Session 1: Thesis Proposal: Topic potentials motivations
My final major project idea began with a question: What does it mean to let go?
In a speculative future, the dead must choose, upload their consciousness to digital eternity, or vanish forever. Between these two ends stands Meng Po, a silent guide through oblivion. The story follows a translucent woman, a silver bracelet glowing on her wrist. Her journey across the digital underworld becomes a reawakening of memory, revealing that her story has played out before, perhaps centuries ago, during the Qing Dynasty. As she steps into her final moment, Meng Po follows—breaking her own role for the first time.
Before I started writing my story, I was revisiting Chinese mythologies and horror folklore. Stories from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Classic of Mountains and Seas, and urban ghost stories. Their recurring themes of reincarnation, restless spirits, and moral consequence lingered with me. I browsed many of them out of curiosity: some poetic, some chilling—and gradually an image took form: what if the afterlife was shaped not by gods, but by data?
This narrative emerged from my fascination with endings, how we remember, what we forget, and what lies beyond. But as I wrote, I realized how deeply this theme is rooted in Chinese cultural beliefs about death and reincarnation. From the River of Forgetfulness to the idea of karmic cycles, Chinese philosophy offers a profoundly poetic way of understanding mortality, not as an end, but a transformation. This inspired the direction of my research paper: to examine how animation translates these spiritual ideas into visual narratives. Through symbolism, story structure, and aesthetic form, I want to explore how traditional beliefs take new shape in modern media.
Session 2: Films and Themes
I selected Big Fish & Begonia, White Snake, and Ne Zha, each of these films reinterprets Chinese myths or traditional beliefs related to mortality and reincarnation. They also share a strong emphasis on aesthetic innovation and cultural symbolism, making them ideal for my study.
I also began reflecting on recurring narrative tropes across these works. For instance, many protagonists face death and rebirth not just as physical events, but as transformations of identity, purpose, and memory. The characters are often not simply reborn—they awaken, ascend, or dissolve, echoing Taoist and Buddhist themes.
In White Snake, the cycle of love across lifetimes is driven by fate and emotional memory. In Big Fish & Begonia, characters “return” to nature after death, reinforcing Taoist cosmology. These films suggest that in Chinese animation, reincarnation is not about starting over, but about continuity and transformation of the soul’s essence. This helped shape my analytical lens for later stages of the research.
Session 3: literature research
I identified three key areas for researching literature:
- philosophical foundations (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism)
- visual and narrative strategies in animation
- case studies on Chinese animated films related to myths and folk legends like White Snake.
A lot of traditional spiritual beliefs are abstract, but animation turns them into something visual and emotional. I started paying more attention to recurring elements in the films I had seen, like bridges, water, light, which often signal passage, memory, and transformation. These ideas really connect with my own animation story, where digital oblivion meets ancient beliefs.
While outlining these themes, I came across the article by Tang and Gong (2021), which explores how classical mythology influences the creation of Chinese animation. It made me think more deeply about how ancient figures like Meng Po could be reimagined in modern settings. My final project centers around a new version of Meng Po, and this reading helped me realize that I’m not only analyzing visual storytelling, but also participating in the long tradition of myth reinterpretation through art.
With this in mind, I started planning my next steps. I would look for sources that not only support these recurring motifs, but also offer new ways of seeing them, especially how animation serves as a bridge between old beliefs and new narrative forms.
Session 4: Revisiting Classical Thought
This week I focused on building a stronger understanding of the philosophical roots that shape how death and rebirth are treated in Chinese animation. I returned to classical ideas—Confucian ethics, Taoist naturalism, and Buddhist views of samsara—and started looking at how they appear not just as themes, but as visual cues. For example, in Big Fish & Begonia, a character turns into wind, then dissolves into the sea. The image feels gentle, but behind it is the Taoist belief that death is just a return to the Dao.
To get deeper into this, I reviewed Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought edited by Olberding and Ivanhoe (2012), which helped me untangle how Confucianism sees death as part of a moral cycle, and how Buddhism sees the end of life as a transition rather than a final stop. Taoism, in contrast, emphasizes returning to nature and letting go of control. All three philosophies offer different answers to the same question: what happens after we die?
These frameworks gave me more to think about for my own project. I’m beginning to outline how these ideas translate into animation through color palettes, transitions, and natural elements. I’m also comparing these theories to my own animation story about Meng Po, whose character is shaped by ideas of forgetting, flowing, and crossing. Next week, I’ll look into how visual storytelling turns these abstract beliefs into cinematic form.
Session 5: White Snake
This week, I delved deeper into The Legend of the White Snake as a case study of how spiritual themes evolve in animation. What fascinated me was how the same narrative—passed down for centuries—has taken on such different meanings through time and medium. Early versions emphasized fear, with Bai Suzhen as a seductive, dangerous snake demon. These reflected moral warnings, especially around women and desire, rooted in Confucian and Buddhist restraint.
But later retellings began to shift that tone. I looked at how Feng Menglong in the Ming dynasty added layers of empathy, making Bai a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice. Fang Chengpei’s Qing dynasty adaptation went even further, casting her as a tragic heroine struggling against patriarchal oppression and religious dogma. These transformations, as Chen and Liu (2024) describe, marked a turn toward emotional depth and ethical ambiguity.
In modern adaptations like White Snake (2019), Bai becomes even more autonomous. The animation adds fantasy and reincarnation themes while maintaining cultural motifs like the bracelet, water, and the Broken Bridge. Xiaoqing’s role also expands into a co-lead, especially in Green Snake (1993), where her internal struggle reflects contemporary questions of identity and emotion.
Session 6: Ink and Wash
This week, I explored the aesthetic world of Chinese ink wash animation. I revisited classics like The Little Tadpole Looks for Its Mother and Mountain and Water Affection, paying attention to how these films visually express Taoist and Confucian ideals—gentleness, fluidity, restraint, and harmony with nature. Even without direct reference to death or reincarnation, the visuals evoke a broader metaphysical sensibility that feels connected to my theme.
I also looked at Confucius (2009), which uses the image of the orchid as a recurring symbol of moral strength. According to Chinese Animation Film Philosophy, the flower represents inner virtue, subtle but resilient, which adds emotional weight to the character’s journey.
Although I don’t plan to focus heavily on ink wash animation in my final paper, studying this style helped me understand how aesthetic techniques communicate cultural values. Water, ink, and rhythm aren’t just decorative—they express philosophical ideas like the unity of self and nature, or the impermanence of life.
Session 7: Visual Symbolism
This week, I thought about the power of visual symbolism in animated storytelling. I realized that symbols—like colors, objects, and natural elements—can carry emotional weight across time, especially when dealing with abstract themes like reincarnation. In my project, I chose a silver bracelet with a glowing bead to act as a visual thread through different lifetimes. Its design is simple, but the meaning it holds builds with each memory it reveals.
I’m becoming more aware of how shape, rhythm, and movement can make metaphysical ideas feel real. The goal isn’t just to represent death or memory, but to give them texture—something the audience can feel, even if they don’t fully understand it. This week helped me focus more on the “why” behind my visual choices, and not just the “how.”
Session 8: Constructing Narrative Structure from Philosophy and Myth
This week, I turned my focus to how narrative structure in Chinese animation is shaped by traditional philosophy. I realized that concepts like “harmony between heaven and man” or “going with the flow” are not only themes—they also influence how stories unfold. Unlike Western stories that often follow a clear cause-effect structure, many Chinese animated narratives build gradually and return in cycles.
I started noticing how transitions in plot often happen not through big events, but through emotional shifts or quiet realizations. In some works, memory and mood seem more important than action. This approach reflects ideas of reincarnation—not just as a plot device, but as a storytelling rhythm.
Thinking about this helped me re-evaluate my own story. Instead of just focusing on final choices or endings, I’m starting to see the journey and the internal changes as equally important. Maybe the story doesn’t need a dramatic climax. It might be more powerful to let it unfold through subtle repetition or emotional echoes, just like the philosophical cycles I’ve been reading about.
Session 9: Research Question and Statement
Research topic：
How Chinese cultural concepts of Mortality and Reincarnation are represented in animation? (ancestral worship , and the afterlife)
Statement:
The research will examine how Chinese cultural concepts of mortality and reincarnation are developed in animation films, focusing on visual symbolism, narrative structure, and aesthetic expression. The study aims to reveal how the spiritual beliefs are transformed into animated narratives and to explore traditional cultural authenticity under modern creative context.
key academic publications:
https://scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=111820 A Study of the Inherited Relations between Classical Mythology and the Making of Chinese Animation Films
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=gBW5bCFYRh8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=chinese+mythology+mortality&ots=_EcJenesRy&sig=RvJep6PkbC7jJht9xU2sPNuWH58&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=chinese%20mythology%20mortality&f=false Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought
https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0094175 Aspects of cyclic myth in Chinese and Western literature
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=ZYt_uCjiqKUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA13&dq=chinese+reincarnation+myth&ots=3UfECbutZk&sig=dBLwBF7w_HL6cE2yO1X8T2CdRzU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=chinese%20reincarnation%20myth&f=false Myths and Legends of China
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1567187&dswid=-6147 Emotional Perception of Death in Animated Films: Sentiment Analysis of Coco and Soul’s Scripts and Reviews
https://journal.uns.ac.id/marble/article/view/329 Analysis of the Dilemma of Overseas Cross-cultural Communication of Chinese Animation Movies and the Strategy of Cross-cultural Communication in the New Media Environment: “Nezha: Birth of Demon” as An Example
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=760272 Social and Political Criticisms Embedded in Chinese Myths and Legends
Session 10: Literature Review Draft
This week I added several more sources, especially around myth and visual aesthetics. Writing the literature review helped clarify my structure, but I also noticed the logic could be stronger. I might have included too many sub-themes, which made the flow feel a bit scattered. Next, I’ll try to refine the argument and make the transitions between themes smoother.