Lin Ji's cartoon creation. Photo provided to China Daily

Her most successful creation, Ghost, is a cute, nightcap-sporting elf that is generating love and positive energy on the Chinese Internet. When the cartoon character first appeared in April 2012, his devilish, yet oddly innocent look instantly struck a chord with many young lovers of manga, a type of graphic novel most closely associated with Japan.

The character often speaks in a tone that drips with mock sympathy - which the audience loves - and although his official name is "Ghost", he prefers to be called Oppa - "big brother" in Korean. The term is becoming increasingly popular in China, mainly as a result of people mimicking the pouting girls in Korean soap operas who use the word to describe their boyfriends.

"Starting at elementary school, I began to read books by Japanese masters such as Akira Toriyama, Fujiko Fujio, Rumiko Takahashi. Unlike many Chinese parents, my mom never stopped me from buying comics and watching cartoons, which was very fortunate. In middle school, I started to publish short stories in the magazine Beijing Cartoons. My favorite comics are Kindaichi series," she says referring to a Japanese manga series that stars a crime-solving high school student.

"I made Ghost a boy, because my own character is really boyish. I also incorporated some of the basic elements of the ideal boyfriend from my own imagination - he's funny, cute and very caring: traits that can be regarded as ideal boyfriend material.

"Drawing is actually a very lonely job. One has to sit at a desk with no communication with other people. This is a one-woman show, so I put all that I want to say and express in my cartoons. I hope they bring people some joy," she says.

When her father passed away suddenly in 1999, Lin found it difficult to adjust to life without him.

"I was depressed for a long time. I didn't want to talk and I was like a zombie. At times like that, no one can help, you just have to wait for the feeling to pass. A few months later, I was packing up some of his papers when I suddenly noticed something he'd written: 'I have had a rough life, but I'm very fortunate to have this only daughter. I hope she will grow up healthy, honest and tolerant.' I burst into tears, but then all of a sudden I felt that by continuing to be depressed I would only disappoint my father," she said.