Feixue Mei of Virginia on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Feixue Mei. Check out our conversation below.

Feixue, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What is a normal day like for you right now?
There isn’t a single “normal” day, but most days involve a mix of teaching, writing, and making. I spend time with students, work on publications and collaborative projects, and think a lot about how ideas move between disciplines and communities.

I also try to stay attentive to small, everyday moments—conversations, images, or memories—that quietly shape my creative work.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a designer and educator whose practice grew out of questions about identity, belonging, and cultural memory. Working across visual communication, publishing, and interdisciplinary teaching, I’m interested in how design can help people articulate experiences that are often difficult to put into words.

My projects frequently bring together cultural production, design, and community-based storytelling. Through publications, classrooms, and collaborative platforms, I create spaces where students and participants reflect on heritage, lived experience, and the ways culture is carried forward. This process-driven, relational approach is what defines my work.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
One moment that really shaped how I see the world was realizing that cultural identity isn’t something you simply inherit—it’s something you actively interpret, negotiate, and carry forward. Growing up between cultural contexts, I became aware early on of the gap between how culture is taught or represented and how it’s actually lived.

That awareness stayed with me and eventually shaped my work as a designer and educator. It pushed me to think of design not just as form-making, but as a way to hold memory, ambiguity, and multiple perspectives at once. Much of what I do now—especially my work with publishing, teaching, and community-based projects—comes from that early understanding.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
For a long time, the fear that held me back the most was the fear of not fitting neatly into a single category. I worried that working between disciplines, cultures, and roles would make my path seem unclear or difficult to explain.

Over time, I realized that this “in-between” space is actually where my work is strongest. Letting go of the need to be easily labeled allowed me to build a practice that is more honest, interdisciplinary, and meaningful.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
A cultural value I protect at all costs is transmission—the responsibility to carry knowledge, memory, and care across generations. I believe culture isn’t something static to be preserved behind glass; it’s something living that must be shared, questioned, and reinterpreted.

This value shapes how I teach, publish, and collaborate. I’m committed to creating spaces where stories are passed on with respect, complexity, and agency, rather than reduced to surface-level representation.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people say that I helped create spaces where stories could be carried forward with care. That I listened deeply, made room for complexity, and believed in the power of collaboration and learning across differences.

If my work encouraged others to reflect on their own histories, claim authorship of their experiences, or pass something meaningful on to the next generation, that would be enough.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://feixuemei.info/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feixuefeixue/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feixue-mei-085014175/

Image Credits
All images produced by Feixue Mei