Tangna Xu

This is a creative illustrated book project about sea women. Inspired by a documentary regarding sea women (Haenyeo) on Jeju Island, South Korea, I was deeply impressed by such a special female group.

Sea women, as their name, are female divers who can dive to the sea as deep as 20 meters to catch and live by selling seafood. What makes them incredible is not just their perfect diving skill, but also the fact that they have always had the simplest equipment and relied mainly on their physical strength to work under severe conditions. In my eyes, such beauty of vitality destroys the stereotype of female bodies and changes the female image endowed by traditional society and culture, and the wisdom of these females is totally free from the ‘gentle’ image of traditional eastern women and is displayed in a most straightforward and purest way.

Every sea woman would go through countless difficulties or even dangers to life in their career; however, they are not afraid of these threats when working in the sea and are proud of their occupation. Through their labor, they have won better living conditions for their families as well as recognition and respect, making me contemplate the cognition of female images who have multiple identities such as breadwinners, mothers, and environmental protectors.

Deeply touched by their strong spirit, I think this is a good chance to let these great females more widely known for their female power and perseverance. So, I write and draw a story of a sea woman in a flashback way, hoping to touch and encourage more people to never bow to sufferings.

Considering that this is still a niche group that needs to be introduced in more details, here I add some AR effects to certain pages (as shown above with an ‘ARTIVIVE’ sign at the bottom corner). After downloading ARTIVIVE app, you can scan these pages and get more information about different aspects of sea women’s culture.