Coffee Stained Stories

Arbutus Coffee | April 13, 2019

I feel very lucky to say that I have crossed paths with many wonderful people in my life, but I’d never met someone who would show up on their own birthday with a whole cake to share with everyone. Before I met Lin, that is. And if you know anything about me, you’ll know that this is my kinda girl. Meet my favourite twenty-year-old in the entire universe, Lin Lu.

Twenty & adventurous

Twenty had treated me well. At twenty, I flew across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on a redeye to study and live in a city where I knew no one for a year. It was amazing. The memories and friendships I made while on exchange will always, always, have a special place in my heart. When I came back, I did not hesitate before saying that going on exchange was the best thing I did in university. And, guess what Lin’s doing this summer? That’s right, she’s off to Seoul as a summer exchange student at Korea University, and I couldn’t be more excited for her!

In high school, Lin had participated in an exchange program and did grade 11 in Houston, Texas. “I really, really liked it, and I thought I couldn’t miss this in university.” Lin is excited to meet people from around the world during this 90-day summer program, take a Korean language course, as well as a branding workshop. In this branding workshop, Lin will be designing and helping set brand positioning for a client. Among participating clients are a few local fashion designers, and as a media studies student and a fashion enthusiast, Lin brightens up at the prospect of spending time in the studio working on branding for a designer. Lin has also applied for an internship through the exchange program, which would allow her to work in the media industry in Seoul this summer.

Media Studies

Film has always been Lin’s passion, which led her to pursue Media Studies at the University of British Columbia. The program’s core courses include a wide range of subject areas, from English to visual arts, film studies, computer science, and more. Initially, Lin wasn’t so happy with the program. She had hoped for more studio time and less theory. She even considered transferring out.

“But in the end, I really love the people. There’s 40 people in the program. It’s a cute community of people who have similar interests. We make art, take photos, and see each other every day.” Among her classmates are screenwriters, visual artists, photographers, journalists, web designers, graphic designers…  people who are passionate about all sorts of media related things. “It’s like we can start a whole company!”

She has now had various opportunities to work on film production, which reaffirmed her love for film. These experiences have also taught her that filming is incredibly demanding work. It often entails several months of waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning, and wrapping up as late as dawn the next morning.

Aside from film, Lin is also interested in visual management, as well as production of short films, campaigns for fashion magazines, music videos, and concert videos. “Ones where I can add an aesthetic element to it,” says Lin, are opportunities that spark her interest the most.

Current location: Vancouver

Lin comes from Nanjing, China. When she arrived in Vancouver for university, she was a little bit disappointed at first. “I was like, did I really fly ten hours? There were a lot of Chinese signs, and I felt like I was still in the same country.” In Houston, Lin had only known three Chinese students. A large Chinese international student community was not something she had originally expected as part of a North American university experience.

But Lin says she really enjoys it now. “Since I’m planning to go back to China after university and work internationally, I think it’s good to have new friends that are from China. And now I can go back to China and visit different cities. It’s fun to visit friends. We have classes together here, but it’s different when you go see them in China and visit their families.”

Lin is headed back to China in a few days for a month before she’s off to Korea for her summer exchange program. She already has plans to visit her cousins in Xi’an, and her dad in Guangzhou.

Travel plans aside, Lin is happy to return home to Nanjing. Most of her closest friends are from the boarding school she went to in Nanjing. “We’ve known each other for most of our lives. We grew up together. There’s a bond, even though we don’t talk very frequently these days.” Many of Lin’s friends also went onto university abroad, but they always reconnect when they’re back in the summer months.

Nanjing, a city of history

Lin speaks of her hometown, Nanjing, with pride and affection. She even speaks the Nanjing dialect, though neither of her parents are originally from the city. She had a nanny when she was very young who spoke Nanjing.

“The city where I’m from, Nanjing, it was a historical capital for a lot of past dynasties. When you walk on the street, you feel a sense of history. You see the walls, and buildings from the Ming dynasty. People were there thousands of years ago, and the buildings are still here.”

“But the dialect, I heard from someone else and it’s really sad. The Nanjing dialect we speak now isn’t the same anymore because of the big massacre during World War II. On its memorial day, we stop everything we do. We hear the alarm all over the city. I grew up with it. Even now, I post stories or articles about the massacre on memorial day, even though I’m away from the city. My friends do the same.”

“I haven’t visited the museum. I don’t know if I’m ready to accept the things that had happened yet, but I really hope to visit one day.”

“People who are survivors of the massacre, they were not properly compensated. And their living conditions are not great. And the Japanese government has not admitted this history. On a historical context, a lot of old people are waiting for them to admit and apologize. It’s not the same people or the same government, but since there hasn’t been a proper recognition, it’s an unresolved issue. Since a lot of them have passed away, this is time sensitive.”

Notions of postwar traumas as a nation, and a need for reconciliation of a seemingly irreconcilable past, aren’t entirely foreign to me. Having grown up in Korea, a country with its own unhealed wounds and grievances from the previous century, I found myself feeling sympathetic to Lin’s cause. I’m not often made to feel optimistic about a future that holds a true sense of reconciliation in the region, but when I do feel hopeful, it’s because of people like Lin who make a point of talking about it in every opportunity given and champion a cause they believe in.

Lin the Hustler

This girl’s a hustler. She juggles multiple part-time jobs while in school, as a digital media assistant and a debate coach. Lin is also the photographer for a student association she’s a part of.

But she’s the kind of a hustler that knows when it’s too much, that remembers to take care of herself.

“Last year, I led two classes as a debate coach. It meant I didn’t have any days off to sleep in. So I told them I needed one day off for brunch.” This year, with Sunday mornings off, Lin enjoys starting the day slow without the alarm waking her up bright and early. “My friends say I look happier this term.”

High-five, girl! We’ll definitely need a brunch date on a Sunday when she comes back from her summer adventures.

There’s something else Lin is excited about lately. “I just got a new job in a film studio based in Vancouver. After I come back in August, they will have a new studio chosen. I’ll get to do studio photography and concert photos.” Being the official photographer for a concert is what she’s most looking forward to in the next year before turning twenty-one.

Oh, the places you’ll go

After university, Lin plans to work out of Shanghai, which is close to Nanjing and known for its fashion and entertainment industry. She loves cities by the water (she and I both!). She looks forward to working internationally, flying around to chase dynamic scenes and exciting opportunities. “I want to move around, go from place to place. If there’s no changes in my life in three years, the next three years will probably be the same. What I want is: I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, but it’s going to be good.”

“I hope to settle down in Shanghai, and have my own loft that I design. Maybe a dog. I want to turn my future home into a photography studio, with a bedroom and a guest room. And curtains for photoshoots.”

I can’t wait to one day land in Shanghai Airport, head straight to this beautiful, artsy loft, cuddle with her little dog, and go for some delicious Shanghainese food and a photoshoot by the Bund with the fabulous Lin Lu.

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Follow Lin on Instagram @60linslens