We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yingdan Lai a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yingdan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’m excited to share some recent creative projects! My film, “Fish” was featured in several festivals, and last year, I also created a comic titled “Confession.” “Fish” is a personal story inspired by my own experience of unintentionally neglecting a childhood pet. The film delves into themes of distorted (or immature) perceptions of life and death, portraying the complexities of human-animal relationships and how they mirror broader human connections. It reflects on the under-appreciated pet market in early 2000s in China, where animals were cheap and often received little thoughtful care. My story centers around the goldfish I kept as a pet, whose life ended in my fish tank. The film intertwines my childhood fantasies with an adult‘s lens of regret and reflection.

Over the years, I had other pets—a rabbit, a hamster, a little finch—, but none of them stayed with me long. Later, I created a comic as a confession to all those childhood animals that I didn’t truly understand or care for as I should have.

Those works challenged me to think about how I could express my voice in films without telling the audience how they should interpret it. Until “Fish,” I often felt as if my childhood memories, both the good, bad, and cringy ones, had washed over me. While my approach yielded personal films, it also distanced them from filmmaking as a diary. My initial film, Little Dan, resembled a string of pearls—beads representing glimmers of happiness and bewilderment, all anchored together by a gently sweeping, non-linear narrative devised from pieces of my childhood. This process helped me hone my voice while maintaining sufficient distance for audiences to interact and draw their own conclusions.

With “Fish” and “Confession”, I took a different path. I layered childhood memories with my wild, sometimes naive imaginings, filling gaps in my memory and blending them with an exaggerated adult perspective. Together, these became a new approach to storytelling. For me, “Fish” and “Confession” mark a breakthrough— a personal way to tell stories, where fragments of childhood and reflections from adulthood intertwine into something uniquely mine.

Yingdan, 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 am an animation director and teaching artist originally from China, currently involved in multiple projects across California. After recently graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, I am now working as a freelance animator and serving as the animation lead instructor for the Sony Pictures Media Arts program.

My expertise lies in creating 2D experimental narrative animated films, where I blend two perspectives: a child’s curious exploration of the world and an adult’s reflective, often questioning gaze on that same journey. This interplay mirrors my internal conflicts—complex, contradictory, and difficult to articulate in everyday conversation. For me, animation is like whispering secrets; I channel my emotions into each frame, creating work that feels both distanced and deeply intimate. Since I first began studying animation, it has captivated me, and I have committed myself to continue animating.

Since 2019, I have created several films, including “Little Dan”, which reflects an individual’s memories of a carefree childhood contrasted with the complexities of adult life, and “Throw It”, which explore the desire to break free from the weight of others’ expectations through a traditional Chinese game. My films have been showcased at festivals such as Turku, La Guarimba, Insomnia, Feinaki, and others. Currently, my film ‘Fish’ is being screened at various festivals, and I am eager to share more about it. Additionally, my thesis film, “One, Two, Three… Four, Five, Six,” is set to begin its festival journey soon.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There’s a book I often find myself returning to, each time discovering new layers of insight: “My Memories of Old Beijing” by Taiwanese author Lin Haiyin. I’ve always been captivated by stories and feel a deep nostalgia for childhood experiences. In this book, written in her midlife, Lin reflects on the years she and her family temporarily moved from Taiwan to live in the hutongs of Beijing. Her meticulous descriptions of the smallest events, objects, people, and emotions are astonishing. Her ability to vividly capture hutong life through a child’s eyes while revealing the complex humanity of the people who lived there is fascinating. When I’m working on my own stories, I often find myself thinking back to the hutong life she portrayed so beautifully in her work.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Animating has been the one unending pursuit in my life, and with it, I have had a wonderful journey working collaboratively with people of all walks who continue to inspire me. I am forever grateful for these experiences.

My dream for the future is for my work to take me all over the world so I can continue growing. Here is to hoping my next animated films become bridges linking me with audiences of many cultures through stories we profoundly relate to and that transcend boundaries.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yingdanlai.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yingdanlaii/