Scarlett Yang’s The New Goddess, a Platinum-winning work in the Graphis New Talent Awards 2025, confronts the shifting and often conflicting ideals placed on Chinese women with striking clarity and emotional depth. Through a meticulously constructed figure composed of seven symbolic parts, Yang blends cultural tradition with contemporary feminist insight to reveal the dualities—beauty and burden, reverence and restriction—that shape womanhood today. Her visual language, rooted in both realism and surrealism, channels the tension between cultural expectation and personal identity, inviting viewers to reflect on the paradoxes embedded in modern life.

By Scarlett Yang

My work emphasises duality — in this case, the duality of culture. It explores the collision and tension between traditional Chinese cultural ideals and emerging feminist thought in shaping the image of Chinese women. Under these two forces, contemporary Chinese women are portrayed both as subordinates — sacrificial figures — and as central subjects — noble mothers elevated to a sacred pedestal. This paradox, deeply rooted in Confucian ethics, gives rise to a complex and layered image of womanhood in China.

I approach the female figure as a vessel, deconstructing it into seven symbolic parts that address seven different societal expectations imposed on women. The seven yellow spheres inscribed with Chinese characters further deepen the narrative. The ornate frame, integrating traditional Chinese patterns and poetic couplets, adds a sense of ceremony and blessing to the image.

At the beginning of the creative process, I considered using a more abstract visual language (as in sketch 01), rendering the “goddess” with heightened divinity. However, I later shifted towards a balance of realism and surrealism (as in sketch 02) to create stronger emotional resonance with viewers.

In this way, my visual language itself reflects duality — the coexistence of dignity and absurdity, beauty and horror, harmony and power in opposition.

About Scarlett Yang

Scarlett Yang is a Chinese illustrator and Book Cover Designer based in London. She holds a Master's degree in Illustration from the University of Brighton and undergraduate degrees in Environmental Art Design and Applied Psychology. Her diverse cultural and educational background enables her to seamlessly blend Chinese and Western elements in her artwork. Scarlett uses visual art as a medium to generate conversations with the public, focusing on social topics and human relationships to give a voice to marginalised communities.

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