The Best Fe(male) Artist

The Best Fe(male) Artist

Role: Art Direction, Graphic Design, Illustration

“Girls can wear jeans, but for boys to wear skirts is degrading.” -- What if feels like for a girl by Madonna 

The unconscious bias of gender still exists in many fields, including music. Female Chinese pop music is often categorized as ‘songs for women,’ even when the theme and lyrics are gender-neutral. When singing karaoke, women often sing songs by both female and male artists, and culturally, men rarely sing songs by female artists. 

Growing up as a Chinese-American, Haoran Chen’s cultural upbringing was rooted in Chinese heritage and values. Moving to New York as a teenager these ideas were tested. Chen was influenced by pop culture and the diversity of New York City. With a love for both Chinese and western music and an expanding mind, Chen questioned the unconscious bias in gender that has been present in Chinese music for generations. He believes that this is something that has been viewed with a blind eye and created ‘Best Fe(male) Artist’ to shine a light on this subject. 

Chen selected three iconic Chinese pop albums by female artists in the late 90s and early 00s and revisited the packaging and cover design with a gender-neutral perspective. By removing gender labels, Chen hopes to raise awareness of unconscious bias in everyday life, while paying tribute to the golden era of Chinese pop music, and celebrating the female icons who impacted a generation.

Chen’s ongoing series, Babyboy, is a collection of characters he started to build in elementary school. He struggled with his identity as a teenager and young adult and used these drawings to express ideas that he was afraid to share with others. Babyboy exhibits ideas around homosexuality, sexual curiosity, and gender identity. As Chen grew, so did his views and influences. The characters evolved while keeping true to their original self.

對於性別中立， 目前大眾可能依然抱著這種想法， 音樂也是一樣。 

對照華語樂壇，女歌手的歌曲通常會被定義為女性化作品，但排除聲線的因素，其實有許多歌曲主題和歌詞，都是十分性別中立。 相比起女生在KTV唱男歌手的歌曲，男生唱女歌手的歌曲的機率就比較低。

作為一名華裔，他的文化背景受到了很多來自中國的價值觀以及傳統觀念的影響。移居紐約對於他來說是一個很大的衝擊以及轉變。懷著對音樂的喜愛以及對華語音樂的執著，他開始探討華語音樂當中的無意識性別中立的忽視以及對於性別的隱形偏見。他認為這是一個大眾一直忽視的主題，所以希望用這系列的畫作給這些話題提高關注度。

這個系列特意挑選了三張華語歌壇00年前後的流行女歌手專輯，以一個性別中立的角度重新展現了專輯包裝的封面、文案和設計，也同時緬懷逝去了的華語實體音樂時代以及千禧年前後作為時代標籤在音樂、時尚以及社會造成巨大影響的華語女歌手。

Babyboy是陳浩然的持續畫作系列，這個系列來源於他在小學時期創作的一些虛構人物。他在當時與自己的身分認同持續地鬥爭並用這些畫作作為他表達這些懼怕與別人分享的想法的渠道。這些畫作的主題包括男同性戀、性好奇以及性別認知。他將這些童年創作的人物以成人的角度重新展現以及更深入地探討這些主題。