Meet Liyang Chen | Animator & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liyang Chen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liyang, why did you pursue a creative career?
I was born in a traditional East Asian family, and “traditional” often means that pursuing an artistic career is not something parents usually consider for their children. Although I showed a strong passion for drawing at a very young age, my parents never intended to nurture this interest deeply. Following their wishes, I treated drawing merely as a hobby, always thinking that perhaps once I had a stable job and life, I could further develop my artistic talent.

What truly determined my decision to pursue a path in the art was the outbreak of the pandemic. Too many innocent lives were lost during that time. This made me suddenly realize the brevity of life, and how various uncertainties could snatch away our lives at any moment. If I were to die tomorrow, I didn’t want to see, in my life’s final moments, merely scenes of doing things I was never interested in. I want to spend my limited time on something I genuinely love. Do what you want to do immediately, don’t keep waiting, wait through one decade after another means nothing. And that very moment, is when I finally realized that the best time to start is now.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
One thing I’m proud of is that my works carry a certain imprint of our era. These are traumatic memories shared by me and my fellow Chinese who have experienced these terrible events. No matter how the government blocks speech or deletes online materials, memory is the best SD card for people of our generation. Making animation has never been easy for me, but I believe the most important things about artistic creation is to not avoid the impact these traumas have had on me. On the contrary, artistic creation requires dissecting oneself, facing pain directly, and presenting and documenting these experiences, allowing the work to become my second brain. My animated short film ‘Self-grasping’ tells the story of a couple who missed each other during the city-wide lockdown in the pandemic. When I published it online, someone commented: “I’m touched that someone still remembers those days.” I believe this is the meaning of my animation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This question is so hard for me! I’m really not someone who likes going out much. But Los Angeles has so many amazing restaurants, and I’m quite the foodie. I’d probably take my friends on a food marathon, hopping from Red Rock, Danbi, Sun Nong Dan, and Mo-Mo Paradise to my must-haves: Popeyes and In-N-Out, which I can’t go a month without eating.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I deeply admire my teacher, Goujian, who can be said to be the first person to guide me in artistic expression and animation creation. I am a very introverted and reserved person, often too shy to express myself, which can be a significant obstacle in artistic creation. However, through his patient guidance and attentive listening to my stories, I gradually came to believe that my voice truly deserves to be heard and that my stories are worth telling too, his my mentor, my therapist, my friend.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychicat_?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@psychicat?si=EDQKKzE-mobFHJzF

Other: RedBook: https://www.xiaohongshu.com/user/profile/5fc9c2120000000001009d43?xhsshare=CopyLink&appuid=5fc9c2120000000001009d43&apptime=1733712333&share_id=42c76d3dbf874133a8701ee64492f132

Image Credits
Liyang Chen