Life is a vast ocean, and I am still learning how to swim

I used to think that finding a job after graduation was a natural and inevitable step.

Now I no longer see it that way.

But regardless, I still feel the need to try.

My first attempt was during the winter break when I returned to China and worked with a robotics team at Fudan University. I was hired as a freelancer to design animation expressions for a robot they were developing. I earned around £290 from this project. Although the amount was small, it marked the beginning of my experience working independently and showed me that freelance work is possible.

My second attempt was to build an IP on social media in China, using animation as a way to generate income. I invited two friends to join me: Yejing, who studies Cultural Industry Management, and Wangchenyu, who works in social media operations at an internet company.

Together, we created a small project based on three birds. Through this account, we plan to use simple animations to tell their stories and develop related merchandise. I am not sure if it will succeed, but I want to try.

The third attempt was my application for the FLAMIN Animations funding programme. Below is an excerpt from my proposal:

BLACK FLAME

This project explores fire as both a material and symbolic force connecting everyday life, ritual, and transformation.

Fire produces different meanings depending on context. In many traditional beliefs, it is seen as a purifying force. In funeral rituals, fire is used to send off the dead and transform objects into spiritual offerings.

My earliest memories of fire are domestic. I remember cooking rice, roasting sweet potatoes in ash, and seeing golden fields outside my window. Fire also appears in ritual contexts, where sound, music, and burning offerings coexist. It exists between nourishment and destruction, warmth and loss.

In this film, fire connects life and death, joy and grief, agriculture and ritual practice in my hometown in Jiangnan, China. I will use montage to create a fragmented poetic structure between everyday life and mythological perception.

Visually, the work combines traditional Chinese painting aesthetics, paper-cut techniques, and stop-motion animation. I also plan to incorporate recorded local soundscapes.

Even if this funding application is not successful, I will continue finding ways to sustain my practice and build a life within the animation field in the UK.