong.


How have you represented being a minority?

Being myself and telling the others about my background or experiences.


When did you feel the most separated from the majority?

When people around me were not the people who have the same cultural background or experiences, or when they don’t understand or don’t want to understand.


When did the majority attempt to suppress you?

Learning art is kind of hard when people don’t know what they want to be in China, because people will get lost. Art education, most of the time in high school or arts training institutes, cannot help you to continuously create art work.


How does your inspiration further your art practice?

It pushes me to create more artworks which can speak for my own soul or my background.


Do you hold any responsibility as a minority?

There always are walls between each minority. I don’t think I should do something to erase these walls, but I should acknowledge those boundaries, understand it and respect it.


What are the biggest challenges you face as a minority?

To do appropriate things without hurting other people’s feelings. To speak my own voice without touching those boundaries.


Do you feel like being in a minority has inspired you as an artist?

I am standing in an aspect that other people might not consider. I might have more basic art skills than others, and it let me know the value of practice. However, I still need to learn more and be more creative. I might need to do more and work hard to achieve success.


In which way do you show censorship in your work?

My earlier work, at my high school time, includes lots of censorship. It was artistic creation under institutional norms. I had no choice. It might be a really good chance to practice art work.