漂浮

For a long time, I always felt like I was floating, constantly trying different ways to find peace.

One time, when my "heart felt unrooted" again, I went out for a walk and happened to receive a demo from a friend called Neptune. As I listened, I watched the blue of the water in front of me extend into outer space. With the music, I completely floated, and I saw my familiar companions in my room: dolls, plants, notebooks, chairs, cameras. I floated and played with them, as usual. Only I found that I had forgotten that I was floating.

When I got home, my "heart still felt unrooted," but floating was also a state, perhaps I shouldn't try to "solve" floating, but rather "fall in love" with it.

A while ago, I read a book about music and psychological emotions, which said: You can't stop the waves from coming, but you can learn to surf. Music helps us float. In this context, floating becomes a good thing.

"Floating" is a fantastic journey between reality and imagination, and it also records my past process of seeking "peace."

About the Author
Chen Ji, an illustrator and cross-media artist. Stemming from her background in music and acoustics, she enjoys intertwining images, sounds, and narratives to create fantastic journeys that wander between reality and imagination. Her work "Floating" attempts to reconstruct sound and emotion through the language of picture books, capturing her daily seaside moments while living in Santa Cruz, and simultaneously exploring the paradoxical experience of "suspension" and "stability" – a meditative reflection on the present and belonging.

Publisher: Accent Sisters
Address: 89 Fifth Avenue, Suite 702, New York, New York
ISBN: 979-8-9864753-9-4
Artist/Author: Chen Ji
Category: Picture Book
Language: Chinese
Editor: Jiaoyang Li
Publication Date: January 2026
Print Supervisor: Yi Cao