STORY: Korean designer chasing dream in China
DATELINE: Sept. 19, 2023
LENGTH: 00:06:37
LOCATION: DONGGUAN, China
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE (Korean): LINA JU, Korean designer
2. various of Lina Ju's living and working in Dongguan

STORYLINE:

Korean designer Lina Ju has been living and working in China for 10 years.

She is now the chief designer of a company in Dongguan City, south China's Guangdong Province.

SOUNDBITE (Korean): LINA JU, Korean designer
"I work as a chief designer at SUMS MODEL.
The chief designer's job is to oversee and supervise the overall design.
And I designed the character IP with my team members.
Also, I am working hard on directing the entire process of advertising, marketing, and sales of the products.
My main work is to take charge and lead the whole process.
HUGY is an emotive toy. It's a kind of art toy that reflects the artist's emotions.
When I made this, I had to put a lot of my emotions into it, so I thought of the sad part of my personal feelings, and I remembered a lot of time with my dog.
So I made HUGY.
My dog's real name is DJ Soondi.
I thought of the name HUG to further emphasize the warm feeling and the feeling of hugging.
HUGY has big ears and emphasizes the physical characteristics of my dog Dachshund.
I thought about a lot of emotional aspects when designing HUGY.
I have already been living in China for more than 10 years.
At that time, I thought about the sorrow and lonely feelings of being alone.
What came to my mind at that time was my dog.
That dog is Soondi who had lived with me for 10 years.
When I came home alone from work, HUGY welcomed me.
I think this is something that everyone sympathizes with.
So puppy Soondi is HUGY's inspiration.
So I try to heal your feelings and give you a feeling of vitality through brightness rather than sadness.
So it has a lot of feeling that HUGY is saying to us, 'Let's go out and play, come here and I'll hug you, I love you.'
Simply put, HUGY is 'love.'
HUGY has received a great response since its release as an art toy. Many people like it.
There are other foreigners including me in SUMS MODEL. There are Italian employees and many overseas customers.
So there are many cultural exchanges here.
This is something special about this company.
I work with many young Chinese people.
They are very capable.
They are highly conscious and have a very good attitude to embrace a new culture.
Various cultural exchanges took place, and there were many inspirations.
So the working environment and the life in the design team here are very enjoyable.
Over the past 10 years, China's design and enterprise environment have made great progress.
So it became smoother to work.
Until now, design concepts in China have become more international. Therefore, I need to study more.
When I first came to China, I felt like I was starting the second act of my life.
So I've been working hard for 10 years.
It's not easy to live abroad. But I'm trying to overcome my pioneering ideals.
And now that I've entered the character IP design field, I hope to be successful in this field.
So I look forward to seeing you with a new IP in the future."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Dongguan, China.
(XHTV)