This work is a national innovative project that I participated in and led my group to complete during my undergraduate years. We were concerned about the problem of limited recognition and transmission of the existing epic literary heritage of Yunnan’s ethnic minorities. Based on the idea of “productive conservation” of intangible cultural heritage, we tried to adapt the original text in terms of storyline and presentation. In this project, I also focused on character design work to enrich the original characters’ story and try to express them through illustration.
Program background
Our main object of research and adaptation, Loqiloye and Zaszai, is the folklore heritage of the Hani people in Yunnan. The original form is an oral epic, and the written version was formed late, while the adapted version was only published as a comic strip in 2012, with a limited number of releases.
character image
I designed seven main characters for the change work based on the original, three of which are original characters and four are original characters, to make the logic of story advancement more comprehensive by building more in-depth interpersonal relationships.
Based on the increase of the characters’ stories by changing the plot, and considering the acceptance of modern readers, especially the young ones, I referred to the style of manga characters in the image design, and adopted a more exaggerated and rich way to express the characters’ emotions; in addition, I added decorative elements to the original Hani costumes to make the characters’ appearance more diverse while retaining the original ethnic cultural characteristics.
Luo Shan, the main character, who is a thirty-year-old salaryman, coming back to his hometown MoJiang county after the death of his wife.
Ghost, the villainous character, appearing in the main character’s dream world, claims to be the spirit of Loqiloye and presents the story of the dream world to the main character.
LoqiLoye, the male protagonist of the original epic, in this work as a character appearing in the dream world, since birth has a strong soul power, righteousness, courageous resistance, is the ancestor of the main character of this work.
Zaszay, the heroine of the original epic, who appears in this work as a character in the dream world, is cheerful and strong, has an opinion, and is the ancestor of the main character of this work.
Inu, the character who appears in the dream world of the story, Zaszai’s cousin, is timid and shy but rigid inside.
Mita, the character who appears in the dream world of the story, and also a character in the history of the epic record. He is the best friend of LoqiLoye, calm on the outside and passionate on the inside.
Nihan, the villain of this work, is a cunning character unfathomable.
content illustration
