Original subtitles

in two thousand and nineteen

Hebei academy of fine arts

opened its doors

to international students

for the first time

among them

are three foreign students

who came

in pursuit for knowledge

for some it was their first encounter

with the Chinese vast and rich culture

from the exquisite cuisine

to the aromatic street food

the stunning architectural designs

the lovely folk music

dazzling nighttime city lights

not to mention

the numerous widely observed Chinese holidays

these students' lives have seen significant alteration

particularly since the Covid -19 global pandemic

this series aims to share the experiences

and the challenges faced by international students

as well as celebrate their triumphs

in acquiring knowledge

my name is Ishimwe Achille

my Chinese name it's Chen Lin

I’m from Africa in a beautiful country called Rwanda

in Kigali city

my name is omoshalewa

Oluwaseun Ogunjimi

and from omaha state Nigeria

I major in fashion design at hebei meishu xueyuan

my name is Alieu Sawyer

I’m from Monrovia Liberia

my major is photography and film production

my major is animation

basically

my study experience

at Hebei academy of fine arts

is a good one

the school has offered a variety of artistic skills

that can be applied to many careers

the school also has small class size

so instructor can give his student individual

attention when needed

I got the opportunity to learn Chinese

which is the second widest spoken language in the world

I learned more about arts criticism

arts history

and the conservation of cultural relics

I also met and became

friends with different people from different countries

got to know more people from different culture

and I was able to share my own culture with them

during the beginning of 2020

it almost felt as everything was over

and like it was the end of the world

I was worried that the school was going to close

and I will not be able to continue with my studies

which I came here for

most of our classes had to be online

and as fashion design students

we do more of practical stuffs

which didn't work very well for us

because we didn't have the teachers to explain to us

we had to do it by ourselves

and I feel online classes for fashion design students

is not the best

so the pandemic really really affected my academics

fortunately thanks to the technology

I was able to continue with my studies

online

our teacher recommended us to

use a software called Dingtalk

we had the opportunity to gain more

more of the classes we've lost

we were able to learn them

so that's how we

actually started to learn

yeah

during that Covid period

as a foreigner in china

it was not easy to live in china

during the

Covid-19 pandemic

it was very challenging

very difficult

because like

we all never expect this pandemic

actually

my life

really changed

just like most people who have experienced the...

Covid-19

i had to be accustomed to wearing masks

sanitizing

frequent lock-downs

during the frequent covid test every week

even sometimes every day for three years

I was really stressed out

and because at the time it began I was

I was alone in china

and I just left my family in my country

I had to find a way to cope with everything

because most places close

like even the country

it's closed like

no

no flights coming in

no flight going back

in another country

so it's very challenging

because some places were also like

closed

like supermarkets

hospital

schools

restaurants

mall

train stations

like a lot of things stop

with all the restrictions and limitations

imposed by the Chinese government

but there were several ways

to avoid contracting the disease

as well as trying to stay healthy through it all

we had to take several repercussions

such as wearing our face masks daily

whenever we are outdoors

and avoiding crowded places

another thing was

to also avoid going to high risk cities

we had to maintain good hygiene

such as washing your hands

every time you go to public areas

or you open doors

things like that

and we also

we were committed to healthy diet

now things is getting better

actually

yes

but we all

fought through you know

we all fought through

we but it was not easy though

it was actually difficult

but at least now I things it's better now yeah

did I get covid

oh yeah I did

yes I got covid

yeah I got covid

and it wasn't a funny experience

it was really bad

like I woke up that morning

I checked my temperature

my temperature was 39.2

I was freaking out

my body was hurting all over

it was really bad

then

after I took the pills

for three days I was okay

everything was back to normal

like nothing ever happened

what happened is

I wake up one morning on a Thursday morning

thursday morning I still remember

on thursday morning I wake up

I start feeling a headache

and I was feeling cool, like I can even feel my

my fingers you know so it was kind of difficult for me

so I was having class actually that day

online class actually

so like my teacher

like put me on a video

because like normally our online class we do video

so my teachers see me like why are you

you look so sleepy

are you okay

so I was like yeah teacher I’m okay

but I feeling that kind of headache and cold

she was like

did you go to the hospital

no laoshi

because like all our places is closed

so she was like okay

I will help you with drug

so you can take it and feel better

I was like okay

yes no problem teacher

thank you so much

so after like she transported the drug for me

because she

transported it from another city to mine city

and then I received the drug for her

I started taking it I started feeling better

she always used to asked me every day like how are you

you good so I was like yeah teacher I’m okay I’m okay

so I just want to tell her thank you actually

because like if it wasn't for her

I don't really know what was going to happen to me

so yeah thank you teacher

at first I tested positive for covid

nineteen in 2022 in November

I don't know where I got it from

but I had all the symptoms and I was really sick

but after that I was able to purchase some medicine

and kept isolating myself in my room

and drinking hot stuff like tea and ginger

yeah I recovered in like one week

and yeah next I tested

I tested negative

what I like about this school

the first thing I’ll talk about would be the landscape

the architectural design of the school

which remakes the well known customs of Hogwarts

if you are a fan of white potter

then you would know what Hogwarts is

the school actually in the night just look different

like different

very very different because of the light

you can even when you tell people this place school

they can't believe it

that's my favorite thing about the school

actually my favorite interest

out of class I actually go for shopping

to get sneakers and some clothes

because I do like dressing so yeah

the fact is that I’m into sneakers and closed business

yeah so that's what I do whenever I’m out of class

my favorite interest out of class

would be cooking and traveling

I really love to cook

cooking is very therapeutic for me

when I cook I feel so happy

I’m like dancing

listening to music and cooking at the same time

then I love to travel to

but recently due to covid nineteen

traveling has been so limited in my life

I do some exercise like gyming

I go to the gym to exercise to keep my body straight

basketball and also I like watching football matches

and by the way my favorite team is arsenal

it's an English premier league club

which is very good actually

and as I say

we are looking forward to lift our first trophy

our first premier league trophy since

two thousand and four

yeah that's my prediction

I hope we will win it

so there are so many different types of Chinese foods

however I love momo's the most

basically momo's

I kind of dumpling jiao zi

like the Chinese people would call it

these momo's are very tasty and juicy

they are filled with tender chicken

onion cilantro and spices

they are steam dumplings that are perfect

when you have a craving for something warm

filling and satisfying

I love the way they are prepared and served

my favorite Chinese food is

it's actually a lot Chinese of very good dishes but not

I don't like all of them

because some of them are too spicy for me

I don't like spicy things

but my favorite one are dumplings hot pot

Beijing kaoya

which I can translate

it's a dark dark meat

I really like it when the seasoning goes

like there are some sauce on the side

you can dip the meat inside

it's very tasty and I really like it

I like hot pot

you can eat while it cooking

it's very colorful and delicious

I like it because it's spicy

too much chili

chili is like pepper

so it too spicy and stuff and also

yeah sometimes

I find it good because it's very easy to eat also

yeah I think like that's my favorite food

even today as we speaking today now

I will even eat hot boy and noodles today

because it's my favorite food

so I like it

I found it healthy

actually I’ve been to a few cities in china

such as shenyang

shanghai

and wei beijing guangzhou

guangzhou is actually a very lovely place to go

for business

it's of the common wealth of china

i've been to da liang

sanya

yeah but my favorite one was shanghai

because there is a lot to see

like architecture people

scenery yeah

i would say my favorite thing about the chinese culture

would be coficialism

coficialism places the lvnp

on importance of respect for the family and social ammonia

it is a national philosophy in china

chinese calligraphy

i have tried it in my school

it was really a funny experience

i had to there is this thing

you take just draw characters

it's like painting but you're just writing characters

it's actually fun

well my favorite things about the chinese culture

is the chinese seal

because of it rich history and uses

the chinese seal

is a stamp used to mark important documents

or any other acting requires signature

typically the seal are carved into stone

but they can also be made of wood stone

when the seal are used

they are put in red ink then stamp on the document

my plan after studying here in this school

is actually to go back to my beautiful country

to use the knowledge that i have now gained here and go

go help with that knowledge to people who need it

yeah that's my plan when i finish

so basically for me after i complete all my studies

including master's degree and whole

i'd like to take a break from my studies

and travel somewhere new

generally traveling is a great way to expand the mind

gain perspectives and to relax and another

huge benefits of traveling is like

you get to meet new people

make new connections and learn new languages

if you're interested in doing that yeah

to meet new people and see new things

and also i will like to travel

also outside the country also

now for the photos you saw the where she can drop

and she can go ahead and tell you how to work

what do

you

want baja how was she

hi baja how was she

i don't think

commander

together

see how long can i show you

the

then you

see the

the whole

i have

how is it

she had a

i

don't know

animation is a method of

photographing successive drawings

models or even puppets

for example like this little guy here

to create an illusion of movement in a sequence

animation is important

because it makes us be able to

to tell stories and communicate emotions and ideas

in a unique

easy perceived way

that both small children and adults can understand

animation has helped

connect people throughout the world

in a way that sometimes writings

and live action films cannot

PC application that we use in class

they are actually a lot

because we learn

for example

if we need to make an animation

we have these

a specific application

if we want to make special effects

it has also its software

so for example

for me my favorite one is maya

not to say that is the only one that we use

we use mostly blender

maya as i said

adobe after effects

render forest

animaker

byju yeah but but

but for me my favorite one is maya

because mostly the interfaces user friendly

you can see all that you want to design

and it actually blends within the artist

and the character you want to design and to make

in maya that's my favorite one

earlier you saw in the shot

i was actually working on my project

i was designing a character

and i was trying to make it move

i do some as i can say stunts

there's a lot of ways that you can do it

but for me i was doing this technique

it's called rigging

you have to make what we call skeleton and put it in

in your character

so as for example if i have to move my wrist

i have to make a skeleton for that

i have to make

we call it a controller

ike this

and then we can be able to move this part

so as the arm can move freely

so as you saw in that shot

yeah the character moves

as i click on the skeleton

you need to be good at drawing to be an animator

because

before designing characters

before designing characters in maya

or blender or z brush

first you need to sketch on a paper

how your character will look like

and you need to

for example me

before designing

the character you saw earlier

i first designed it on a draft paper

to see how it will look like in the software

animation studios that i like

walt disney studio

pixar

dreamworks

sony

illumination

paramount

blue sky

warner bros

but my favorite one is word disney

because as we know it is the father of cartoons

as they say

my favorite animation /anime studios

my favorite one is madhouse

but there's also the one called studio bones

kyoto animation and wit studio

that's all of them i know

anime is popular in china especially among young people

for example

in my school there are a lot of new animations

that chinese students produce every year

i've seen them they're actually nice

but still japan is well known for its

creativity in anime

it is basically the word of anime

as my point of view

that's my opinion on anime

some location that you must visit

and it's a must visit them if you like anime

or you're into

3D characters or 2D characters

there are some places called kyoto international manga

museum and gerald tokyo

my favorite animation movie

ratatouille

wall-e

bleach

Arcane

love death and robots

the challenges mostly we face as animators

first one is

tight budgets for fast processors

because most of the time some of

the project end up being big to render

which makes the rendering time long

depending on how your

your animation character looks

or the material you applied on the character

yeah but it's a win win

i have to take a coffee break

i can be sipping on my coffee and waiting on the

on the animation to render

and the second one

it's overwhelming schedule

the study environment

for multimedia artists and animators can be

super stressful

yeah

they might work under tight deadlines and

significant pressure to get their design

to

to their clients

advantages of being an animator

is an ability to work creatively

for people who enjoy working creatively

the opportunities to do so in this role

are massive

you can also learn new computer skills and programs

as use different forms of media to create images

effects and animation

flexible work opportunities

even when working for a company

you might be able to work from home

or outside of normal business hours

freelance work is also an option in this career

which mostly

graphic designers ,animators can do

mostly they just do freelance

providing even more flexibility

in short words

animation can be fun to watch and also fun to make

for me the future of animation

will be as much about

personal stories that

it will

be about making the next marvel movie look amazing

for me i would say that

in my future

i want to be able to make

a

marvel cinematic universe

maybe in africa

to be the first to make it

and

to design my own characters hero characters

and make them be able to impact the youth

to do amazing and great work

and to inspire others also

personally i would say fashion is a

is a form of expression

during a particular period of time in a place

and let's say clothing

shoes

lifestyle

makeup

accessories and so on

think for me

my main source of inspiration to designing

is just the fact that

i love to make people feel good

in whatever they are putting on

i like to make people feel good

feel happy and look beautiful

so that's what inspires me to design

for example

if i should design a cloth for someone

and the person who really loves it

it gives me more inspiration to do better

to do more designs and create more

outfits for others

i just

it's the feeling

of my clients

like the feeling they get

the feeling of satisfaction

that inspires me to design

currently am still like a start-up business

a one person business

but

yeah

i do have clients and they meet their orders online

and i make whatever they want for them

and also i do

do some ready made outfits

but i mostly do custom made clothes for my clients

so for now i'm just still like

a stat-up business

speaking from personal experience

i would say it is not

compulsory you have a degree in fashion design

because for me too

i was so lay on having a degree in fashion design

and i'm currently studying fashion design now

i'm going to have my bachelor's degree very soon

i just feel like it's not necessary

you can learn fashion like

take on intensive classes for a year

and you would get what you need to know

it's not necessary

to have a bachelor's degree in fashion

you could have a hospitality management degree

your first degree

like your bachelor's degree could be hospitality

it could be medicine

it could be anything

then you decide to learn fashion design

as far as you understand the basics of design

if you want to be a stylist

you understand what being a stylist means

if you want to be a sim stress

you know how to use the sewing machine

you can sew perfectly and all that

and if you want to be a designer

your sketches are good

you know how to create own designs

so it's not a must

you have a bachelor degree in fashion

for you to be successful

it is not

that's personality for me

but having a bachelor degree in fashion

also gives you recognition especially if you are

job hunting

for someone who has a bachelor's degree in fashion

i think if you go for a job search

you would have more opportunity

than those that don't

maybe you want to go and work in big brands and all

you have your bachelor's degree

and you have experiences

i think you would be on the top list

of the people they will choose

rather than someone who has no experience in fashion

and

yeah

i use all sort of fabrics

whatever fabrics

it depends on what my clients wants

but okay

if you know my brand and you follow my brand

you would know i really do a lot of afro designs

african prints designs

so you would find like

let me say about

60% to 70% of my designs are afro print

african print fabric

because a lot of my clients they

they love wearing african prints

but i also work with all other kind of fabrics

i make evening wears

i make birthday wears

red carpet wears

so i have to use all that kind of fabric

so basically i use all sorts of fabrics

it depends on what my style needs

like if i have to make a dress like a dinner dress

i have to use the kind of fabrics for dinner dresses

so if i want to make an african print fabric

i have to use an african print dress

i have to use an african print fabric

if i want to make a

let's say like

an evening wear

or something where you just go

a regular wear

there are fabrics for those kind of

outfits

so i can't go using a sequin fabric

for a regular daily wear

that's too shiny

it's something for maybe evening wears

parties

so it depends on what the style is

and what occasion the style is for

and what my clients prefers

that's how we choose fabric here

you choose the best fabric for the style

what goes well with the style and the occasion

generally i'm a woman's wear designer

and kids wear designer

but at times i double abit in the male designs

just let's say regular shirts

and pants i do that

but

i am a woman's wear designer

and kids wear designer

and

i

i really love working with babies

i love making babieswear alot

they are so cute and lovely so

their dresses are really cute cute cute

and

so size

i work with all sizes

plus size

regular sizes

plus plus size

that's why i'm a custom made designer

i work with all sizes

my working process is

it depends on my clients

if my clients want me to

design something for them from scratch

like it should be my design

then i get to my ipad

i design it

then i give them color options and everything

i just do maybe three different designs

but they are very similar in style

and silhouette

but i will give them options of choosing

which one they want

so then after designing

once they choose all this is what i want

i get the measurements and make patterns

if the clothes involves a bit of dripping

i do the dripping too

but

i mostly do slides and splashing method

when it comes to the dripping part

and once my patterns are done

i go ahead and cut the fabric

then

next is the sewing process

a lot of ironing

and voila

the sewing is done

then i send them to my clients

of course i've learnt a lot in

hebei academy of fine arts

um before i came to this school

i wasn't really good at designing

like um actual um

illustrations

i wasn't good at doing illustrations

i didn't even know how to

use photoshop before i came to this school

now i use a lot of um

softwares

i am good

i can't say i'm perfect but i really improved a lot

and there are so many new skills

there could be simple skills

but they are important skills

i've learned in this school

things have made me a better designer

things have made my work cleaner neater and

nicer like it's

i actually have learned

a lot of things from this school

if you are passionate about something

then you should do it

no matter the obstacles you encounter

you should keep fighting

keep striving

still you get what you want

a lot of things will come your way

but as far as you want it

like you really do want it

it is worth fighting for

just keep going

there's no little place to start

you can start from anywhere

that's why i said it's not a must

you go to school for fashion

like go get a bachelor's degree

it's not a must

you can start by watching youtube videos

you can start by paying for online classes

cheaper classes

you'd get to where you are going to

as far as the passion is there

just keep the fire burning

that's it

there are many types of photography

fashion photography

sports photography

nature photography

macro photography

street photography

food photography

as for fashion photography

It's all about

your outfit

and we are all inspired by

celebrities

showing their outfit on a magazine

It keeps us inspiring

you know

and also likefor

the sport photography also

like we have so many players that we all inspired by

like christiano

neymar

mbappe

messi

they keep on inspiring

we see their picture

we feel inspired to play football

also you know

because of the detail

nature photography

is all about the landscape

animals

it already explain it self

macro photography is all about

taking a detail of a small

small

small insect

you know

small inset for you to know like the detail of it

so that's how

that's what we call macro photography

also like street photography

it's all about like

the street being beautiful

big big cars

bike

lots of people you know

food photography

we all know

they have lots of food you can shoot

you know

so we have pizza

we have burger

we have so many food

i can't explain all

so

yeah

and my favorite photograph

is

portrait photographing yeah

well portrait photography aims to capture

the identity and personality using lighting

background and posing

there are different types of portrait photography

for example

some portraits are for professional use

other types of portraits are more casual

such as lifestyle poetry

that capture subject in everyday life

but actually like

i like shooting in the studio mostly

basically what i use in my studio

i use camera

i use a light

and for

as for the camera i use a tripod

to avoid shaking of the camera

and i also have different

different kind of light

and i have backdrop light

like

different different color

blue red yellow

and i also have a background

which have different color also

because

i shoot my model according to their complexion

and also their outfit

and after shooting them

after shooting them i also use my laptop

to edit their pictures

yeah

to edit it

and i have so many different

different kinds of lenses also

as for the camera setup

i use

just three settings

the shutter speed

the ISO

and the apature

after i commonly use them for exposure

as for the lighting

for the lighting setup

i use three angles

because

it depends on the

the model that i'm shooting

sometimes i use

the highlight

the soft light

sometimes i change colors

yeah

different different angles

It just depends on the model

that's all

and for the background

i use different different

colors for my backround

commonly known as backdrop

yeah

and also

when i am shooting my model

on that back ...

backdrop

I use different different color

according

to my model's complexion

so and also

i have a remote that i change the colors

yeah so yeah

so

these are the equipments

i use in my studio

yeah

i get my models

from different different locations

I treat them well

and keep them

comfortable by talking to them

during the shoot

the reason i get alot of models is because

they see my work is interesting

and also their friends recommended me to them

i have a site where people book me

for portrait photography shoot

i really enjoy my work because

my model keep inspiring me about my work

it's good

so i feel good about it

actually

yeah

what happens during my shooting set

make sure i check on my model

to get them ready

and i have to meet them

to bring them in my

in my makeup studio

to apply makeup on them

so at the same time am applying the makeup on them

making them to feel comfortable by charging with them

so after applying the makeup

after take them to my studio

to shoot

the shooting studio you know

so i have to bring them to the studio to get them ready

in their outfit

the same time they getting ready in their outfit

i have to check my setting that i did in advance

before i start my shooting

i have to check the light

i have to check the background

i have to check the camera setting

to know everything is staright

everything is good

yeah

so after checking everything

and when my model is ready in their outfit

i start to shoot them

at the same time

i put a music on

because personally me

i like

when am shooting music should be playing

I feel inspired by it also

you know

so these are the

stuff i do

during my shooting set

yeah

actually yes

i've achieved my goal to study here in china

because

what i came here to study

2019 until this 2023

i actually came here to study photography

and

and Alhamduiliallah i have completed it

you know

i've completed my bachelor

so Alhamduiliallah simply means

thank God

you know

and

the four years

that i spend here was able to learn chinese language

chinese culture

and

during my 2019 that i came here

i met some chinese friends

and i met some foreign student from different

different country

and them we are in the same major

we started this journey together

since 2019

it was challenging but

we made it

so i was able to complete it

so

i just want to

give a big shout out

to my

supervisor

my teacher

and my mother

let me just say my parents

yeah without my supervisor and my teacher

i won't be this far

and i won't know anything

you know

so i just want to give them a big shout out

and also for my mom

i want to tell her thank you

she the one make me to come here

and

she the one who pay my school fees

she provide everything that i need

so i just want to tell her

a big thank you

so the only message i have to tell her is that

i'm bringing that degree

with honor

so see you soon ma

love you

bless