In December 2023, I attended a reception hosted at the French Consulate in Shanghai to celebrate Shanghairen (上海人) magazine — an evening that brought together artists, writers, editors, and cultural figures whose work in some way shapes the conversation around contemporary Shanghai life.
The French Consulate, with its elegant architecture and long history as a meeting point between French and Chinese cultural worlds, felt like the right setting for a publication that has always been interested in what happens when cultures overlap and influence one another. Shanghai itself has always been that city — a place where aesthetics from across the world have arrived, mixed, and become something new.
It was a privilege to be in a room full of people who care deeply about culture, design, and the written word. Events like this remind me that illustration — often a solitary practice made in the studio — ultimately exists to reach people, to be part of conversations and communities, to sit on a coffee table or hang on a wall and prompt a response.
Being present that evening, surrounded by colleagues and collaborators, felt like a quiet confirmation that the work is part of something larger than any single image.