Drawing beyond the lines

Told through the eyes of a mythical creature, the work explores gender, shifting power structures and social norms. It quickly attracted a loyal online following and was published in print in 2025.

Before that success, Yang worked as a storyboard artist for film and television productions, translating scripts into visual sequences. She entered the animation industry during a boom period for Chinese cinema and contributed to several major projects. Yet, after four years, she felt increasingly disconnected from her work.

"I draw every day, but not the things I actually want to draw."

That feeling became especially clear in projects involving fox spirits from Chinese folklore.

"We tend to imagine fox spirits as seductive, dangerous figures," she says. "Then, over time, they become harmless little creatures, or girls who need to be saved. But why is it that when a fox turns into a human, a female fox always becomes a woman and a male fox always becomes a man?"

The question lingered. Thinking about a cat she once observed — an animal unlikely to perceive beauty as humans do — she began wondering whether fictional foxes were simply being forced into the human's expectations of appearance and desire.

To tell a different story, she left her storyboard work behind and spent eight months creating The Fox's Transformation Chronicle. She never expected it to become popular.

"If I chase popularity, my choices become limited," she says. "I want to make what I want to make, not what other people expect from me."

That philosophy echoes the comic's narrative. At one point, the female fox transforms into a man and discovers freedoms unavailable in female form. She experiences the rewards of human ambition. However, at a banquet celebrating her political rise, she is served the white fox who first taught her to become human. At that moment, she realizes that no matter how perfectly she imitates what humans want to see, the effort is ultimately meaningless.