Yihan Xiong is a Chinese animator and illustrator who graduated from Royal College of Art in the United Kingdom. During her undergraduate study, she created i know, which is a series of children illustration books. She is committed to the artistic creation of experimental animation in her MA, she created Listening to the Fire, The Building, Dilemma and other films. She has now returned to China to work.
Yihan Xiong
Yihan Xiong tends to create her animations with the themes of soul, child, and spiritual world. Influenced by surrealism, her works are grotesque, but at the same time reflect upon delicate human emotions and the mysterious dream world. She also has a unique taste regarding the color and texture of the brushes, and especially likes to paint with vividly textured brushes. In addition, she believes that the works of painters reflect their own life situation and emotions to a large extent. She also believes that there's a mutual influence between animation and creators. While animators create animation, animation is also making animators.
Dilemma — Yihan Xiong's graduation work dilemma is an animation on the theme of "body shame". This is a 2D animation based on the inspiration of a surgery experience of her own and combined with current hot issues.
Screenshots
![[untitled]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/f_webp,h_546,w_964,c_fill,g_auto,q_auto/v1/rca2021/60c4340ba98c7847e522c03a-53251?_a=AXAH4S10)
![[untitled]](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/f_webp,h_697,w_1278,c_fill,g_auto,q_auto/v1/rca2021/60c4340ba98c7847e522c03a-93964?_a=AXAH4S10)
Test
Yihan Xiong's graduation work Dilemma is an animation on the theme of "body shame". This is a 2D animation based on the inspiration of a surgery experience of her own and combined with current hot issues. Body shame has penetrated into all aspects of the society; it requires not only celebrities to maintain a perfect body, but also ordinary people. Yihan thinks that whether it is the pursuit of a slim body or a fuller body, it is just an aesthetic taste of a group effect. The unconscious behavior of a group has replaced the conscious behavior of a individual, which is one of the most prominent characteristics of modern times. From the previous requirement of a thin waist and big boobs to the present, cosmetic hospitals have become so morbid that they even offer the project of "blocking calf muscles", which is aimed to prevent women's calves from growing too many muscles and becoming strong. People have "divided" their bodies in an unhealthy way, and every inch of the bodies must meet the so-called public aesthetics. Those who achieve their goals will publicize their "success stories" to others, while those who fail will be overwhelmed by self body-shaming.Her animation transforms the external sound into entity and enters the protagonist's body. What really changes the body is her psychological effect, which is implied by the shadow in the animation. People began to question themselves because of the public's aesthetic or other people's evaluation, and they were not confident in their healthy body. Although external voices can cause anxiety, our own pressure is the decisive factor.