PGC Presentation on 7/12/09: The Creation of a Comic Superhero Character Indigenous to Taiwan

As Title states: my PGC presentation was to explain my idea of my MA Project Proposal---
The Creation of a Comic Superhero Character Indigenous Taiwan.

This whole thing of creating a supehero character actually starts out from a question to ask myself:
What exactly am I, who am I...

The I concluded that, I am a Paiwan aboriginal Taiwanese person who happens to be a designer-wanna-be. I read a lot of comics, so as I had grown older I have felt the need to invent my own story of a comic character...I then asked myself: Why not create a superhero character with a Taiwanese setting?

However, to convince myself as well as my audience I need a strong motive, a strong background to support my proposal, so I summarized my rational here:

The whole concept began with having the feeling that Taiwanese have been looking down on themselves for a long time due to the ongoing international oppression from as well as political pressure mainly from China. Under such circumstances, Taiwanese have long missed a mutual memory that is able to once again arouse a resonant passion towards their country---Taiwan. Hence, it is urgent for Taiwanese to have a national symbol to create that coexisting memory ...



So in a situation like this, we will need a hero, a hero as our symbol to create imaginary memory. Frankly speaking, an embedded marketing strategy. The superhero character is merely a disguise of the product I'm trying to sell, and what I'm really selling is my idea, my ideology of patriotism and nationalism.

Famous examples as the followed:
Captain America:
Captain America wears a American Flag motif-like outfit to lead his fellows against the "evil" axis powers during WWII. This character was intentionally created for the purpose of encouraging patriotism and American Egoism at the time, and as I said, an embedded marketing strategy.

Now with my rational explained, my research leads to my
Research Question:

What are the key features of cultural archetypes and how can these features be controlled to create a superhero that has specific cultural resonance within a Taiwanese setting?

so to answer this question in the latter phase of PGD, I will employ a series of methodologies including: creative practice, audience interviews and surveys, and Action Research(Newman, 2009 cited in Schon, 1978)

Here is a chart of how Action Research takes place:


so why need interviews and surveys?
well, basically interviews and surveys are optional but to ensure the creditability of my superhero character, and to ensure that the character preserves a strong identity rooted to Taiwan rather than just out of my ideology, surveys and interviews could provide a stronger objective perspective.


















In addition, I have also created a fandom group online (facebook) as suggested during my tutorial, and the link is as the below:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=186188194091&ref=mf

or you can search for key words on facebook:
The Creation of a Superhero Indigenous to Taiwan