The Story about US - ZEBRAS Stories

Last year I received a big chance...
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A grant: SHIFT Stipendium from Stuttgart City. With this I could start my idea to share stories as comic strips. Some of our stories as (Asian) migrants in Stuttgart, Germany – ZEBRAS Stories.​

​All stories were published on our Instagram collective: ZEBRAS.collective.

This is still a question to myself nowadays.

The main idea for ZEBRAS Stories is so simple. It's about Love & Hate in Stuttgart from/with Stuttgarter*.

Within 10 months since mid-2025, I got time to make Comic strip from scratch, make 2 creative workshops with the community**,
present the project, and exhibit in a gallery (but was denied, :/).

*People who live in Stuttgart.
** These focus on community building—activities that let people share their own stories with each other, among (Asian) migrants of different generations and ages.

"Banal, daily situations, Love & Hate" is the main idea of ZEBRAS Stories.

​So what is more inside (goal) this project:

​Empowerment & Sichtbarkeit: Make us visible in Stuttgarter society (migration is not a new thing).
Kulturbildung: Share our differences in simple scenes, also cultural living, etc.
Sense of Humor: How to shift stressful moments or situations into a bright side with respect.
Community building: I want to share/show in the same way that "You are not alone in this situation." 

Code Sprache (Code language) – a story about how culture shapes indirect communication.

​For the research part, I was talking, meeting, and interviewing people... Through the process I was learning... I can write a long story. (I love making short projects more than epic long projects. That's why I turned out to be a graphic visual artist, not an architect.)

Over 30 raw stories I got from this part. At the end, some were selected, some will be combined with others... In total we have 14 stories, including the intro story. These are based on true stories from people I talked with, mixed with my perspective and some parts of my own.

"Banal, daily situations, Love & Hate" is the main idea of ZEBRAS Stories.
Creation comes from the banal. Most of the gags here as well.

This comic is in Denglish (English + German), depending on the situation. As an artist, I want to show how we as migrants perceive the world. We live in more than two languages. The whole stories are also not presented in my mother tongue.
Would I present or write the whole stories the same way in my mother tongue?

​All stories were published on our Instagram collective: ZEBRAS.collective.

Love&Hate story about Stuttgarter "Bürocrazy"

Have you ever experienced situations similar to the stories?
Do some stories really touch your soul?
Are you also a migrant in a city, like us?
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If you have stories to share with me/us – we can talk. :)

​All stories were published on our Instagram collective: ZEBRAS.collective.