Sight as Site: Virtual Andersen in East Asia

Abstract

H.C. Andersen has been warmly received in East Asia for more than 100 years. Most of Andersen’s stories have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. They are read as children’s literature for values and morals that are universal, but hidden in these values and morals are notions of truth, self-identity, and individuality that challenge traditional East Asian concepts of selfhood. Andersen represents new values for East Asian modernity. Tracing the reception of Andersen in East Asia, this study deals with changes in representation, particularly the wide circulation of Andersen stories in animation films in Japan and Korea, and the technological representations of culture in the digital age. The Tokyo Andersen Park and the Shanghai Andersen Cultural Park are discussed as attempts of re-siting Andersen. In this study, Chinese representations of Andersen are contrasted with the Japanese and the Korean so as to understand the different receptions of Andersen, as well as the digitalisation in the East Asian context. The recent trends of mediatisation of Andersen are discussed in relation to cultural consumption and gamification. Since much of the recent development in mediatisating Andersen has to do with visual representation, photos will be provided as illustrations. An interesting phenomenon in the East Asian reception of Andersen is the representation by both physical sites, such as parks and restaurants, and virtual sites (or sights), such as in film, video, games, and websites. This chapter is a revised and much expanded version of an article published by the author in 2019, “Technologizing Cultural Consumption: The Tales and the Virtual in East Asian Andersen” (Tam, 2019).