Part of a young generation of noted Chinese animators, Lei Lei delves inside his personal history to bring to life his brand of naïve art. Latest work Missing One Player, premiering today, humanizes the popular Chinese game of mahjong (solitaire) that he grew up with. Employing his trademark kaleidoscopic style, Lei imagined three characters in search of the fourth player. 

“The lack of sympathy among people has made me feel very strange and sad,” says the artist of the bigger motive behind the work, which earned a slot at this year’s Vienna Independent Shorts. “In this animation I didn't so much tell a story as express a general feeling of melancholy.”