The “Not-famous-yet” Young Artist Interview Series
“尚未成名”青年艺术家采访系列
#1: RY 老一羊 ✖ Zing
I knew Zing since I was little. She was my best friend during elementary school in Guangzhou, China. But we sort of drifted apart, and later completely lost touch with each other for almost ten years. It was not until a few weeks ago that we suddenly added each other on WeChat. When I was a kid, she had always been the most talented friend I knew in drawing — I guess that’s why she was the first person that came to my mind for this interview series.
Here’s a flashback. She was drawing on a piece of paper and I was sitting right next to her. I mischievously doodled random shapes on the blank space of her drawing. She was by no means frustrated by what I did. Quite the opposite — she started drawing based on my arbitrary doodles. In that way, she creatively transformed my disruptive doodles into something that enriched her own drawing.
Many years have passed. Back then, we were kids that yelled outside of each other’s house and undertook “adventures” together every night after school. But now, we are young adults that venture in different parts of the world in pursuit of our own dreams.
Since she was at college in Wuxi and I was home in Guangzhou, we chose to video call on WeChat. She cut her hair shorter and dyed it orange. But her voice and facial features were still the same as I remembered.
It was our first conversation for almost ten years.
It was a conversation that allowed me to re-know my childhood best friend and revive a friendship silenced for a very long time.
Zing是我在广州小时候便认识的好友。一转眼近十年不曾联系后，前一段时间突然互加了微信。在我印象里，她一直是我小时候觉得身边画画最厉害的人——几乎是想到什么就能画什么出来。这一次的采访，她也是我第一个想到的人。
给我印象很深的一个回忆是，有一次她画画的时候我在旁边捣乱。她在画的时候，我就拿着圆珠笔在她的纸上空白的地方时不时“随手”画上一道。她不但没有阻止我，还兴致勃勃地根据我随手乱画的形状来创作，最后画出更好看、更丰富的图画。
这么多年过去了，我们从小时候在对方家楼下互喊，每晚约着在楼下玩的小孩子，变成了各奔东西，各怀梦想的青年人。由于她在无锡，而我在广州，所以我们用微信视频对话。视频那一头染了橘黄色短发的她，五官和讲话声音都还和我记忆中的几乎一样。
这一次的对话，也是我们近十年不曾联系后的第一次交谈。
我很开心借由这一次对话，“重新”认识了我小时候最好的朋友之一。
(Note: The conversation recorded below comes from two sources: first a video interview and later a written interview.)
(This article is translated from Chinese to English.)
work from 2016
work from 2017
R: What was your earliest experience with art?
Z: Art is a really broad concept. Let me start with drawing. It was the first art form that I learned of, and the one that I’ve practiced for the longest time. I liked drawing since I was little. Actually it was more like doodling in class on textbooks without paying attention to the teachers. I also took some art classes during elementary school.
But it’s not until now that I really come to feel what art is. I think it’s like a turning point. You have to grow up first to have a deeper understanding of art. Also, I wasn’t always an art student. I used to study math and sciences* in high school. I only decided to study art during senior year in high school. After that, I started taking joint university entrance exams.
(Note: In Chinese high schools, students have to choose between two paths of studying: either hard sciences or soft sciences/humanities. Once chosen, it cannot be changed for most cases. Zing chose the path of hard sciences.)
R：你从什么时候开始接触艺术？
Y：艺术这个范围有点太广，我就先拿画画来说吧，因为这是我最早接触也是坚持最久的艺术形式。从小就喜欢干这件事，也谈不上艺术，顶多算是上课开小差时的乱涂乱画吧。但是也是因为喜欢，所以小学期间也一直有上画画的兴趣班，这大概就是我的艺术启蒙阶段了吧。但是要说真正让我感觉到艺术是什么的话，可能就是我这段时期吧。我觉得是个转折点——大一点的时候才知道艺术是个什么回事。而且我也不是一直都是艺术生，我以前高中还是理科生。我是到高三的时候才确定自己要往这方面走。然后后面就一路参加联考、校考。
R: Why do you like art? What does it do for you?
Z: I’m not very good at expressing myself. But at the same time I’m extremely sensitive. I have so many feelings and emotions stuck in my mind. A piece of blank paper is where I can give vent to all the things I feel inside.
Drawing to me is therefore more like a way of expressing myself. It is like a container that holds my thoughts and intentions. That’s why sometimes drawing can be a very private thing for me. It’s the paradise of my spirit, the only refuge for me to run away from reality.
I know that sometimes my intention of protecting the pureness of this paradise is too strong — such that other people find me too reserved and unwilling to share my works. But it is a way of protecting myself. I’m just too scared to expose my real self in front of others.
R:你为什么喜欢艺术？什么让你坚持下来？
Z:我不太擅长表达，但我又是一个极度敏感的人，我有很多情绪很多感受，却都堵在心里，白纸就自然而然地成为我的宣泄口。画画对我来说更多是一种表达的形式。对我来说它可能更像一种容器，让我更自然地把自己的想法和意愿表达出来。也正因为这样，有时候画画对我说可能是更私人化的事情。它是我的精神乐园，是我逃避现实的唯一去处。我知道有时候我想守护自己这一方净土的意愿太过强烈，以至于给别人一种不愿分享的感觉，但这也许是我的一种自我保护机制，我只是害怕真实的自己暴露人前。
坚持画画其实是很自然而然发生的事情，就像有的人喜欢记日记一样，日常涂涂画画不过是我记日记的一个形式。我觉得小的时候可能没想太多自己在画什么，就喜欢画呗，画着玩，像涂鸦一样。但是到了高中的时候有段时间其实蛮抑郁的，然后那时候可能遇到些心境上面的挫折。那个时候画画对我来说就比较像是一种表达的工具，就像是自己和自己对话。
work from 2017
R: Do you have any quirks when working on art projects? When and where do you create?
Z: I always clean my desk before starting. I really like the idea of organizing. I would organize external, physical stuff and my internal thoughts at the same time. I don’t prefer any particular environment for creating — but the most ideal one would be at late night, in a dark room lit with the dim, yellow light of a lamp. Finally, music is a must-have haha😊
But sometimes I want to do things just because I’m in the mood. Sometimes I write things to find inspirations for my artworks. Later, I would recreate my writings in other art forms.
R:在创作的时候有什么特别的习惯或者癖好吗？喜欢在什么样的地方创作？
Z:我在认真做事情前一定要先整理书桌。我很喜欢收纳这个过程，我会一边收拾东西一边整理自己的思路。我没有特定的创作环境，但最理想的状态是——深夜，只开着一盏昏黄的台灯的幽暗的室内，最后，音乐是必须的哈哈😊
不过也很难说，有时候兴致来了，你就想这么去做了。有时候我会写点东西——我觉得写的这些东西对我的创作蛮有启发的。我后面会把写的东西“再创作”。
R: Do you think your style has changed? What kind of changes? Why these changes?
Z: Of course. Mainly because I grew as a person. To be honest, my style is still growing right now and I don’t yet have a specific style of my own.
When I was little, I was influenced heavily by the Czech artist — Mucha. My drawings tended to be very decorative. At that time I was also really into mystery/crime novels. So there were a lot of metaphoric and symbolic things in my past drawings. During high school, I symbolized emotions and then assembled them together.
When I was older, I didn’t want to be restrained by the traditional form of drawing anymore. What really changed my way of thinking is a China-France animation exchange event during college. An independent animation artist came to our school and played some of her short animated films. The artistic aspect and the narration techniques left a strong impression on my mind. It changed my stereotyped impression toward animation and kindled my passion for independent animated short films or art/experimental animation works.
Right now I’m at a turning point—I don’t want to limit myself with a specific type of art. I want to first learn more about other subjects, such as anthropology or sociology.
R:你觉得你的创作风格有随着你的成长而改变吗？什么样的改变？为什么改变？
Z:当然。改变的主要原因是自己在成长。其实我现在也正处在风格的成长期，到现在为止我也并没有形成某种特定的风格。
小时候受穆夏Mucha（捷克插画家）的影响比较大，画画时装饰性会比较强，同时期也着迷于推理悬疑小说，所以画面里会有很多隐喻和符号性的东西，比较抽象。高中时期会把情感符号化，然后拼接在一起。稍大一点，就不愿拘泥于传统的绘画形式，真正改变我想法的可能是一次中法动画交流会。当时正好有法国的独立动画艺术家来学校访问，在现场播放了她的几个短片作品。无论是作品的艺术性，还是叙事方式都给我留下极深的印象，改变了我对动画的刻板印象，自此我就开始对独立动画短片、艺术类动画以及实验影像感兴趣。
现在的我处于一个转折点，其实我现在这个阶段不太想做创作，而是想去吸收多一点东西。我现在反而对一些人类学或者社会学更有兴趣一些。
Copy of Mucha’s work. Done in high school. Mucha is a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. 1860-1939
R: What do you like about film art?
Z: It’s hard to give a specific reason. I learned about it. Then I came to like it. It’s like a relationship with someone. You met a person and felt right. Maybe that person will be your soulmate. Maybe not. You don’t know. But you gotta first give it a try.
R: 为什么喜欢影视艺术？
Z: 接触到了，就喜欢上了，很难说出一个具体的理由，感觉比较像是你谈恋爱，碰上了一个对的人，感觉不错，也许就是你的soulmate，那就处着试试呗哈哈
R: What is the biggest challenge for you when working on art projects?
Z: The mindset.
Animation has a very arduous and lengthy process. （I always break down in the middle of making animation. 😊First I doubt myself, doubt my ability. I ponder over life and take up my pen again—and then repeat this process every fifteen minutes…）
To make animation, you have to decide on a theme. Then you make the storyboard. You have to draw every frame of the animation. It really wears you down. It makes you lose your will sometimes. I felt exhausted after my last animation project and my brain felt empty. Now it’s time to refresh myself, relax and get back the feeling of living a life.
R: 创作中遇到比较大的挑战是什么？
Z: 心态。
做动画其实是非常漫长的工作。（创作的过程我会崩溃无数次😊。首先怀疑自我，质疑自己的能力，然后思考人生，拿起笔十五分钟后又再次循环这个过程…….)
一开始你的主题定下来了之后，你的分镜，你的故事板做好了之后，你每一帧都要自己画。很消磨你的意志的。做动画那段时间感觉自己都被耗尽了，脑袋空空。现在觉得一定要给自己补充能量，要不然真的耗不起来。现在这段时间空闲了下来，生活的感受又回来了。
R: What’s your favorite theme or motif? Are you working on anything recently?
Z: The theme of all my work is simple: it’s all about myself. I create to express myself.
I’m not working on anything recently. Because I think I’m still too ignorant and superficial. Like I said before, I exhausted myself working on my last project. So now I need to take a break to learn, to absorb, to replenish, to restore my sensibility toward life so that I can create again.
R:创作中偏爱的主题？或者最近有什么关于创作的工作吗？
Z:我的所有作品主题都很简单，就是我自己，因为我创作只因我想表达。
最近没有创作，因为我觉得自己非常无知且肤浅。前段时间的输出力度有点大，感觉快把自己掏空了，所以现在急需大量输入。可能我需要更多的时间，去吸收和沉淀，恢复对生活的感受力才能再次进入创作状态吧。
screenshots from an animation project in 2018
R: Where do you get inspirations?
Z: Most artists will tell you that their inspirations come from life. Well, mine too! Hahah (it’s a boring joke. Ignore me, please). In the past, I mostly gain inspirations for my artwork from my feelings and emotions. As you can tell, I rarely post stuff on social media. For me, feelings and emotions are something very private and personal — like things you’d written in a private journal. I rarely show my work because — sometimes there’re too many emotions or inner disturbances hidden in my work that I don’t want to expose them.
Well, actually the sources for my inspiration vary in different situations. For example, in one of my animation project, my inspiration came from my daily doodles. I didn’t doodle with the intention that I was going to use it for my project later. I just doodled because I felt like it. But when I looked back at my doodles, I saw a story hidden beneath the paper. Then I had the urge to turn the doodles into an short animation.
R: 从哪里获得灵感？
Y: 大多数艺术从业者都会告诉你他们的灵感从生活中来，而我，其实也是！哈哈…（是不是一个很无聊的笑话）以前的话可能更多是从一些心情上获取灵感。你有没有发现我很少发东西。这东西对我来说其实是蛮隐私的，像是记私人日记那种感觉。有的时候里面有太多心里的情感，我不会想把它们暴露出来。
嗯…其实要认真说起来我也没有很关注过我的灵感来源，可能要论不同情况而定吧！举个例子：
在我的一个动画project中，我的灵感来源于我平常的涂鸦。我在画画时没有刻意想到要将它作为后面动画的灵感来源，我只是单纯出于心情想画，但在我画完后，我觉得画面挺有故事感的，就有了将这张插画改成动画的冲动。
然后，我收集灵感的方法有很多。我喜欢在将睡未睡，半清醒的时候想象奇奇怪怪的故事发生。因为睡前灵感很可能早上起床就忘得一干二净，所以我床头会备一些便条纸和铅笔，以便我把这些小想法在入睡前记录下来。我还很喜欢独自搭公交车，带着窥视者的心情观察车上的乘客，想象他们之间可能的关联和故事。
R: What about your favorite artist or artistic style?
Z: I’m sure about the favorite part, but this person is my idol — Jan Svankmajer, a Czech surrealist artist. I’ve seen a comment about him somewhere: I didn’t believe in the idea of a “genius” until I saw Jan Svankmajer’s work. I think this is very well-said. This person is a f—king genius! I recommend one of his short films —“Dimensions of Dialogue.”
By the way, I loved watching Rick & Morty.😁
R: 最喜欢的艺术家或者艺术风格？
Z: 不能说是最喜欢，但他是我偶像——杨·史云梅耶（Jan Svankmajer），一个来自捷克的超现实主义艺术家。不知道在哪儿看到这么个对他的评价：认识他前不相信有“天才”的存在，看了他的作品后不得不惊叹“这他妈就是天才”。我觉得说的很对，这人简直天才得快要变态了吧。安利一个他的短片《对话的维度》，b站上应该有，不行的话可以翻墙看油管视频。
喜欢的动画的话，前段时间很喜欢看 rick&morty 😁
work from 2017
work from 2016
R: Can you talk about your experience of learning art? Where have you learned art?
Z: I mostly just learned by myself after elementary school. I was being stupid during middle school. I chose to study what everyone else was studying, instead of what I really liked. My self-consciousness had not yet woken up at that time. I didn’t know what I really wanted, so I just followed everyone else. It’s like you thought something was your own goal, but it wasn’t.
After I realized what I really wanted in high school, I transferred to be a full-time art student and went to Beijing to be trained for a full year. Right now I’m studying at the college of digital media in Jiangnan University. I had a gap year after freshman year to prepare my own portfolio and apply to universities in the US and UK. I’ll go to the University of the Arts London to continue my study as a freshman next semester.
R: 可以讲述一下你学艺术的经历吗？在哪些地方学过什么？
Z: 其实我小学之后就没怎么学画画。初中的时候，有点蠢，大家都去学文化，所以我也跟着去学。其实是自己的自我意识还没有觉醒，不太清楚自己要做什么，就跟着大家去做。其实就是你以为那是你自己的目标，但它并不是。然后后面高中觉醒了之后，高三转艺术生，在北京的画室集训了一年，现在江南大学的数字媒体学院。大二休学一年自己准备艺术作品集，现决定去伦敦艺术大学（UAL）。
R: Why Europe?
Z: Because the cultures in Europe, of both literature and art, attract me more. And also because I feel like universities there have more resources than those in China.
R: 为什么选择想要去欧洲？
Z: 因为欧洲的文化，不论是文学还是艺术都要更加吸引我。而且我想要更多资源吧。（因为无锡相对资源很少，我一般就去上海跟朋友看一下戏剧或者展。国内虽然基础教育与国外不相上下，但是感觉差别在于资源。）
而且，我好喜欢Jude Law哦😁
R: How do you imagine your future?
Z: I don’t know. I don’t want to give a clear definition to my future yet. Right now I just want to try and learn more different things. But I feel like I would head toward the big direction of filmmaking. I can imagine myself as an independent animation director or filmmaker active in animation festivals or shows.
R: 以后想走的路是什么样的？未来想象的生活是什么样的？
Z: 我不知道。我不想给自己下定义，但我感觉自己的方向应该还是影视这块。现阶段我只想多做尝试，多接触不同的形式。目前，对于未来的自己，我能想象得到的是做一个独立动画人，可能会活跃于动画节或者影展。
work from 2018
R: Do your parents show support for what you’re doing now?
Z: At the beginning, no. My family is a very traditional one in China. My parents think that only students with bad grades go to study art — for them, it’s like the last thing to do. I also have two siblings, which means there would be a lot of financial stress for my family if I study abroad.
My dad is very conservative. He just wants me to stay in China and get a doctoral degree. How funny is that? (laugh) I think that is ridiculously funny. I had to fight against him for a long time. My mom is ok. She supports me even if she doesn’t understand me. She helped me apply for a gap year and we kept it from my dad together. But later after I got my offer, they looked up the rankings and were quite happy.
Now they have to finally compromise — not because they finally understand me, but because I’m too stubborn. Don’t be a stubborn daughter like me. It’s always better if you can win your parents’ understanding and support. But in reality it’s not so easy like that. Right now, I’m just glad that even if they don’t fully understand me, they’re still trying their best to support me — because of love.
R: 你家人对你的想法表示支持吗？
Z: 一开始是不支持的，因为我的家庭是非常非常传统的中国家庭，在他们眼里学画画是“没出息”的，是学习不好的孩子的最后出路。而且我们家有三个小孩，我出国的话给家里的经济压力也是蛮大的。
我爸是那种非常传统的父亲，会有比较世俗的想法。他就希望我留在中国，再考一个博士，你说多么可笑？（笑）我觉得很可笑。我那时候跟他吵了很长一段时间。我妈还好，即使她不理解也会支持我。所以休学就是我妈帮我瞒着我爸。后来拿到offer后他们看到排名，也蛮开心的。
现在他们的不得不妥协了，不是因为他们终于理解我了，而是因为我太固执了。不要学我做个固执的小孩，能赢得父母的理解与支持当然是最好的，但现实往往不如愿。不过好在他们虽不能完全理解，但也尽力支持我，出于爱。
R: Are you friends with other young artists? How do you interact with them?
Z: I feel really lucky that I’ve met a special girl in college. We have a lot of common interests and always go to Shanghai together to watch plays or shows. We also recommend movies to each other all the time. I really admire her talents in writing and photography. I cherish this friendship a lot. I cannot ask for a better soulmate.
R: 认识一些其他的青年艺术家或者爱好艺术的人吗？你们之间的互动是怎样的？
Z: 我觉得我很幸运在大学期间遇到了一个很特别的女生。我跟她志趣相投，会约着一起去上海看戏，看展，互相安利电影。我很欣赏她的才华，欣赏她的文字和摄影。她是我很珍惜的人，遇到一个能用灵魂沟通的人可遇不可求。
R: Do you have any new plans?
Z: I want to be a good person who keeps early hours and eats on time 😊
R: 接下来有什么新的计划吗？
Z: 做一个早睡早起，按时吃饭的好青年😊
recent work
Thank you for reading!
