I “Sang” therefore I am!

The audience I want to engage with are non-academic people who are interested in different subcultures and people who know or do not know Sang culture. Especially, I want to engage with people who are “crying behind the mask”. These people are very common in life. They are under great stress and suffering but they never express their feelings. They keep everything inside and show optimism. Beneath their “smiling masks” are crying faces. I’d like to use this “text” to remind them that expressing negative emotions is necessary. And as I researched in my EADA project, Sang culture, a new emerging subculture characterized by the expression of negative emotions, has many psychological benefits.

The “text” I designed is a poster. The main tone of the color is dark, which fits the topic better. The language I used is English except the Chinese character “丧“, which is pronounced as Sang in pinyin. Since Sang culture is more familiar to Chinese, I want to use English to let more people in the world know about Sang culture. On the top right of the poster, there are some words in the background, such as “loneliness” and “self-denial ”. They are exactly negative emotions people are unwilling or afraid to express. In the bottom half of the poster, there are two pictures. The picture with a cross below is found on the website. And the picture next to it is redesigned and repainted by me. In the first picture, a boy holds a smile mask but he is crying sadly. That is what I said, “people who are crying behind the mask”. I don’t want people to suppress their feelings. I hope they can express their true feelings. Just like in my second picture, let the mask cry with you. Sang is also an attitude to life. Life is hard enough, please be yourself!

Sang culture is a subculture emerging on the Internet, so I also hope my poster can be spread via the network. I want it to be unique and different from the typical memes of Sang culture. There is still a lot of prejudice against Sang culture, just like people resist expressing negative emotions. My design is limited. Because I can’t show the audience the benefits of Sang like what I do in EADA. I can only appeal to people to express themselves. But I hope that when people see my posters, they will want to know about such a unique subculture. I wish people would have less prejudice and scruples. I want people to be themselves.

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