Viral cartoonist and English teacher on retaining the joy in doing what you love.

The cartoonist Xuân Lan has over the last few years amassed quite the online following. Her illustrations take their inspiration from her own life experience and she told us why that is one of the reasons she won't turn drawing into a full-time career.

We also chatted to her about getting giddy over being noticed by one of her idols, her process and why she would take a 21st century camera back to the bao cấp era.

The episode was recorded live at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi.

Hoạ sĩ truyện tranh được nhiều người biết đến và giáo viên tiếng Anh nói về việc duy trì niềm vui khi làm điều mình yêu thích.

Trong mấy năm qua, hoạ sĩ truyện tranh Xuân Lan đã thu hút được một số lượng kha khá người theo dõi trên mạng. Tranh minh hoạ của cô lấy cảm hứng từ những trải nghiệm cuộc sống thường ngày và đó là một trong những lý do cô sẽ không biến vẽ vời thành một công việc toàn thời gian.

Chúng tôi cũng trò chuyện về việc cô được thần tượng của mình chú ý, về quá trình sáng tác và tại sao cô lại mang một chiếc máy ảnh thế kỷ 21 quay về thời bao cấp.

Tập này chúng tôi thu âm trực tiếp tại Không gian Nghệ thuật Manzi ở Hà Nội.

 

Links

Xuân Lan's Facebook fan page

Xuân Lan's Hit Record profile

Xuân Lan on Instagram

Grant Snider's Incidental Comics

Zen Pencils

Transcript

For full transcript, click "Next"

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

Welcome to the second live recording of The Renovation Generation Episode 13. Our narrator Maia is going to interview our Xuân Lan, who is an illustrator and cartoonist.

We interviewed Xuân Lan at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi.

Our narrator Maia is going to interview Xuân Lan, who is an illustrator and cartoonist. She didn’t want to speak publicly so I promised her it would only be friendly faces and friends. I think we managed that.

Xuân Lan started drawing cartoons three years ago after a chat with her friend that she decided to share on Facebook. Writing it out sounded lame though, so she decided to illustrate it instead. And that's where it all began. We asked her to describe her cartooning process...

All the ideas for my cartoons are from my real life experience so I do not set up any schedule for when or what to draw. It just when the idea comes to me and when I have enough time and inspiration and there is no class to prepare for the next day. I will just do it, I draw. Oh and I wait until the right time to post it on Facebook

And what's the prime time?

In my experience it's nine pm.

You have a little bit of wordplay in both languages, English and Vietnamese, how do you choose which language to use?

You can see most of my cartoons are in Vietnamese. Firstly because I use my mother tongue better than English, secondly because many of them involve Vietnamese cultural features. I did translate a lot of them into English, but you can notice considerable differences between the two versions and some people think I mistranslate the sentences, but I not, I have to choose different ways to express the same idea.

 What is the best thing that's ever happened to you online?

I had the chance to get closer to my idols. You guys know Joseph Gordon-Levitt? The guy who plays Robin? In the Dark Knight? ...