Art has always been a bridge to create greater dialogue between civilizations. At the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts of China in Beijing, a young girl from Uruguay who is training to become an artist introduces us to her work and shares her personal experiences.Let's meet her!

Tamoud Lamia, who was born half Chinese and half #Algerian, has been studying clothing and jewelry #design in #China for years. Check out her story of pursuing dreams under unique cultural identity.

When I was little, I was always enchanted by buildings. Architecture is my thing. I love drawing and doing things with my hand, but it’s not until I started my journey in China that I realize Chinese architecture has so many things to offer. My name is Edna Blaise. My Chinese name is Dai Na. I am studying architecture at Central Academy of Fine Arts. Before coming to China, I was always fascinated by the buildings, the old buildings they have here. I thought they still have those beautiful buildings like I could see in the movies. But after I came here, I realized that it’s more evolved now. But we still have a lot of beautiful ancient Chinese architecture. I am really into the Chinese culture and even though my school schedule doesn’t allow me to really learn martial art and be more flexible, I still grab any opportunity I get to learn anything that has to do with the Chinese culture in general. That’s why I always sign up for traditional dance or activities like that. I like geometry and math a lot and I also like art. And when I think about combining the both of them, I think architecture is the obvious choice. And because China is one of the oldest civilizations, like I said before. I think there’s a lot I can learn from here, because the technique they have here is more mature than a lot of other countries. Although being a foreign student here is very challenging, for example, my classroom has 80 students and I’m the only foreigner here in my classroom, my classmates are very friendly. Sometimes when we’re doing group project, they are very willing to include me in groups and work together with me. So it’s a very interesting journey The teacher would even ask us to send the homework in the group, so she could help us check. And if we have a personal problem, she could even tell us, You can add my WeChat, so you could send it directly to me. And then if I have time, I can help you correct whatever [problem] you have. Like this month from the past couple of months, we have this project of a primary school. And this is one of my “Caomo”. And then after that, of course the work doesn’t stop here. The teacher will keep working and working on it with us and correct every mistake we do and help us until the finished products. Outside of class, I would like to go to different places around the city where I can see ancient Chinese architecture like “Gugong” and “Qianmen”. I’m hoping to find some inspiration here. And that’s why I bring my camera, so I can capture whatever I see that’s interesting and maybe review them later, if I remember something that made an impact on me. So maybe when I am doing my own thing, I can review them and use them. I feel my country personally doesn’t have architects. Architecture is not a famous thing people do in my country. And I feel like my country needs it a lot. That’s why I feel like if I am going to start an architecture journey, I would prioritize in my own country. I really enjoy painting and designing, and I am still finding a way to try to combine old and modern architecture together. And I feel like we can still learn from these, and imply them in our modern technology to come up with something more interesting.

Sketching from nature is an important part of the professional courses of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. This video records the real scene of preparatory students sketching in the suburbs of Beijing from 2019 to 2021.