[Culture] Interview with alumna Chon Kye-young, an artist who draws cartoons with voice commands
- Date2020.02.10
- 6036
The Ewha DNA series of interviews introduces esteemed Ewha alumnae from various fields. This article is an abridged version of the interview with alumna Chon Kye-young (graduating class of 1999, Department of Law), the original author of the Netflix series Love Alarm and pioneer of her own path.
Q. You first drew popular attention for the fact that your career in cartoons did not begin as an apprentice under another artist, then with the way you used a computer for your work, and now with the method of using your voice. Wasn’t it difficult to change your drawing technique?
By my very nature, I don’t like to follow a given path. I appreciate novelty and I feel that I don’t have to follow what other people do, and I’d like to do something only I can do, even if I know that I am not that special. I actually launched my own business by developing the ‘Love Alarm’ application in real life, and that’s another thing that I did because no other artists had done it before. I also began drawing with my voice because I found it fun after trying many other ways of drawing, since I could not draw with my hands. In other words, it was the convergence of my desire to journey ‘off the beaten path’ and the allure of ‘a more fun way’ than conventional methods of drawing.
Q. Trends in contents consumption are shifting from printed books, webtoons, to Netflix. Which platform do you prefer?
Personally, my favorite contents platform is YouTube. I like it not because it consists of videos, but because it is an ‘open market.’ I like the environment where anyone can participate and create whatever they want. YouTube has some contents that I could never have imagined and would not be easily accepted in mainstream culture. The contents created in such a boundless ecosystem are so novel. There are so many amazing contents that make me wonder how such ideas could be conceived.
Q. Are there any contents you’d like to recommend to the Ewha community?
First of all, I’d like to recommend a novel written by Eun Heekyung, titled Past of Light. It is a great novel. It largely deals with college life, so I imagine that it would be a fun read for the Ewha community, particularly those of you who lived in a dormitory. Next, I’d like to recommend a Netflix series, Unbelievable. This is a story of female detectives who investigate sexual crimes and the victims of such crimes, and there is a good movie to watch along with the series, called The Accused. In the movie, the leading character goes to a dance hall while wearing a short skirt, and gets gang raped, but people criticize her behavior as the problem. The message of the movie is that being drunk, smoking marijuana, dressing provocatively, and making sexual jokes absolutely cannot serve as a justification for rape, which is very moving. Lastly, I recommend a channel called “SHU AND TREE” on YouTube. It shows a pet grooming salon where there’s no dialogue, just the sound of scissors snipping, which is a very peaceful and happy type of content.
Q. What are your plans for the future, and is there anything you want to say to the Ewha community?
My goal is to recover my health and bring my webtoon series to a satisfying end. I’d like to tell the Ewha community to look after their health.
