I was born and raised in Yanjiao, China, a small and affordable edge city popular with people who come from all around the country to work in Beijing in hopes of building a better life for family. people choose to live there and relied on a bus called the 930, which transports people from Yanjiao to Beijing every day.

My parents were among those people. I witnessed how they supported our family move to Beijing and later giving me the opportunity to study abroad for a better education and future. Because of them, I have always been fascinated by human resilience, especially among people born into low-income home. What drives them to keep fighting for a better life? How do they discover who they really are and what they really want? 

Eventually, I leave my suburban town to study in America, and the more of the world I saw, the more I remembered those who cannot—my friends and family members who remain in small towns. 

At Syracuse university in NY, I became fascinated by the power of video to preserve and magnify evocative moments in the world that are often overlooked. I began documenting my life through video and uploading it online. One day, I received a message from a stranger who wrote, “Please update more videos. As someone who cannot go further, you are my eyes to see this bigger world.” I had become BUS 930.  

This moment strengthened my determination: to be the eyes for anyone dreaming to discover the bigger world, and to bring encouragement and joy to their lives by documenting stories of human resilience.

As a multimedia non-fiction visual storyteller, I also practice my technical skills as a cinematographer and video producer. Besides bringing back stories, I also continually explore ways to help people express their personal identity. I learned marketing through my internship as a startup research assistant at SXSW to let the brand be heard. Additionally, I have accumulated solid experience in project management and post-production by assisting one of the few ongoing projection programs, Urban Video Project, in the United States dedicated to helping global artists showcase their work.

All of these experiences have shaped me as a cross-cultural visual storyteller, someone who listens to people, understands who they are, and helps tell their stories to inspire others.