EP18｜Innocence and Cruelty Interwoven — Black-and-White Animation Artist Tang Yi-Yun on The Great Artist, Depicting Themes of Growth with Minimalist Strokes

Drawing inspiration from personal experiences of growing up, constructing an animated world of powerful narrative tension

[Taipei] In Episode 18 of The Great Artist, the podcast by DE Global Art Agency, black-and-white animation artist Tang Yi-Yun joins to lead listeners into her creative universe where innocence and cruelty intertwine. With minimalist strokes, she portrays the deep and difficult-to-articulate themes embedded in childhood growth and family education, constructing an animated world charged with tension.

Tang Yi-Yun's creative style is singular. She chooses black and white as her principal visual language, forgoing the embellishment of vivid colors so that the viewer's attention may focus more fully on the emotion and tension of the story itself. Beneath her minimalist strokes, innocence and cruelty often coexist within the same frame—the carefree purity of childhood and the scars and confusions of growing up are interwoven in her animation, forming a narrative tension at once powerful and unforgettable.

Tang Yi-Yun's creative inspiration is deeply rooted in her personal experience of growing up. Drawing on her own life realizations as material, she depicts the profound themes of childhood growth and family education, so that her animation is not merely a visual work but reads like a series of heartfelt inquiries addressed to kinship and education. She attends to the emotions and traumas easily overlooked in the process of growing up, presenting them through art—gently, yet without evasion. This courage to confront such themes endows her work with a power that moves the heart.

In this episode, Tang Yi-Yun speaks about the stories behind her representative works, exploring the manifold faces of kinship and education and how she responds to social issues through art. She shares how she transforms personal memories of growing up into creations of universal resonance, and reflects on how the form of black-and-white animation helps her convey her inner emotions and thoughts more purely. Toward the end of the interview, she also hints at future projects and creative directions—whether she will venture into cross-media experimentation or take on larger exhibition formats—leaving an enticing prospect for listeners drawn to the art of animation.

Responding to society through art and carrying thought through narrative is precisely the creative depth that The Great Artist treasures. With a minimalist yet forceful animated language, Tang Yi-Yun proves that animation is not merely a vehicle for entertainment but can be a profound form of artistic expression and social reflection.

With a vision grounded in academic legitimacy and an international career, the program accompanies creators such as Tang Yi-Yun—who possess both artistic talent and social conscience—in carrying their distinctive creative vocabulary onto a broader stage, allowing more people to see the depth and potential of Taiwanese animation.

The Great Artist EP18 is now available on Apple Podcasts, SoundOn, and other platforms, with each episode running approximately 33 minutes. You are warmly invited to listen and step into Tang Yi-Yun's animated world where innocence and cruelty intertwine.