Devil or God: Image Transformation of Chinese Mythology Character “Nezha”（1927-2019）

Shen, Xuezheng; Li, Jingwen; Zhang, Yunzhuo; Liu, Shanshan; Hong, Jangsun; Lee, Jongyoon

doi:10.7230/koscas.2020.58.159

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Religion 2.0 posits that popular media has a profound influence on people in their thinking about religious images and values. After all, in the traditional religious context, Ne Zha is often portrayed as a teenage delinquent or revolutionary martyr (Shahar 2015, p. 59), and because Ne Zha becomes a deity as a young child, researchers also frequently refer to him as the "child god" (Jin and Wang 2021;Shen et al 2020). However, despite Ne Zha appearing mostly as a child in Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child, he briefly transforms into an adult form when battling against Ao Bing for saving the people of Chentangguan at the end of the movie.…”

Section: Reshaping Divine Figures: Ne Zha As "Domineering Ceo" (霸道总裁)...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediatization of Religion and Its Impact on Youth Identity Formation in Contemporary China

Wei

2024

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In response to the trend of information technology development, religions in China are undergoing a process of mediatization. This study takes the popular Chinese animated films Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child (哪吒之魔童降世) (2019) and New Gods: Yang Jian (新神榜: 杨戬) (2022) as research cases of mediatization of religion and conducts a focused study of the respective protagonists Ne Zha (哪吒) and Yang Jian (杨戬), both prominent figures in Chinese religious and folk traditions. Through text analysis and empirical research on the two movies and their fans, this study examines how religion is being mediatized in contemporary China in the transformation to Religion 2.0 or a type of amalgamation of real- and virtual-world practices that enact a relationship with the divine, and how this shapes identity formation for fans, who are mostly young individuals in their teens and twenties. This research argues that to obtain permission for dissemination in mainstream media and thrive in the cultural context of China, religion chooses to assume the form of media products that can bypass scrutiny that forbids “supernatural phenomena” and aligns with the mainstream ideology. It has to be a “contributory religion” that contributes to the “revitalization” of national spirit and inherited Chinese culture, not a potential “superstitious” threat to the Marxist orthodoxy. In the context of official promotion of atheism and the regulation of public discourse, animated films with themes adapted from traditional mythological and religious stories, such as Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child and New Gods: Yang Jian, have become a major cultural form through which people in China engage with religious symbols and narratives. The enormous success of the two movies resulted in a large population of young fans. Influenced by these films, their fans have developed an egoistic religious perspective rather than assimilating the religious or cultural messages contained in the movies. These fans may experience solace and a call to faith to some extent in their consumption of the movies, but they selectively enhance religious literacy that only meets their personal needs. Interest in divine individuals far outweighs interest in or loyalty to the religious doctrine or sect itself. Pilgrimages are undertaken to fulfill personal fantasies, and the promotion of the divine is aimed at vying for influence within fan communities. The second part of this study examines the activities of the fans that I argue are characteristic of the age of Religion 2.0.

show abstract

Section: Reshaping Divine Figures: Ne Zha As "Domineering Ceo" (霸道总裁)...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediatization of Religion and Its Impact on Youth Identity Formation in Contemporary China

Wei

2024

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In their study on the national style in Chinese animation, Cui ( 2006 ) and Du ( 2019 ) argue that Nezha (1979) forms part of the end of the stylistically uniformity or ‘national style,’ but also, the added value of well-crafted and internationally recognized ‘golden period’ (approximately 1950s–980s) within the subsided Shanghai Animation Film Studio and its cooperative model of socialist realism. Shen et al ( 2020 ) uses image analysis to map the changes in Nezha’s visual image in Chinese film, and how this image is affected by multiculturalism in the world. Whyke et al ( 2021 ) have focused on the presentation of the national style in Nezha (2019), in which traditions and modernity are interwoven, and the focus upon the ‘technological’ – its digitality – constitutes a refiguring of animation in China as symbolic of modernity.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calling for a Hero: The Displacement of the Nezha Archetypal Image from Chinese Animated Film Nezha Naohai (1979) to New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021)

Whyke

Lopez-Mugica

2021

Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From the classical Chinese literary masterpiece Investiture of the Gods to contemporary film animation, Nezha’s image is profound. Examining the portrayals of Nezha, namely in those most celebrated animated films, we argue that his role as the epitome of a ‘god like figure’ is in constant displacement and return. Using the framework of archetype and displacement as advanced by Northrop Frye, with a more pluralistic myth analysis extension found in the myth critique of Gilbert Durand, this article examines the multi-layered mythical mini structures within Nezha’s displacement and return in Chinese animation, to explore the themes, images, and archetype represented by the character from the perspective of Chinese history and culture. We argue that Nezha’s displacement and return in Chinese animation expresses the need and call for a traditional heroic image in a particular era. As such, Nezha’s intertextuality exposes the profound inner patterns that form and refashion the Chinese collective unconscious, performing as a recurring mirror that symbolically inform and transform human experiences in China.

show abstract

The Self-Shaping, Other-Shaping, and Influence of Traditional Chinese Culture in Nezha: Birth of the Devil and Mulan

Zhang

2024

Comparative Literature: East & West

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Devil or God: Image Transformation of Chinese Mythology Character “Nezha”（1927-2019）

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Mediatization of Religion and Its Impact on Youth Identity Formation in Contemporary China

Mediatization of Religion and Its Impact on Youth Identity Formation in Contemporary China

Calling for a Hero: The Displacement of the Nezha Archetypal Image from Chinese Animated Film Nezha Naohai (1979) to New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021)

The Self-Shaping, Other-Shaping, and Influence of Traditional Chinese Culture in Nezha: Birth of the Devil and Mulan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About