Born in Shanghai China, but growing up in the United States, Juju has found herself at the meeting point between western future-orientated visual culture and traditional Chinese handcrafts, folklore and beliefs. Over the past several years, Juju has been exploring China’s heritage through both techniques and philosophy that have amazed and inspired her to produce art installations focused in bringing old practices into the present day.

In 2016, Juju was invited as an installation artist to participate to the World Historical & Cultural Cities Expo in Nanjing, where she was asked to create a series of installations in the 600-year-old Chaotian Palace, the place where the main conference were held. It was the first time that a series of contemporary art installations were permitted in an official national cultural heritage palace in China and were collected by the Nanjing government.

Juju presented “PalaSee” in front of mayors from over thirty cities and media across the world, and received glowing praise and recognition of having achieved its intended transformation of visitors’ experience of a traditional Chinese Palace. The exhibition period was extended by the mayor of Nanjing from one month to one year to welcome tourists from throughout China and the world.

Another well-known work of hers is the House of Clouds. With nine consecutive stops in representative cities of China, the installation has brought into public view Dai paper: one of China’s listed national intangible cultural heritage, with over 800 years of history. Thousands of people have lined up, posted online and impacted millions of netizens to embrace the new face of Dai Paper.

In 2018, Juju was awarded the title “China’s new Pioneer”, followed by “Asia’s new Pioneer” in 2019. It was a recognition statement for her evolutionary professional trajectory and the impact that her work has in promoting Chinese culture.

This year, Juju received the “Designer Of the Future” Award by Swarovski. An award that selects three young talents across the globe each year to respond to crystal sustainability. In collaborating with Swarovski and Design Miami/Basel, her newest installation “sea-cret” was unveiled to an influential audience at Design Miami/Basel fair in June 2019.

Jerry Zhu is the Founder and CEO of SimpliCIty. He is also the Guest Lecturer and Consultant of the University of Michigan - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute.