Puppets, gods, and brands : theorizing the age of animation from Taiwan / Teri Silvio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Silvio, Teri, author.

Series:

Asia Pop! Series

Asia Pop!

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Characters and characteristics in mass media.

Cartoon characters--Social aspects--Taiwan.

Cartoon characters.

Computer animation--Social aspects--Taiwan.

Computer animation.

Figurines--Social aspects--Taiwan.

Figurines.

Puppet theater--Social aspects--Taiwan.

Puppet theater.

Video game characters--Social aspects--Taiwan.

Video game characters.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2019]

Summary:

The early twenty-first century has seen an explosion of animation. Cartoon characters are everywhere—in cinema, television, and video games and as brand logos. There are new technological objects that seem to have lives of their own—from Facebook algorithms that suggest products for us to buy to robots that respond to human facial expressions. The ubiquity of animation is not a trivial side-effect of the development of digital technologies and the globalization of media markets. Rather, it points to a paradigm shift. In the last century, performance became a key term in academic and popular discourse: The idea that we construct identities through our gestures and speech proved extremely useful for thinking about many aspects of social life. The present volume proposes an anthropological concept of animation as a contrast and complement to performance: The idea that we construct social others by projecting parts of ourselves out into the world might prove useful for thinking about such topics as climate crisis, corporate branding, and social media. Like performance, animation can serve as a platform for comparisons of different cultures and historical eras.Teri Silvio presents an anthropology of animation through a detailed ethnographic account of how characters, objects, and abstract concepts are invested with lives, personalities, and powers—and how people interact with them—in contemporary Taiwan. The practices analyzed include the worship of wooden statues of Buddhist and Daoist deities and the recent craze for cute vinyl versions of these deities, as well as a wildly popular video fantasy series performed by puppets. She reveals that animation is, like performance, a concept that works differently in different contexts, and that animation practices are deeply informed by local traditions of thinking about the relationships between body and soul, spiritual power and the material world. The case of Taiwan, where Chinese traditions merge with Japanese and American popular culture, uncovers alternatives to seeing animation as either an expression of animism or as “playing God.” Looking at the contemporary world through the lens of animation will help us rethink relationships between global and local, identity and otherness, human and non-human.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Series Editor’s Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note on Language

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Age of Animation

CHAPTER 1 Animation versus Performance

CHAPTER 2 The Ang-a: A Taiwanese Mode of Animation

CHAPTER 3 The Cutification of the Gods

CHAPTER 4 Ang-a Globalization: Marketing the Pili International Multimedia Company’s Puppetry Overseas

CHAPTER 5 Cosplay: Embodying Animation, Animating Bodies

CHAPTER 6 Ang-a Identity Politics: The Personification of Imagined Communities

CONCLUSION Animation and Futurity

Notes

Glossary of Key Terms in Mandarin, Holo, and Japanese

Glossary of Names

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780824880996

0824880994

9780824880989

0824880986

OCLC:

1312726064