Seventeen years ago, driven by love, I, a native of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, moved to Istanbul, Türkiye. I once envisioned the beginning of a glorious chapter in my life in this exotic land. However, upon my arrival, I found myself becoming a housewife due to language and cultural differences. Apart from learning Turkish, my activities were confined to cooking and watching TV at home.

One day, I saw the creation of the world intangible cultural heritage Ebru, the Turkish art of paper marbling, on TV: First sprinkle and brush paint on the water surface in a basin and draw patterns; then gently place a piece of paper on the water surface; a moment later, pull the paper away from the water, and the patterns are transferred to the paper, leaving the water surface untouched! This magical and beautiful form of art struck my heart from deep down: I want to learn Ebru!

At that time, despite having no prior experience or involvement in art other than the art class I took in primary school, I felt paper marbling rather easy, and immediately searched for relevant training classes and signed up.

Filiz Li and Mr. Çağlar (left) making Ebru.

On the very first day, probably a day in the autumn of 2007, in a cultural center in Istanbul, I met my first teacher, Mr. Erol Çağlar, who I still follow to this day. He is an expert on Ottoman history. At that time, my Turkish was not good enough to follow him and he didn't speak English. Therefore, I could only observe his demonstration, take photos or recordings with my phone, and then practice accordingly. As I delved deeper into the art, I realized that paper marbling is more intricate than it initially appeared; the more you learn, the more challenging it gets.