命運 Destiny: Matronymic Surnaming - Through the Scope of Chinese Society

Kennis Chen

Kennis specializes in design and storytelling. Her works show her unique skill set of design strategy, user research, visual aesthetics and narrative architecture. She communicates her passion for novelty she meets along the way through her films that are incorporated with multimedia.

As an explorer who is keen on new skills, Kennis is driven and motivated by possibilities and challenges ahead, she prides herself on the quality of her work.

When she is not working, you will find Kennis reading on the lounge chair, watching old school films and hunting down the best place to eat.

Thesis Faculty

Katherine Moriwaki, Andrew Zornoza

This film illustrates infanticide due to gender bias and the miserable fate of women in China using non-literal imagery.

As a starting point for breaking the patriarchal clan and empowering women to seize back the right of matronymic surname passing in Chinese society.

The patriarchal clan, as known as the Chinese Kin, plays an important role in Chinese culture and Chinese society throughout history.

People who share the same surnames could trace back who their ancestors were, and honor the sense of belonging.

Therefore, the idea of Chinese kin is bonded by surnames.

Because only men could pass on the family name. Women are unwanted and unwelcome to the family.

Wealth and power have only been passed down to men since the beginning, which makes a huge negative impact on the social status of women.

The patriarchal clan takes women as the reproduction mechanism by devaluing and dehumanizing them.

In the possible future, this film will be projected on the wall of the ancestral hall,

which is a temple that Chinese people gather and worship their male ancestors who share the same surnames, a place that women do not exist at all.