Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington
Browse

The Graphic Novel as a Means to Explore Philosophies of the Subconscious and Memory. Helping Chinese youth contribute to the current discourse on the “Lying Flat” Crisis.

thesis
posted on 2025-01-20, 19:33 authored by Xiayuan Liu

Currently, Chinese young people are under a lot of pressure, this has caused a series of social phenomena to emerged, such as the 996 working system (overtime hours), Lying flat (Zhang & Li 2022) (refusal to work), a rise in civil servant examination applicants (He 2022) (for secure jobs), and temple visits (Xiecheng Website 2023) (of a manifestation of hopeful thinking). In this thesis, I want to explore how using visuals and storytelling in a comic can contribute to the current discourse on these social issues confronting Chinese youth. To achieve this, I have read academic literature and graphic novels, integrating a broad spectrum of insights, and forming a solid grounding for the resulting comic. The philosophies of The Big Other (Jacque Lacan), trauma and healing (Slavoj Žižek), and The Angel of History (Walter Benjamin) form the theoretical background, help to explain the social issues Chinese young people are currently experiencing from a different angles. This thesis is a practice-based research project. Based on the literature review, my design output is a comic reflecting these social phenomenon from the perspective of a 25-year-old person. The research portfolio, including the comic and the thesis, serve as an example of how to use graphic novels to contribute to current social phenomenon.

History

Copyright Date

2025-01-17

Date of Award

2025-01-17

Publisher

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Rights License

Author Retains Copyright

Degree Discipline

Design Innovation

Degree Grantor

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Degree Level

Masters

Degree Name

Master of Design Innovation

ANZSRC Type Of Activity code

1 Pure basic research

Victoria University of Wellington Item Type

Awarded Research Masters Thesis

Language

en_NZ

Victoria University of Wellington School

School of Design Innovation

Advisors

Dodson, Zach; Ray, Simon