We recently connected with Lei Chen and have shared our conversation below.

Lei, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

my thesis is an experimental animation short that examines family, connection, and freedom with frenetic lines and vivid colors. In a family that raises pigeons for sport and consumption, each generation holds a different feeling towards the birds that surround them. It is my story also the story represents our only-child generation in China, our parents are too busy and we don’t have any siblings to talk to, so we are consistently seeking approval, just like the pigeons, craving blue skies but still needing the cages at home.

Lei, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I come from a typical Asian family, an only child with high expectations of parents. and they are so busy so I spent most of my childhood with my grandparents. Painting is something I grew up with, it felt so natural I just kept drawing all the time. In junior high school, I started to study under an oil painter, he taught me how to read paintings, and how to observe the world. I think that may be why my images lean more toward strong colors and heavy textures.

Because my parents were very busy, I learned at an early age to observe and expect their approval. Unfortunately, my parents were not in favor of me choosing art over medicine. This led to a deeper disconnect between us and my obsession with wanting to seek recognition. But at the same time, growing up on my own and being independent has long since made me accustomed to solitude and freedom, which is a contradiction. This is what I try to explore and explain in my works.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most touching thing is that I can come across audience members who resonate with me or those who are struggling to figure out their way out and get help after seeing my film. In today’s society, I think everyone is mentally lonely, so any degree of empathy is empathy, and that’s very important.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

the lesson I had to unlearn, I would say others’ suggestions are important. In China, we take other people’s opinions too seriously and we want to please everyone which is impossible. Especially if you’re in an environment full of free will, novelty of all kinds, and experimentation. Inevitably, there will be countless suggestions and opinions. So at first, for our critique class, I was trying to follow everyone’s opinion and ‘fix’ my film in their ways, but then I found out I didn’t know what I was doing and what I wanted to do anymore, which was terrifying and exhausting. I remember vividly, that I was burned out because of my peers‘ good advice, and the next day when I went to the gym, my friends were like, what happened, you looked like a drowning dog. After that day, I took some time to write my story down and focus on my feelings. I tried to turn down the voices of others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leichenjm.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lei-chen-75261a194/