Hushed Noise’s 10: Shanshan W. on Nostalgia, Alienation, and Storytelling Through Animation

14 Mar 2025

Shanshan Wang. is an animator and multidisciplinary artist whose work weaves together nostalgic Mandarin culture, alien-like imagery, and deeply personal reflections. Through animation and writing, she explores themes of isolation, love, and vulnerability, often drawing on the pop culture and literature of her upbringing. In this conversation, Shanshan shares her creative journey, her struggles with balancing artistic expression and audience connection, and her thoughts on collaboration and evolving as an artist in a fast-paced world.

Hushed Noise: Can you share a bit about your artistic journey? What inspired you to start creating?

Shanshan Wang: I was into art when I was a kid, but it wasn’t until recent years that I actually started thinking about what art means, and what I should be creating. I was always inspired and touched by other artists - both visual and music. Somehow I just feel like I want to keep doing what they do, to inspire people and make them think that there’s something beautiful in this world.

Hushed Noise: How does your cultural background or personal experiences influence your work?

Shanshan Wang: My works are often a juxtaposition of the nostalgic 90s mandarin culture, and a re-imagination of extraterrestrial beings. That’s heavily influenced by me growing up in the millennial mandarin culture, listening to pop ballad music, watching Taiwanese films and reading classical Chinese literature. That being combined with the western art education I received which emphasized on the contemporary and experimental aspects of art have led me to what I’ve now been creating.

Hushed Noise: Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you develop an idea into a finished piece?

Shanshan Wang: Apart from an artist and animator, I am also a writer. A lot of my works contain a heavy amount of text, some of them derived from my writings initially. I like having a story behind every piece of mine, even if some of the stories are not expressed explicitly. For some of my daily doodles and practices, inspiration can come from anything I see, feel and experience.

Hushed Noise: What themes or messages do you explore in your art, and why do they resonate with you?

Shanshan Wang: As said, my works are often a juxtaposition of the nostalgic 90s mandarin culture, and a re-imagination of extraterrestrial beings. For example, there might be characters looking like eerie aliens, but they always, no matter what strange actions they seem to take, concern about love in the end. This recurring theme might be related to me growing up in an environment that made me feel disconnected and isolated. The society is developing and progressing in an overly fast pace, leaving nostalgia and love behind, feeling disoriented. Sometimes I feel like we are all aliens in this seemingly normal world. No matter what we do and say, we end up seeking for the most traditional form of love.

Hushed Noise: What challenges do you face as an emerging artist, and how do you navigate them?

Shanshan Wang: When I was in college I often feel disconnected with my artist fellows who were 100% passionate about art. I was always not sure about how to balance between artistic expression and commerciality. My style of art back in college wasn’t the internet viral kind, and I was troubled whether I should re-navigate to cater to audiences more. After graduating I worked as a freelance animator, and this experience somehow feels better/easier to me as I can try to combine my aesthetics with my clients’ requirements, creating something that’s less personal but with more potential to be understood by and impactful to audiences.

Hushed Noise: Are there any artists, movements, or experiences that have deeply influenced your work?

Shanshan Wang: I was always influenced by mandarin culture back in the millennial days. Directors including Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-Hsien, along with writers like Pai Hsien-yung and Su Tong, impacted not only my style of creating, but also my way viewing the world. Pop culture including Taiwanese ballad music and the internet culture back in the 2000s have also shaped my teenage era.

Hushed Noise: How do you see your art evolving in the next few years?

Shanshan Wang: Though I’m already working as an animator, I don’t see my style or theme of art as settled. I wasn’t majored in animation back in college, so I know there are still so many techniques and ways of animating that I can experiment with. I’m looking forward to collaborating with more musicians in the future too, as I deeply enjoy my art being combined with music to bring more variety and potential.

Hushed Noise: What’s a recent project or piece that you’re particularly proud of, and why?

Shanshan Wang: Last year I animated for musician Khalil Fong’s single “Not A Farmer”. Khalil Fong was someone we grew up listening to, and it was a huge honor to be working with him. Also the project was one of the first times that I animated in traditional frame-by-frame. Though going experimental was always fun, being able to work in a more traditional way can sometimes be more challenging, therefore very rewarding when it’s finished.

Hushed Noise: What role do you think social media and digital platforms play in shaping the opportunities for emerging artists today?

Shanshan Wang: Internet and social media can definitely share an artist’s creation to more audiences than we could possibly imagine before these platforms were a thing. However, it can also be distracting and a huge pressure on artists, especially those working in ways or styles that are less mainstream or viral. A false comparison can arise between internet popularity and the quality of work, which can be very discouraging to artists.

Hushed Noise: If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

Shanshan Wang: I would love to collaborate with any of the musicians I like. Personally I listen to a lot of mandarin music between 1970s and 2000s. There’re a lot of classic pieces, and a lot of these musicians are still producing new works. I really want to merge my visual experiments and innovative ways of visual narrative with the more traditional, classical side of my culture.

Follow Shanshan Wang’s work on Instagram at @avocado.magic. For more, visit shanshanw.art. For inquiries, contact Shanshan at shanshan.wyw@gmail.com

Edited by Xeni R. Quine

Imags by Shanshan Wang