Meet Nimo (Linqian) Jiang | Illustrator & Storyteller

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nimo (Linqian) Jiang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nimo (Linqian), how has your background shaped the person you are today?
Geographically I am from Changsha, a city located in the south of China. It’s not a big city, but a small, very life-like city with a slightly slower pace. Culturally I guess I come from a place of connection to the world. I was born in the last two years of the twentieth century and the Internet played an extremely important role in my upbringing. I live in a complex and exciting cultural environment where the Internet and globalized trade have led me to read from a wide range of sources. In addition to fictional manga from China, Japanese manga and anime, Disney animation, and European indie manga have given me an extremely rich reading experience. Being moved by the strong emotions in the stories and realizing what is worth pursuing, these strong emotions have influenced my life choices. As a result, I realized that fictional narratives have their power.

These experiences made me dream at a very young age of becoming a person who could bring the same touch to others. To this day, I continue to value the expression of emotion in my creations and the feelings of the viewer when they view my works.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think what I care most about in my creative work is the sincerity of the expression. I think that no matter how much one pretends, the audience can still intuitively detect the author’s personality and thoughts, as well as the existence of lies in the work. I try to express only what I believe in. I am not against the use of rhetoric, but rather I believe that rhetoric is the ultimate tool for authors who are eager to get their ideas and feelings across. Therefore, in order to try to express love, care, and trust in my work, it is also important to try to practice these principles in the process of becoming a creator. I am trying to overcome the fear of self-imposed limits and self-doubt and put my true self into my work. It’s not about technique, it’s about focusing on the most genuine emotions, and that’s what I’m working towards.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’ve only lived in Baltimore for a year, so I’m probably not very familiar with the city. But if I have a friend visiting, I will bring him or her to Baltimore’s inner harbor. To me, the huge body of water is extraordinarily attractive, borderless, varied, and mysterious, and symbolizes the unknown and the future. I look forward to sitting side by side with my friend on a bench in the sunset, the sound of the tide and the evening breeze, watching the golden daylight jump above the water, talking to each other about what has happened lately and what new things I have learned about the world and myself.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Many, many things have led me to this day, and it is really difficult to include them all here. Thank you for my mom’s love. She would never say to me, “No, you can’t do it.” She taught me what love is by giving me both unconditional maternal love and conditional paternal love as described in Fromm’s book “The Art of Loving”. Thank you to my good friends, Jialin, Yonghong, and Jiazhao, who I am often surprised to find know me better than I know myself, and who keep me company when I am low or wake me up when I get carried away. Thank you to my teacher Zhu Duanshun, who encouraged me to engage in fictional creation; thanks to Liying, Haoming, and Jiaqi, with whom it was the most joyful thing to discuss art. Thank you to my teacher Maily for her warm encouragement. Thank you to everyone who appeared in my life, because the feelings and thoughts generated by these encounters are my most precious things. Finally, I thank the world for having art, because of art, the inevitable loneliness of each of us also has a way to dissipate and fight.

Website: https://www.nimojiang.com/

Instagram: @nimooko