Case study: One-child Policy in China — VR experience | Heihaizi
About Heihaizi
For the speedy growth of population in China, instead of following the popular methods used in most countries at the time, the government in 1979 introduced and applied one-child policy, which restricted the number of births one only in a brutal and often inhumane way, including the force of abortion or female sterilization. As a result, millions of fetuses were killed; infants were abandoned to death; children were sent to orphanages or human trafficking. The policy becomes one of the most extreme and controversial examples of family planning in the world until this day since it is accused of human rights abuses as well as negative social consequences.
Together with my interest in humanity, research of the sufferings of children victims was established, which then led to the Heihaizi project. After bringing out results about the negative effects of the policy on Chinese children, results will be named and sorted by three stages of children’s lives.
In the Heihaizi VR experience, viewers will see visuals or metaphor images of how children’s wellbeing and rights are deeply violated by stages of their lives.
Introduction
Heihaizi (Black Child) VR Experience is a trip to a “Neverland” where the lost souls of the child victims under the One Child Policy go to.
The souls are divided into three main groups: fetuses, new-born, and children. Not only does the land contains dead souls like aborted fetuses or babies abandoned to death, but it also has lost souls of “black” children who were living with no recorded identity and having no coverage of health- care, education, or love from family.
During this trip, the user will go through different spots on the land including sailing through the entrance river, diving under the river, going through a forest, and discovering a cave; and they will find out fetuses, babies, and children in these areas. Visual metaphors are applied throughout the experience, from the places users go to the visual images and installation of the victims: implication of death, secrets being buried, or human without identity. These metaphors are used to reduce the painful and extreme nature of the problem and evoke personal emotions and opinions towards the issue.
Users’ activities are minimal to focus on the visual observation part, mainly instructed actions to free the lost souls from the hidden places.
Related works
During the research upon the one-child policy topic, these are the recognized or award-winning works that related to my projects in terms of subject, platform, and execution. Based on these works, I had firm ground to build up Heihaizi.
One Child Nation
One Child Nation is a documentary film co-directed by Nafu Wang and Jialing Zhang, premiered in 2019. The film reveals China’s one-child policy’s complex consequences and exposes the creeping power of propaganda (Wang & Zhang, 2019). One Child Nation is the foundation for the creation of the Heihaizi VR experience, from interviews of people under the period of the policy to the visual elements of Chinese propaganda products. It also provides a great amount of real-life and self-experience toward the topic.
Bodyless
Bodyless is a VR experience about the creator’s memory in the 1970s, during the period of Taiwan’s martial law. The similarity between this and Heihaizi is that they are both VR experiences where limitations from the government applied to human qualities are illustrated in a surrealistic and fairly haunting way.
China’s Hiden Children: abandonment. adoption, and the human costs of the one-child policy
Johnson (2016) claims to have spent years talking with the Chinese parents who had to abandon their daughters during this brutal birth-planning campaign. The book (Fig. 6) exposes the naked truth, statistics, and personal stories about what actually happened to the children's victims: from being killed while fetuses, arranged adoptions to being sent to rural areas, from being relinquished in public places to being trafficked (Johnson, 2016).
Visual Metaphor and Embodiment in Graphic Illness Narratives
In this book, Refaie (2019) shows that there are two types of visual metaphors: spatial and stylistic. Spatial visual metaphors involve the location of the object, its scale, its being realistic or abstract, and the way it is arranged among other objects (Refaie, 2019). Stylistic visual metaphors are about how the object looks like, including color, how detailed it is, or other specific elements it has (Refaie, 2019). Refaie (2019) discusses 36 graphic illness narratives, alongside explaining the effects of using metaphor images for addressing illness symptoms such as pain. Based on her definition and explanation, I come up with metaphor visual elements, installation, color palette, and spatial design describing the pain of child victims under the One-child policy.
Design practice
First Iteration
From the initial ideation, I first come up with a VR experience: a River of pain. Users will see installations across the river about the pain and hardship of the victims. The river is a metaphor for life, and other images (Fig.10) illustrate the extreme effects of the policy on children. Child victims will be separated into four stages of their life. First is fetus: being aborted during pregnancy. Second is newborn babies: being abandoned to death or vulnerable to child trafficking. The third is children: being orphans or live without identity, healthcare, or education (Heihaizi). The Final is mature: having the burden of 4–2–1 effect, which is having to support four grandparents and two parents all by themselves. Visual elements are based on Asian culture, specifically China.
In Figure 10, besides using some direct elements such as the flags for aborted babies, impressively mentioned in One Child Nation documentary film by Nanfu Wang, you can see my initial intention in visual metaphor installations. A hand squeezing the baby's face so hard that it gets distorted; an eggshell that has the shape of a uterus is broken, revealing the fetus inside; or the gate where parts of it are made out of fetuses in many forms. These metaphors convey the idea of fetuses being aborted during pregnancy, and the gate slightly reveals the meaning of this trip.
Figure 11 is the sketch for the opening scene of the experience. Flags are hung in rows in the sky, gives the impression of something serious or deadly. The sky and the river color are warm, almost bright red, contribute to the implication of blood, birth, and death.
First Iteration Research Question:
How can people understand the suffering of- child victims under China’s One-child policy?
Second Iteration
In my second iteration, I focus on changing my answers to my first question, rather than the question itself. Having re-think the answers, I realize only sailing through the river and seeing installation does not answer close enough. Therefore, I turn my project into the concept of a virtual Neverland, where lost souls from victims under the policy go to. Users will discover the hidden virtual children of different ages. These children can never grow older and forever have the pain or scars, physically or mentally. To press on the ‘understand’ part of my question, I included some actions for users to do to release or free the lost souls away from the land.
Figure 12 is the first scene of the project, you can see an exotic forest, having elements that look like human organs. The tree looks like they are growing something inside — the implication of birth.
Climbing on top of the tree (Fig. 13), users will see the fetus in the birds nest with other baby birds. As I want to avoid bloody or painful details, I use the metaphor similarity between the fetus and the baby birds left on the tree, being left to die together. Users can see the baby passed away already by having scars and the body is turning blue, and the interaction will be putting the death flag onto the fetus to free this soul.
Final Iteration
At my third attempt, I revise my research question and the word ‘understand’ is not suitable for the whole project as it demonstrates more findings, real numbers, and a real description of the victims’ situation. Since what I have done all along is built mostly on visual metaphors, I decided to turn my question into:
Third Iteration Research Question:
How visual metaphor in VR experience can illustrate the suffering of child victims under China’s one-child policy?
I keep my concept similar to my previous direction but focus more on the metaphor visual part. The final direction is still a trip to the ‘Neverland’ where the lost souls of child victims go. Users' experience will be traveling around the land through different kinds of meanings: walking, swimming. sailing, climbing, going into the cave; and discover the lost souls. Most images, choices of color, textures, installation, and location are metaphors of hurt children whose identities and stories being hidden in society.
A baby fetus is put inside a transparent entrance gate. The gate is made with an organic form and mimicking the human organs’ warm tone and shapes. Users can associate the scene as fetuses are being grown, but may not realize whether they are inside a body or being outdoor in an environment.
This is the entrance gate at the beginning of the experience. Users sail through the river to enter the land while observing the exotic gate that has fetuses inside. They will also identify the flags on top of the gate.
Above is the comparison of mood in my VR experience. Scene 1 is foggy, nighttime with the moon shining on the purple sky; fetuses are shined on. This has a dreamy and calming mood. Meanwhile, scene 2 illustrates a more dramatic feeling: things are clear and sharp; color is warmer and the red flags are more prominent. Therefore, I combine them both to achieve the look in figure 18.
The flag element (Fig. 18) has a Chinese name in the middle, the date of death and parents’ names on the bottom left, a short message from their parents on the top right. The flag is researched in detail and recreates as close to the original as possible regarding cultural and spiritual appropriation.
Heihaizi | VR Experience | Official Trailer (2021)
VR Experience Breakdown:
Flesh & Blood Forest (Space 1)
The first location user will reach is the Flesh & Blood Forest. The name Flesh & Blood is an idiom in English that indicates a family relationship. In this case, it also has a literal meaning: the actual flesh & blood of the child. The forest is the first stage of the age of child victims: fetus being aborted. Elements in this place such as ground, plants, animals, the sky,… are made based on human organs and elements. The place is a visual metaphor for a fetus is growing and being nurtured.
The name board of the forest is the welcoming scene for the user. In this area, users will be able to go around and look at the exotic environment, then have a mission to find the fetuses. Since Heihaizi is a non-registered child or hidden child, I put the children in hidden places throughout the VR experience. On top of the flesh and blood tree, the user will find a bird nest. Inside each bird nest will be a fetus with some baby birds, too.
I use the image of newborn birds to illustrate the similarity to the human fetuses. Both of them are vulnerable, innocent, and fragile. The texture of the birds is carefully painted in detail but not on the baby fetus, which is a visual metaphor for one side is alive, but the other side is not.
User when found the fetus will put the flag of death on top of the fetus. The lost soul is then released and becomes fairy lights. My intention for doing this action is to virtually heal the pain for the children and release their souls to a better place.
Abandoned River (Space 2)
The second location user will reach is the Abandoned River. Abandoned River when first heard sounds like a river where nobody visits, but it is also the metaphor for abandoned babies. Under this river hides the secrets of the second stage of ages of child victims: babies. These are babies in real life, after being born healthy and successfully, got abandoned to death, or being human-trafficked for being an unwanted second child. In the VR, babies hidden under the river are a visual metaphor for a deadly secret.
Babies are tied with a rock under the river to not float on top of the water surface, which also means that if the user doesn’t dive in there to explore, the babies will never be discovered, secrets will forever be sealed. The mission of the user is to use a sword to cut the ropes that tied the babies. Until then, the babies can float on top of the water for people to see, together will magical bubbles. This action is a metaphor for discovering the secret and bring it to light.
Cave of The Unknown
The third location is Cave of the Unknown. “The Unkown” indicates Heihaizi, children that are not registered, which means they have no names, no families, no healthcare, or education. These children in real life are sent to orphanages even though their real parents exist. As a result, I come up with these characters. They are the third stage of child victims: children. Since they have no identity, they all look the same and have no mouth. This is also a choice of metaphor: they can only witness and hear the situation, but cannot speak up due to the restriction of the government.
The setup inside the cave is intentionally not using a natural light color. These artificial lights demonstrate that the cave cannot be reached by the sun. The cave is like the orphanages where children are living, more or less a prison undercovered.
The user's mission now is to break a hole in the cave to let sunlight comes in.
Until then, the children can really see the truth and the lost souls will be healed. The last image illustrates a child’s soul flying up towards the sunlight, a visual metaphor for children being released from their captive lives
Discussion
To answer the question: How visual metaphor in VR experience can illustrate the suffering of child victims under China’s one-child policy? I have produced a wide range of metaphor installations, 3D models, spatial design in VR to demonstrate the pain and hardship of child victims, but in a way that metaphorically reduces the intensity of death and killing. China’s one-child policy will be explained from the beginning of the experience so the users are acknowledged of the topic. Child victims are categories in different stages of age so that the project can illustrate the right suffering towards each group. China’s culture is also a part of my visual elements and metaphors; therefore the project expresses the right look and feel about the country. However, though I put out the ideas and visuals that contribute much to the project, I was not able to put all scenes in Unity to have more interactions due to the project’s complexion.
Conclusion
One Child Policy is a controversial topic and I don’t declare to stand on any side, or any right wrong point-out in this policy or the country itself. However, the truth is still there and sufferings towards child victims do exist. Through the visual metaphor of the pain that Chinese children have been given, I would like to give viewers a new artistic approach to the topic. By metaphorically describing the situation, users can have their personal impressions on the topic and different feelings for the children.
In the future, beyond the limit of this project, I would like to push the experience further and complete the work by paying attention to details of the characters, audio selections and more work not just on the child side but also the parents and the social sides. Making things work is a must so in the future, the work should be finalized in Unity and published in order to raise more awareness and attention to the One-Child policy.
References
Refaie, E. (2019). Visual metaphor and embodiment in graphic illness narratives. Oxford University Press, USA.
Johnson, K. A. (2016). China’s hidden children: abandonment, adoption, and the human costs of the one-child policy. The University of Chicago Press.
Huang, H. C. (2019). Bodyless [VR Experience]. Taiwan: Saiau Yue Tsau.
Manninen, M. (2019). Secrets and Siblings: The Vanished Lives of Chinas One Child Policy. Zed Books Ltd.
Steen, G. J. (2018). Visual Metaphor: Structure and Process. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Wang, N. & Zhang, J. (Directors). (2019). One Child Nation [Documentary Film]. Next Generation.
