Romain Rolland once said, "There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is and to love it." I didn’t really understand its meaning until I learned to see it from the perspective of designing. Since I entered the university, I had a missionary zeal to explore the stories behind those designing arts, finding out their social significance and the designers’ deep love for this world. Fortunately, now I am a designer who shares the same kind of heroism, as well as ceaseless love together with relentless pursuit toward the designing.

I would like to talk about my undergraduate life, which is the start point of my designing journey. In terms of my academic performance, I gained an outstanding GPA, ranking 25% among the whole grade, which proved my hard work of 4 years. Besides, I also emphasised putting knowledge into practice. I participated in many academic projects and design competitions positively including CIIID National College Students’ Interior Design Competition and Guangzhou Hengda Real Estate Landscape Projects Competition, in which I gained the top prizes. During my junior years, I published a paper in the academic journal Art Education and won the first-class scholarship for my academic excellence. Furthermore, my graduation project about the transformation of the Nan’ao seafood market was a standout as well, which was recognised as Excellent Graduation Design Award Work and exhibited in the Beijing Design Week.

Those academic experiences have undoubtedly consolidated my professional knowledge and trained my problem-solving ability. With these qualities, I believe I am a capable candidate for the scholarship.

In my eyes, a designer who acquires the book knowledge behind the door could never make real progress. So I spent much time observing my surroundings in my spare time. As a Southerner who chose to pursue my undergraduate study and life in Beijing, I loved recording this classical but modern city based on my understanding. In my opinion, the love for life and sensitive discernment are the indispensable prerequisites for a good designer. Confronted with this strange city, I was fond of exploring and experiencing the novelty. My undergraduate life in Beijing did enable me to embrace the profound Chinese culture as well as its inner cultural differences between the south and the north. So after I converted my work from the mainland to Hong Kong, I realised why working in Hong Kong is to me now as studying in Beijing was to me then. Through the integration of different cultures in this colourful city, I became more inclusive and dialectical, and gained a deeper understanding of customers’ needs, and knew how to bring out the stories hidden in their hearts with my works. Still, as a designer, I hope to refresh the traditional eastern culture with the assistance of technology and commerce in western culture, creating a new brand and bringing its brand effect. My long-term goal is to have my own designing company, providing customers with more than a single, traditional designing service, and making the old designing industry glow with new vitality. To achieve my goal, I still lack much financial support, and this scholarship could release my stress of living expenses, adding a guarantee for my future study.

Currently, I am living in Hong Kong. I am grateful that it provides me with a broader working platform and more learning opportunities. During these periods, I have witnessed Hong Kong’s traditional retailing and tourism industries severely suffer from the pandemic, but I believe in the power of designing. Designing means a planned and conscious perspective of living, not only advocating innovative ideas but also revealing the essence of life through its physical mediums.

Actually, designing is deeply rooted in all walks of life, and the existence of human beings is bound to set the environment for their better life. In the future, I hope to explore the fading culture of Hong Kong and make them rejuvenate in the appropriate designing means, or I can say it is my ambition of creating a new life in Hong Kong with my designing, which is my original intention to apply for this programme.

With the support of the scholarship, I believe I could achieve more.