Happy Creative Land Series 001: Boba Panda Bonanza by Yiying Lu

Born in Shanghai China, educated in Sydney Australia, and London UK, currently based in San Francisco, Yiying Lu is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur, global educator, and bilingual TEDx speaker. Yiying was the first international creative collaborator at IDEO Shanghai, a former creative director at 500 Startups, where she built brands for hundreds of tech startups. She currently runs her cross-cultural creative studio in San Francisco, produces iconic international design work such as the Twitter Fail Whale, the pan-cultural dumpling and boba emojis, Conan O’Brien Pale Whale, and the Chinese paper-cut style Mickey Mouse for Disney Shanghai.

Yiying also speaks internationally on Cross-Cultural Design, Creativity & Innovation, at global conferences such as TEDx, Adobe MAX, South by South West, and Web Summit; at world-leading institutions such as Stanford University, New York University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the University of Technology Sydney; at high-tech companies such as Apple, Google, Salesforce and Adobe.

She was named one of the Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Microsoft’s “Top 10 Emerging Leader in Innovation”, and a “Shorty Awards” winner in Design. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Atlantic, NBC News, TIME, Wired Magazine, The Verge, CNN, BBC, The Australian, and Sydney Morning Herald. Leveraging her cross-cultural background and experience, she strives to be a bridge between the East & the West. Her life purpose is unifying the dualities between Art & Tech, Business & Culture, Beauty & Meaning, Work & Life.