CNTRFLD.ART catches up with Sophia Hotung, a 29-year-old Eurasian writer, illustrator, and digital artist from Hong Kong, renowned for her art collections, The Hong Konger and Choreopolis. Through her business, Pangolin Society, Sophia collaborates with local charities to create impactful art projects, raising over $300,000 for various organisations in just 18 months. Despite managing seven chronic illnesses, Sophia is a passionate disability advocate, using her platform to educate and inspire through her art and talks like Failure Club. Balancing her health, she spends most of the year running her Hong Kong-based business, Pangolin Society, from bed in San Francisco.

CNTRFLD.  Can you share more about your journey as an artist and writer? What inspired you to pursue a career in art and literature?

SH. I’ve always wanted to be a writer but also did not think a creative or literary career would be realistic as a Hong Konger. When I graduated, I went into IT audit, then did other IT and comms-related jobs. However, while working, my autoimmune and chronic illnesses worsened, eventually stopping me from continuing my corporate career altogether. I was anxious about my situation — being 26 with no income — and was eager to find a way to support myself financially from bed. That being said, I did not teach myself art to address my concerns.

My mum gifted me an iPad and Apple Pencil for Christmas in 2020 while I was bedridden, and with nothing else to do, I started learning to draw in order to take my mind off of my anxiety and chronic pain. Only when I started posting my work to Instagram and garnering engagement did I realise this new hobby could generate a new income for myself.

The art became a vector into the literary career I had always wanted. I think people like the idea of the “inspired artist”, but frankly, my journey was one of necessity. I was anxious to find a way to support myself while ill, and the strategy that worked best for me — and continues too! — is being a writer and illustrator.

CNTRFLD. Can you tell us about your upbringing and where you grew up? How has your Eurasian heritage and experiences in Hong Kong influenced your career choice as an artist and your work?

SH. I grew up in Hong Kong with two Eurasian parents, so I did’;t have the experience of one “western” parent and one “Asian” parent. Looking back, their parenting styles were as Eurasian as they were

My mum emphasised the importance of creativity and self-expression, but was also focused on our academic success. We did piano, tutoring, and Kumon, but also drama, painting, and free play. Meanwhile, my dad was relaxed when it came to academics but was strict with manners, traditions, and behaviour — sometimes quoting Confucius when imparting lessons!

My biggest influence from both of them though was how our whole family had a second home at my mum’s art school. My mum ran it, my dad would support and teach, and my sister and I would go there almost everyday to take classes or help out. The privilege of daily free art classes empowered me to be braver about failing, because the stakes were so low. No one expected me to be good. I just had to be curious.

Watching my parents run that school, and being raised on this philosophy that celebrated creativity and academics, were the ultimate opportunity that I think set me up for the life and career I have today.

CNTRFLD. Your art collections, The Hong Konger and Choreopolis, have gained significant attention. Both unique and imaginative portrayal of Hong Kong, capturing the essence of Hong Kong life and culture.   Can you expand further on the key themes and inspirations behind these collections?

SH. They say “write what you know”, and I think that also applies to “draw what you know”. So, I draw Hong Kong! That being said, I wouldn’t call Hong Kong a theme. If anything, it’s a vessel for me to explore my own experiences and identity. Much of The Hong Konger explores what it means to be Eurasian, disabled, female, and on the cusp of the millennial generation and Gen Z as a Hong Konger.

In my book that came out in 2021, I supplemented the artworks with poems and artist’s notes that delved further into the stories behind creating the pieces. For Choreopolis, the theme is less broad, focusing predominantly on disability and the limitations of individuals. I had the idea for Choreopolis while I was regaining my mobility in 2021. I had been bedridden for so long and was starting to make small trips with mobility aids like canes and wheelchairs to go to the doctor or to get a blood test. The brief moments I had on walkways or crossing streets to get from a car to a clinic were mundane, but I was so happy to be back “in the world” after being isolated for so long. I felt as though I could burst into song and dance. This elation led me to wonder what that would look like, and I imagined Choreopolis.

CNTRFLD. Pangolin Society has accomplished a lot in its first 18 months, raising substantial funds for various organisations. What motivated you to start Pangolin Society, and what has been the most rewarding project for you so far?

SH. When I started working with galleries, some told me that the prices for my art were too low and that I could double them. That’s music to any artist’s ears! The caveat was that when turning an $8,000 artwork into a $16,000 artwork, 50% would now go to the gallery for marketing and brokering sales

I’ve been fortunate to work with lovely galleries, for example, I love the Hong Kong Arts Collective, and I just exhibited Choreopolis at Wyndham Social with the gallery that “discovered” me at Art Next Expo 2021, a|n Gallery. But, I also have experience and success in shifting my own work without gallery representation, so I built a model where charities replaced galleries as marketers, venues, and recipients of the sales commission percentage.

I’ll be the first to admit that replacing the middle-man is not a business proposal for a whole company, but it got me thinking, why stop there? I was already doing commissions under Pangolin Society and figured I could also collaborate with charities on creative projects that could generate passive, indefinite income streams for them.

Over time, these projects have become more and more complex, diverse, and exciting. I can’t name a favourite because it’s like comparing apples to oranges, but some of my favourite collabs have been working with The Women’s Foundation and Hanson Robotics’ Sophia the Robot to co-create an NFT collection at the Digital Art Fair; writing and illustrating The Stowaways Symphony, an interactive children’s book for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s 50th anniversary; painting and auctioning a limited series art collection of female shopkeepers for Equal Justice; and creating a proprietary comic book series for the Mission to Seafarerer’s new Mariners Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Currently, I’m working with the SPCA for a whole year of creative projects and community programming that seeks to fundraise and advocate for pet-inclusive policies across Hong Kong. So far, we’ve created a giant mural in their new Tsing Yi Centennial Centre in the style of ‘Where’s Waldo?” Visitors are encouraged to find 103 hidden elements in ‘Where’s Wags?’ In June, we’ll also be launching a crowdsourced project that will invite Hong Kongers to share Tales of Our Rescue Pets. The SPCA and I will choose our favourite stories about Hong Kong’s pets and the winners will be awarded a bundle of goodies, including limited edition artworks of their animals.

CNTRFLD .Your Sophia Hotung x Sophia the Robot collaboration NFT auction at Sotheby’s Digital Art Fair garnered significant attention. As Hong Kong is an important city for Web3, can we expect more digital work from you of this nature?

SH. I’m focusing more on writing and illustrating at the moment, so don’t have plans for more web3 projects.

CNTRFLD. You've worked with numerous charities, including the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and The Women’s Foundation. How do these collaborations come about, and what impact do you hope to achieve through them?

SH. I get these gigs either through networking or through word-of-mouth. Charities have either approached me because they’ve heard of past collaborations, auctions, or donations that Pangolin Society has made, or I will reach out to charities that I would like to work with. For instance, I like the team or the cause and think a profitable, symbiotic relationship could come from a partnership. (This was the case with Equal Justice).

My first collaboration was with The Women’s Foundation. They had shortlisted artists to co-create an NFT with Sophia the Robot, and I was eventually chosen. At the time, I had been an artist for less than a year and saw myself as a contractor rather than a consultant, strategist, or advisor. But, as the project developed over the course of 2022, TWF empowered me to take a seat at the table and offer insights, advice, and expertise on web3 art. From the experience, I realised that I offered value in guiding as well as being guided.

A year later, HK Phil approached me asking for an anniversary poster, but we ended up building the project out into a whole book and merchandise line, which would generate more revenue for the organisation, as well as raise awareness and nurture a future generation of concert-goers.

Around the same time, the Mission to Seafarers asked me to make hotel room art for their new Mariners Hotel, but they weren’t sure what they wanted. We did rounds of mock-ups and landed on the concept of a comic strip series. The comics could be turned into art, but the proprietary character in the comics could also be used further for merchandise, branding, and awareness raising.

When I think about my work with charities, my goal is to elevate projects to achieve more than expected. If we can raise money, awareness, and reach by taking an NFT, a poster, or room art to the next level, I feel good about the work. 

CNTRFLD. It's wonderful that you collaborated with The Women's Foundation in Hong Kong, which is dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. What future collaborations can we expect with them or other charities that support closing the gender gap and inspiring opportunities for women?

SH. Because my illnesses make it very hard to predict relapse and remission cycles, and therefore plan beyond a year, I’ve learned better than to set grand plans or line up project after project without taking time to pause and recuperate. So with regard to future collaborations with TWF, other female-focused charities, and Hong Kong charities in general, I focus on small acts. That can look like channelling 20% of all my limited series The Hong Konger prints to local charities through donations or grants, donating 50% of the same prints at charity auctions (TWF has auctioned three of my works and a digital art masterclass since our NFT collaboration), or providing free design thinking sessions to charitable organisations, my most recent one being with the Fred Hollows Foundation’s Hong Kong team.

CNTRFLD. As someone living with seven chronic illnesses, how does your personal experience with disability influence your art and advocacy work?

SH. I see my crummy health as the reason I’ve become a writer and illustrator. If I had not had to drop out of my corporate career, I think writing would have always been a backburner hobby and I would never have taught myself to draw. I get frustrated and exasperated during my relapses, but I try to remind myself that I wouldn’t be able to have my childhood dream job if it weren’t for the pivot my body forced me to take.

When it comes to my art, I like to explore the complicated relationship and feelings I have with my body through satire and humour. For example, within The Hong Konger collection, Bao Bei’s Feast, Lion Rock Station, and Room with a View are all reflections on feeling limited, but they aren’t overt displays of disability.

In my advocacy work, I am hyper aware that my disability experience is not a universal one. A word that comes up a lot in advocacy work is “intersectional”, it’s when identities converge to make up experiences. For example, I’m a Eurasian, female disabled person who grew up financially privileged. What am I going to know about a disabled person who has different identities? The best advocates I know practice humility and curiosity in their work, and I try to do the same, applying my own experience but not extrapolating it out to everyone’s.

CNTRFLD. Your talk, Failure Club, has resonated with many audiences. Can you tell us more about the message you aim to convey through this talk and how it has been received?

SH. Failure Club revolves around the concept of an “Enough Threshold”. I ask audiences, what do you need to do, have, and be to finally feel like you have done, have, and are enough? The question gets people realising that the limit does not exist. There’s always more to do, have, and be, and those moving goalposts contribute to an interminable sense of failure. Once we grapple with that, we rethink failure, success, and the expectations we set for ourselves and others.

CNTRFLD. You spend a significant amount of time working from bed due to your health conditions. How do you manage to stay productive and creative in such a unique working environment?

SH. During Covid, when everyone started working from home, I realised how much more productive I could be if I did not need to spend my limited energy on getting ready, commuting, or even sitting professionally at a cubicle. The freedom to work from a comfortable bed in comfortable clothes with access to everything I’d need if I felt paint, fatigued, or in pain made me more productive. I remember when I was 24 working in an office, trying to get up from the floor of a bathroom cubicle before anyone noticed I had gone. As a quarantined 25-year-old, I could just lie down in my comfy bed, open up my laptop, and still work, just from a more comfortable position.

So, to answer your question, I think I stay productive because so much of my brain does not need to worry now about office etiquette, about physical discomfort while I work, and about social mores like how long is normal to spend in the bathroom! With all that extra brain space, of course I’m going to be a better worker!

CNTRFLD. How do you integrate traditional art techniques with digital media in your work? What challenges and opportunities do you see in the digital art space?

SH. Towards the end of 2023, I started making my own brushes. I use physical media like brushes, palette knives, ink, pencils, even organic elements like scattered dirt or my dog’s hairs(!) to create shapes on plain white paper. Then, I take photos of those shapes, edit them in Photoshop, and import them as brush shapes or textures into the Procreate app on my iPad. From there, I tweak different variables until — voila! — I have proprietary, unique brush shapes that add an even more exclusive element to the work.

The digital art space is so vast, so of course challenges and opportunities abound. We could talk about AI generative art, the value in NFTs and web3 products, the potential for social media to replace galleries, and so on. Truthfully, I don’t see myself as anyone who can really comment on, let alone change-up, the digital art space. I see myself as a writer and illustrator who happens to create work digitally, rather than a digital artist who happens to write and illustrate. My interests lie more in experimenting with language and storytelling. I’ll leave commenting on digital art to the groundbreaking digital artists!

CNTRFLD. What upcoming projects or collaborations are you most excited about? Are there any new themes or mediums you are looking to explore?

SH. Right now, I’m very excited about my collaboration with SPCA. I’ve had SPCA rescue pets my whole life and my two Hong Kong rescue dogs, Coco and Sparky, are two of the best things in my life, so to be able to draw animals all day, plan programmes and projects revolving around SPCA’s initiatives, and meet other pet lovers is a joy and privilege. (More on my SPCA collab in Question 4’s answer)

CNTRFLD. What advice would you give to aspiring artists and writers, especially those who may be dealing with their own physical or mental health challenges?

SH. Like I said, everyone’s experience with illness is different, so I always feel unqualified to give generalised advice. A piece of advice I give in my Failure Club talk though is that: for every piece of advice out there, there is another piece of advice that totally contradicts it.

For example, some people will say, “Carpe diem! Seize the day!” while others will say, “Don’t push yourself. Opportunities always come back around.”

When you realise that literally every piece of advice is just as true when inverted, it can feel freeing to know that you can decide what’s best for you, and don’t need to feel pressure from other people’s standards or thoughts.

CREDITS:

Illustration of Sophia Hotung by Maria Chen

ALL WORKS:

© Sophia Hotung