An Otaku with Chinese Characteristics?: Localizing Japanese ACG Currents in Lu Yang's The Beast. Issue 1 (1st June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shan, Fred
• Is Part Of: Screen bodies. Volume 7:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 13
• Page End: 28
• Publication Date: 2022-06-01
• Subjects: ACG -- contemporary Chinese art -- fan fiction -- Lu Yang -- subculture -- otaku -- postmodernism -- posthumanism; Human body in motion pictures -- Periodicals; Human body in mass media -- Periodicals; Human body -- Erotic aspects -- Periodicals; Human body -- Erotic aspects; Human body in mass media; Human body in motion pictures; Periodicals; 791.436
• DOI: 10.3167/screen.2022.070102
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2374-7552

Abstract

Abstract: Existing studies on Lu Yang have largely sidelined his engagement with Japanese anime, comics, and gaming (ACG) culture, despite the artist having frequently reiterated the significance of ACG to his upbringing and practice. Nor have they extensively explored what, if anything, is particularly Chinese about Lu's work. This article argues that it is precisely Lu's appropriation of ACG's visual aesthetic and symbolic language that firmly positions the artist within twenty-first century Chinese youth culture. Focusing on The Beast (2012)—Lu's tribute to the cult classic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion —I adopt an interdisciplinary approach synthesizing otaku research, fandom studies, Chinese socio-economic analyses and institutional critique to contextualize Lu's practice within the socio-historical nexus of Sino–Japanese transcultural exchange and the global network of contemporary art.