"The greatest distance between any two humans is not infinity, but the distance between their hearts."

I can't recall exactly whose proverb it is, nevertheless, this proverb is resonating in my mind over and over again. It is reminding me what I am doing is a right thing to do. It gives me some internal justification for my decisions. Although the technological advances certainly makes humans physically closer to each other than ever before, the distance between their hearts, especially the distance between hearts of different nations, of different culture, and of different racial group seem changed little.

Okay, that sounds very abstract and lame. Let me just summarize what I am doing in a short sentence:

I am showcasing all flash contents from China to the world!

Wow, that sounds very ambitious you may say. and I agree with you. Yes, I am taking a bold step. To understand why I decided to take it. I have to let you travel back in time to understand who I am. So fasten your seat belt, for the time travel machine will bring you back to April 7th, 1983.

On that day I was born in Wuhan, one of the largest cities in China (although most people in the West had never heard of it). I spent the first eleven years of my life like any other children. I went to kindergarten and then elementary school. I played, laughed, cried, and fought just like all my other naive classmates. If I ever considered myself being a little special, it must be my talent in art. I heard from my mother that I started to sketch randomly on anything I could touch as early as I was two years old. I had certainly "ruined" many garments and objects in my room in the pursuit for my artistic impression. =)

While in elementary school, I became a fan of Japanese manga such as Dr. Slump, Saint Seiya, and Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama, Masami Kurumada, the authors of these works, had become my heroes. Like my friends, we discussed about the characters all the time, and asked silly questions concerning the possible outcomes of each of these stories. Moreover, my desire to create my own stories grew to the point that I decided to start my own comics. The first short story I wrote was called the "Chicken King". I wrote this story while I was a first grader in elementary school. (thinking back, I felt ashamed for using such a uncool name for my first ever created work. Considering the level of vocabulary I possessed, I guess I may be forgivable =) )

I started my longest manga work in November 1992. The name of the series was called "Monkey King". I created a monkey-like character called Monkey the third. Monkey the third is the prince of his kingdom. He repressed rebellions and fought for his country. It was a very typical story involving the struggle between a hero and his enemies. My style for this work closely imitated those of the Dragon Ball. I even used some of them concepts such as "Super Seiya" in my story. I completed most of the series in my elementary. However, the entire series was never completed until 1998. By then, I have drawn more than 400 pages of comics for the series.

My life took a drastic turn on February 11th, 1995 when I immigrated to Budapest, Hungary with my father. My mother went to Hungary to establish a business in July 1991. With persistence, she managed to handle her business good enough to support the rest of the family. Thanks to mother, I was lucky enough to be exposed to a different culture at a such young age. Nevertheless, I dreamt about home so many times in my sleep and suddenly felt strange about myself. I felt I was different in behaviors, language, and looks.

My memories about Hungary was mixed. There were some shades of gray and some shades of colors. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the architecture, the cuisines, the hospitality of most people, and the folk music. Because I was a foreigner in an almost homogenous society, I was more self-conscious than my peers. Their criticisms sounded more harsh than they really were; and their compliments seemed less truthful. I do confess that I may had over-reacted in some way or another, but I do believe that it was my self-protection against intrusions into my private self-esteem. The most darkly shaded memories came from issues within the family. By 1996, my family was falling apart. The attitudes toward life between my father and mother became so great that they almost quarreled everyday. Father was easygoing and wanted to enjoy an easier life, but mother was anxious and tried hard to make money. By 1997, father went to Ukrain and never returned. Mother was not financially stable after 1997. An ever shrinking profits for exported Chinese goods caused most Chinese business men in financial difficulties. She still supported my education and sent me to an Christian outreach school that taught in English. I tried my best to excell in every subject they taught. With determination and thanks to the easiness of the curriculums, I became a very good student. Looking back, I should have probably used more of time to pursue extracurricular activities instead focusing on school textbooks.

I heard about the SAT's and tried hard to get into a good university. Like all others in the world, I dreamt about America. I dreamt about the beauty of its landscape, the glamor of its cities, the high standards of its education, and the diversity of its culture. At the time, mother could not financially support for the four years of skyrocketing price tags of a university education. I applied scholarship and had my finger crossed and wishes for a good outcome. Eventually, I got a full scholarship offer from Washington University. I still remembered how happy I was on the day when I received the notification package. I was the happiest person on earth. My dream was coming true.

I arrived at United States on August 16th 2001. It was a very hot summer day in St.Louis. Everything seemed to be new and interesting in my eyes. I met lots of people from so many different states. My roommate came from Long Island, New York. My next door Neighbour came from Michigan. My adjacent neighbors came from Washington D.C. and Texas. Every one in here speaks perfect English, amazing...I told myself. Before I could truly adjust myself to college life, September 11 came. I still remembered our professor's lecture on this event and realized how vulnerable anyone can be. What really impressed me was the tolerance Americans had toward the moniority. On the very next day, the chancellor, residential staffs, and students argued for protection for minority Muslim students on campus.

The life in college was busy, exciting, and challenging. Partly based on my hobby and partly based on my mother's suggestion, I chose Computer Science to be my major. In one way or another, it basically reinforced the stereotypically Asian male characteristics, wether I enjoyed it or not. I did well in my first semester, but it led me to think seriously about my future career. I asked myself about all abilities I possessed, including my age-old passion for drawing and story writing. I finally decided to become a manga artist although I am not a Japanese. (the manga industry only exist in Japan. Looking back at my decision, I felt I was insane..XD with so much confidence at writing stories and drawing art. Interesting enough, I did eventually gather enough ideas for my story writing in the past few years; therefore, I am so confident by now and decided to work in this field as a professional.)

While I enjoyed my own artistic pursuit besides studying, I started to correspond with several flash artists in China. I was very impressed by some of their works. One of the earliest artist I recognized was the4world. He lives in Beijing and built his own web site called the4world.net. He posted all his comics works, his games, and his flash on his web site. Unfortunately, he no longer uses that web site for displaying his works. Most interestingly, he posted his own blogs on the internet. I read them and thought they were hilarious. I do start to see a boy with vision and courage. Starting with the4world, I recognized many other flash artists such as Labix, Lindu, Flash Artist Tao Tao, and B&T. By 2003, some of the veterans (When I am talking about veterans, I do not mean that they are old. In fact, these people I am referring to rarely have an age above 25!) in the field decided to take a bold step to start to form their own animation companies. Inspired by their courage, I started to produce some flash animation on my own, including the ones you have seen.

Without a proper financial infrastructure to support their business model, these start-up animation companies (B&T, Snail Animation Studio) could hardly survive by 2005. Most of them are surviving barely on subsistence or on commercial projects unrelated to their passion. Seeing artists with greater talents and courage receiving soo little reward, I felt uncomfortable. In August 2004, I traveled to Los Angeles to attend SIGGRAPH. Hoping to establish some correspondence with some studios, my mission was unsuccessful. By December 2005, I finally graduated from university after taking a semester of Co-op. I started to think seriosuly about my future and things I can do with my life. It took me a while until I got this idea - to bring all flash from China to the world entered my head! It fits well with my expertise and my passion. This is the best thing I can do to help my friends to be known overseas.

When I first had this idea a couple month ago, I thought it was too much work and responsibility on my shoulder. After I realized that I may be the ONLY person in such a position to help, I was determined to make this a reality. The US has far more roboust commercial infrastructure than China. In the last couple month, I tried to establish possible ways to make money with flash. So I had some interesting ideas. I do believe flash source code can be sold as a license. I believe that many animators wanted to learn from other artist about the ways to create some special effects; and others wanted to buy a source code because they wanted to use the some of the components in the flash movie. In addition, you can give any tips to the artists if you want. It is all up to you. You may think giving away a few dollars of tip is nothing, but you are actually helping artist from another country to achieve their dreams.

Currently, I am on the OPT period until December 8th 2006, which is a period for foreign student to apply for jobs in the United States. I should have started to look for jobs couple months ago, but I didn't, for people like me with so much knowledge and creativity should bear some social responsibility and influence people in a greater way. It is more risky path but I am convinced it is a right thing to do. Nevertheless, I am interesting in potential job offers from anyone companies interested in me. Post your job offer in [my job posting section]. I would greatly appreciate! :)

For those of you who had recently read Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat - A Brief History of the 21st Century, you should know that he argued that people from all over the world now compete on the same ground. I am not convinced by it totally, The world is not yet flat because people lacked courage and vision to make certainly things happen. The internet does not have a boundary, but people's courage and language certainly have boundaries. So here I come to bring these flash to you. Let's write a history within our field. Everyone of you have the power to make it happen soon if not sooner.

By now you should have a grasp of who I am and what I am going to do and why I am the a good candidate for doing this. I think God has given everyone a special role in each one's life. I guess this will be my role, so I will play it safe and play it well. I have worked on this web site for two month already. I completed all the art works, layout, back-end programming, paypal account verification and set-ups. Now I have my fingers crossed again. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the world will be flat one day by our efforts, that is why I call myself theflatworld.

Theflatworld