But Words Will Never Hurt Me

Anime is typically referred to as animation that is produced in Japan. As it gained popularity in China, a counterculture evolved that went so far as to inflict psychological and physical harm towards those who were supporters of anime. The reasons were often political as well as historical given China's past war and occupation at the hands of the Japanese. In this work, I took it upon myself to express the divisive nature that this artform is confronted with. As a fan of anime, I chose a popular character known as Hatsune Miku, a singing voice synthesizer featured in over 100,000 songs released worldwide. The image, like China's relationship to anime, is divided. One half of the picture is the image of Miku, while the other half of the image appears fractured as it is produced in typographic form. While a tribute to anime on the one hand, the words that are written express the aforementioned division in China as it relates to anime.