Lu Li

Design Fictual: Performative Design Explorations of Reimagining and Disrupting Inherent Women's Identity

The transformation of Chinese women's identities without marriage is particularly difficult due to the long history of patriarchal ideological domination in China. Following the third feminist wave in the 1990s, women are encouraged to articulate the challenges of imagining and constructing more diverse social identities. The traditional Chinese portrayal of women’s identity, tied to marriage ideologies, is undergoing a transformation, encouraging women to break free from subordinate positions. Resisting traditional marriage is a way for Chinese women to seek identity transformation, but it will often face the patriarchal observation and be stigmatized and marginalized. This research offers a performative design intervention into the transformation of marriage-resistant women in China. This reflective speculative project aims to positively reimagine and disrupt the relationship between women's identities and marriage in a broader social context.

Supervisors

Dr Catherine Caudwell

Dr Rosie Scott

Awards and Achievements

Wellington Doctoral Scholarship

Qualifications

MA, Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2021
MFA, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2018
BA, Donghua University, Shanghai, China, 2015

Contact

lu.li@vuw.ac.nz