Check out this video for how I used laser cut to visualize people’s opinions on US-China trade issues:
Last July, US President Donald Trump followed through on months of threats to impose sweeping tariffs on China for its alleged unfair trade practices.
So far, the US has already slapped tariffs on US$250 billion worth of Chinese products, and has threatened tariffs on US$325 billion more.
Over the past week, the US government has taken extreme and unprecedented steps against Huawei, cutting it off from every US partner at the risk of a long-term rupture in trade between the US and China.
As a multimedia journalist for China Daily USA, I went to Times Square and interviewed people’s reaction to the ongoing US-China trade dispute.
Here are the 12 people that I interviewed:
Thanks to iFlytek, I got their transcript and put them into an online word cloud generator.
Then, I was able to use Illustrator to make portraits for each interviewee with a body filled with their opinions.
I used two types of wood board. The black hardboard turns out to be a nightmare:
I changed the material to plywood, and it looks much better:
I am kinda satisfied with the result. Instead of going through 40 minutes of interview footage, I can clearly see what people are thinking about. It turns out that most people don’t know what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. The unsettled US-China trade dispute makes people worried about the future. Everyone that I interviewed told me that they wish the two countries could work things out professionally and presidentially.