Performing Chineseness, Translated Histories: Taiwanese Cartoonist Chen Uen’s Ink-brush Comic Aesthetics and Digital Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study aims to examine the notion of “multimodal digital pedagogy” through participatory paratexts created among students. Within the field of research on the intersection of arts, media, new technologies, and digital pedagogy, Chen Uen’s work presents an opportunity for educators and students to engage with challenging transnational symbolic dimensions. Taiwan has witnessed an increasing pluralism of aesthetic pedagogy epitomized by Chen’s ink-brush comic exhibition. At the same time, new technologies that enable collaborative work have become a significant means through which students can articulate their cultural imagination after exhibition visits. Using a design ethnography method, this study analyses paratexts shared on an institutional social platform. This study makes three novel contributions. First, this study notes how the debate among educators around high versus popular arts has intensified as curators become increasingly engaged with digital pedagogy. Second, this study discusses how collaborative productions can engage students to re-interpret/create Chen’s work. Sharing these paratexts on social platforms can help students to contextualize their museum going experiences. Third, as a seminal example of such appropriation, Chen’s influence is mapped through intra-Asian appropriation of “Chineseness”. Accordingly, it is argued that Chen Uen’s aesthetic legacy has influenced the cultural literacies of the Taiwanese college students taking part in this educational project.