Today, we’d like to introduce you to Xiaoyi Zhong.
Hi Xiaoyi, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Guangdong, a southeastern coastal province of China, to a family hailing from Chongqing, situated along the Yangtze River in southwestern China. The subtropical climate and rich culture of China greatly shaped my aesthetic perspective.
I vividly remember moving home at the age of five. Standing on the balcony of our new house, I watched the sunset, experiencing for the first time the beauty and melancholy of dusk, realizing that the old house and the past moments would never return. From that moment, I unconsciously began seeking a philosophy and a course of action that would allow me to face life’s losses and uncertainties with equanimity and preserve the things I felt attached to.
I’ve been fond of drawing and literature from a young age. However, prior to entering university, I had never considered pursuing creativity as my career. Given the environment and the era in which I grew up, arts education and related resources were not highly developed, and being an artist or creator was perceived as a risky and unconventional profession. Born into an ordinary family, I gained admission to the prestigious Peking University, majoring in Physics through the regular college entrance examination. However, I soon discovered my true passion and calling lay in the arts.
Faced with pressure from family and old acquaintances, I ultimately took a leap of faith during my freshman year and transferred to the university’s only art school offering some creative practice courses. At Peking University, I was fortunate to study literature and philosophy under my master’s, which laid a solid foundation for my current writing and directing endeavors. However, overall, I felt that it wasn’t a supportive or nurturing environment for my creative work and self-discovery. In my junior year, I fell into severe bipolar, anxiety, and dissociative disorder, leading me to take a gap year off from school.
It was a major turning point in my life. During this year of seclusion and recuperation, I had the opportunity to heal and reflect to explore my own path. I persuaded my parents to support me in studying photography and painting systematically under a teacher I found online. I also independently ventured into producing and directing my debut short film, “Ashes of the Wind,” assembling my entire crew and negotiating with all the locations starting from scratch. The experience of making this first film was a tremendous challenge; I had to overcome many of my fears and made numerous mistakes that broke my heart. However, I am deeply grateful for all of it, as it tempered my willpower and abilities.
In 2022, I was thrilled to have my first illustrated collection, developed during my year off, shortlisted for the 9th Hiii Illustration International Competition, and to exhibit it alongside my photography-prose collection for the first time in Hangzhou, China. A clip from “Ashes of the Wind” also led me to be accepted to the Columbia University Film MFA program and receive an additional half-tuition scholarship — subsequently, it helped me win the interest and support of collaborators I loved.
When Professor Eric, who interviewed me, told me that he appreciated not just one of my short films but the passion for creating things I showed, I felt seen. At Columbia University, I felt right at home, surrounded by a group of passionate, kind, pure, and strong people. The independent and energetic energy of New York City constantly inspires me and makes me grow rapidly. I made a second short film, “Boxing Day,” after the first year, which I am very proud of.
Now, I am facing my research art year, with two feature films in development that I plan to write and shoot sketches for this year and two independent short films scheduled to be completed before graduation starting this summer. I am also excitedly planning to move to LA with my friends in the coming year and am looking forward to vibing with the creators here.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
During my journey of studying art and establishing my way as an artist, I faced many economic pressures, challenges due to lack of information flow, and external biases and doubts. But looking back, the real challenge for me as a creator lies in working on myself: facing whatever pressure may come, never giving up on exploring and sticking to my inner truth, and continuously advancing my wisdom and taste.
Perhaps influenced by an abundance of Aquarius and Uranus in my birth chart, I always unconsciously rebelled against norms. Whenever I found myself on a conventional path, I felt panic, afraid that I lacked the irreplaceable uniqueness to stand in the world. The values I identified with often inexplicably diverged from the mainstream, leading those around me to perceive me as eccentric and non-conformist and often causing me to fall short of expectations in competitions. This made me feel lonely and lost; I once shut myself off for self-protection.
However, my insistence on honesty and continuous expression of my interests and values in my work gradually earned me more like-minded and beautiful friends. I feel like I’ve spent more time understanding myself than my peers, and fortunately, I’ve gradually developed my own coherent life philosophy (my birth chart reveals that I have inherent conflicts and belong to the “late bloomer” type compared to my peers, haha). Now, I have more security and confidence to open up to the world and begin to share my beliefs and energy with people.
In this process, I have to face questioning and temptation from power and authority, face the challenge of temporary failures or lack of success to my belief and personal aesthetic, embrace solitude, and overcome my own insecurities, closed-mindedness, and inertia of all types. I have also encountered many conflicts in learning to balance life and work: having to adapt to the inevitable rules required by life while vigorously protecting my own softness and striving for the freedom to boldly think, feel, and imagine. I need to be able to immerse myself in life, intimately interact with the world, embrace the trials and pains that life brings me, and also be able to quiet down, take a step back, and observe and reflect…
But coping with these challenges has taught me about becoming a truly independent and complete person. Now, I feel that I have found a self-sufficient sense of security. I am beginning to enjoy the dynamic between life and my art, between the external world and my internal logic. I also feel that as I raise my own frequency and energy and feel abundant inside, external scarcity and challenges will be easily overcome. I believe all I need to do is keep going.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For me, making films has become a way to deeply connect with the world and the people I’ve met. My past works often delve into more existential and spiritual themes. Friends have described my work as “watery,” “dreamlike,” “poetic”…
However, I simply hope that what I create aligns with my taste for “beauty.” I hope to explore the world as an innocent child and ask my audience to discover the world together. I also aim to bring nourishment to the world through my works, whether it’s through my stories or my paintings.
My most recent short film project, “Boxing Day,” was written and shot in 2023 and just completed post-production in April 2024. Shot in my hometown, Chongqing, China, it’s a tribute to my childhood and my family’s hometown. The story follows Nurse Cecily’s special day at work, where she follows the boxing match of her favored patient, Ahno, who has just been discharged, as well as caring for other assorted patients – until Mercury Man visits in a dream with dandelions in his wounds … In this hospital and the atmosphere created by Boxing Day, beautiful things – innocence, tenderness, funny dreams, lovely people… glow in the gloom shrouded by pain, and that’s what I want to bring to the world.
I regard this film as the one that marks the maturing of my personal aesthetic style and my approach to applying myself in film and life as well. In the process of creating this film, I’ve gained lots of surprises and love, and I’ve learned that wisdom as a director and leader lies in trusting my collaborators and allowing them to help me so that everyone’s creativity can be magically unleashed.
After another round of growth, I’ve become increasingly interested in other talented and pure-hearted creators around the world. Now, I’m trying to feature their stories or even invite them personally into my films. Through my future works, I aim to showcase the wonderful possibilities of life to my audience. Accordingly, my first feature script in development is telling a love story about a Chinese wandering artist and a Filipino-American actor who meet in the Philippines and embark on a summer road trip, which gets inspiration from my own life experience.
Through the eyes and sensitive hearts of the young protagonists, I’m reflecting on the relationship between the world, the relationship between film and power and politics, and how love can help us transcend the barriers of the power hierarchy and ideologies, helping us find the sufficiency and abundance of the soul.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I most aspire to achieve in life is perhaps to live like Agnès Varda, Takeshi Kitano, David Lynch, and the Dalai Lama of Bhutan, who is also a filmmaker, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. I admire those who intervene in the world with creativity and labor, possessing eyes to discover love and beauty, as well as hearts full of compassion and wisdom.
What I dislike are things that obstruct these things from happening: the blind worship of power, adherence to authority, selfishness, and indifference from those in privileged positions, weakness, and feebleness, harm born from stupidity and ignorance, and any form of violence and war… But whenever I think about what I don’t like, I reflect on myself: I should be more compassionate and tolerant, for the world already has its perfect side.
In everyday life, I enjoy interacting and making friends with people who beautifully transcend suffering and create their lives, regardless of their cultural backgrounds or professions. I love dogs, especially Chinese rural dogs and Golden Retrievers. Hugging them is as healing as embracing a lover. I also adore elephants and am currently painting a series related to elephants… as well as wolves, leopards, and tigers, because I feel they represent what I might be like if I were transformed into an animal. I enjoy divergent thinking, where ideas fly around like dandelion seeds – since I am very much an INFP.
I feel like I often live too much in my own mind, so I also love people and activities that help me live in the present, in reality – like dancing in heels, friends who encourage me to try new foods and travel, waving my body while listening to music, and those who are willing to execute spontaneous ideas with me. I also love nature; even in the city, seeing clouds, the sunset, and leaves swaying in the wind every day fills me with great joy and gratitude. I love standing on the balcony of my home in China, looking at the trees and sky in the square; I really wish I had more time to spend there daydreaming!
Contact Info:
- Website: xiaoyizhong.info
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xiaoyi_zxy?igsh=am1zbWJybTViYmVy&utm_source=qr
Image Credits
Fei Gao, Qinting Wang, Danfeng Cai, Hanxuan Wang, Hangsheng, and Xiaoyi Zhong
