The Imaginary Body: A Discussion of Female Body's Beauty Standards in China Using Imagination and Illustration

“The Imaginary body” series of illustrations is the core visual output of my thesis research. It is a way for me to express, think and acquire knowledge. It is also a means for me to critically respond to the social problem that I am concerned about: the stereotyped and dogmatic beauty standards of women’s bodies in modern Chinese society; how these standards come into being under the political purpose of gender oppression; and how they seriously affect the establishment of the positive and benign self-identity of modern Chinese women. In the research process, the studies I involve include how women internalize social aesthetics and establish self-identity, sexual objectification, body-image, and transfeminism. Nourished by these background and secondary researches, I develop some conversation directions and prompts, with imagination as the core. With their help, I have some conversations with some close friends of mine (Chinese women of similar age). These dialogues provide me great inspirations so that I can take my illustration creation as a reflection to visually show and communicate my thinking and critical response around this research topic. The illustrations that emerge are fantastical, hybrid, grotesque and powerful. These monster bodies constitute an offence to the existing relationship between the individual and the collective with their peculiarity. Through these illustrations, I ask questions about how should we reflect on our relationship with society and ourselves, and how could individuals build stronger and more independent self-identity in the modern patriarchal heterosexual ruling system.