Yeren: A Counter Figure

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This practice-based research looks at the notion of "mutated species" as an exiled figure to challenge repressed political, environmental and ethnic issues in both Mao-era and contemporary China. Predicated on contemporary art practices, this project will examine the figure of Yeren in Hubei province, drawing on an interdisciplinary approach that embraces scientific and mythological accounts. Crucially, the project seeks to establish a nuanced exploration of decolonial methods outside of the existing Western decolonial framework.Although specific to the context of Hubei/China, Yeren is an emotional and intersectional response to unspoken colonial violence. Yeren is an apeman species reported to live in the Shengnonjia Forestry Region in Hubei. The sightings ofYeren date back to ancient China. It became a modern legend which was subsequently repressed during Mao's Cultural Revolution period. Its contemporary resurgence aligns with recent deforestation in the area. Over time, Yeren has become intertwined with scientific debates over human origin, as well as racist representation of local ethnic tribes. Yeren thus may function as a prism to simultaneously address entangled questions around cultural and ethnic identity, ecologies and ideologies.With a focus on moving-image, sound and multimedia storytelling, this practice-based research aims to re-imagine Yeren's ecological presence, social organisation, interaction with local ethnic tribes, and ways of dismantling political/psychological repressions from within. Drawing on decolonial art practices such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Patty Chang, the project will consult a variety of archives - both physical and online, in the UK and abroad - as well as embrace folklore, anecdotes and oral histories as means to articulated divergent knowledge. As such, my research will be conducted across media, drawing on the specific characteristics of moving image, sound and experimental modes of scoring to recalibrate the charged historical and contemporary narratives around Yeren.