Michelle Yan

My inquiry pulls inspiration from my love of history, my Chinese culture, and literature. I focused on combining Taoist elements with classic vampire tropes. For my entire life I loved exploring the supernatural and especially enjoyed mythology and folklore. I came to this concept when I delved deeper into exploring Chinese cosmology and superstitions. As I continued my research I began to notice similarities between certain customs and beliefs that are shared in both Chinese and Western folklore. Using these similarities, I created a Chinese vampire story merging east and west together into one.

In my series I explored different avenues of design creating my semi-historical world. In, “An Exorcist’s Toolkit,” I reimagine Taoist ritual objects for a vampire hunt, replacing wooden stakes for a peachwood sword. I also restricted my use of color to only black and white, alluding to Chinese painting and old photos. I also used red because it is vital to both vampiric myth and Chinese culture as it’s both the color of blood and a lucky symbol. This dual meaning reflects the clashing of ideals in the East and West and the blurring of life and death in vampire lore.