Another Self was a series developed as part of Tianhu Yuan’s long-term project on generalized Nijigen subculture in China, including anime, comics, games, and related fan cultures.
The series portrays young people who use fictional characters, costumes, gestures, and the camera to construct a self distinct from their everyday identity.
When faced with the difficulties, pressures, and frustrations of real life, the fictional world of Nijigen culture can offer a temporary form of escape and comfort. At the same time, becoming another character allows them to express emotions and desires that may remain less visible in daily life and to search for another possible version of themselves.
The “other self” may be an act of imagination and performance, but it may also be closely connected to feelings that exist within the subconscious. Rather than deciding whether the everyday self or the performed self is more authentic, the series considers how people see, describe, and explore themselves between reality and fiction, daily life and performance, self-perception and the gaze of others. Photography not only records this transformation but also provides a space in which the other self can appear.
When Yuan photographed Another Self several years ago, ACG culture in China was expanding rapidly, yet it was still commonly perceived as a youth subculture separate from ordinary social life. The distinction between the “two-dimensional” (Nijigen) fictional world and the “three-dimensional” real world appeared sharper, and participation in cosplay and fan culture often remained confined to particular communities and occasions.
Nowadays, that landscape has changed. Chinese-developed games and animation have gained greater cultural and international visibility, while conventions, themed retail, merchandise stores, and entire shopping complexes dedicated to ACG culture have become part of the urban environment. What was once treated as a marginal interest is now increasingly recognized as a major form of youth culture, social participation, and commercial consumption.
The series now documents a moment before identities organized around fictional characters became so publicly visible and commercially integrated. What appeared several years ago as an intimate negotiation between an everyday self and a performed self is now enacted before a much larger network of audiences, platforms, brands, and institutions.
The question is therefore no longer simply whether young people use fictional worlds to escape reality. It is how fictional images enable people to author possible versions of themselves, and what happens to that authorship when a subculture becomes part of the mainstream visual and commercial economy.
About Tianhu Yuan
Tianhu Yuan is a self-taught Chinese visual artist based in Chengdu and Chongqing. He has a long-standing interest in ACG-related and broader Nijigen subcultures, and his work seeks to create a dialogue between mainstream society and subcultural communities.
He also focuses on social change, exploring the relationship between contemporary technology and future developments. Through his practice, Yuan examines how emerging technologies influence identity, culture, and the ways in which people relate to one another.
His work has been exhibited at the 29th China National Photographic Art Exhibition, RPS IPE 165, Galerie Huit Arles, PHOTO IS:RAEL International Photography Festival, Jakarta International Photo Festival, PhEST Festival, Head On Photo Festival, and Exposure Festival. [Official Website]
