Distanciation and Empathy: on the Transformation of the Fox Spirit Symbol in Animation from the Perspective of Female Consumption

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Distanciation Effect; Emotional Empathy; Female Consumption

Abstract

This paper adopts the “distanciation” and “empathy” theories proposed by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht as its analytical framework to interpret the transformation modes, innovative directions, and research objects of the fox spirit—a traditional Chinese cultural symbol—in contemporary animation against the backdrop of female consumption. The study finds that traditional fox spirit images such as Daji and Yingning were products of the male gaze, designed to evoke emotional empathy among male audiences and ultimately drive male consumption. In the contemporary context of rising female consumption power and growing female consciousness, animation creators have reconstructed the fox spirit symbol by drawing on Brecht’s theory of defamiliarization. They have appropriately reduced the image’s inherent seductive traits and endowed these characters with diverse, multi-dimensional personalities. In doing so, it effectively caters to contemporary female audiences’ consumption demands for “independence,” “emotional freedom,” and “cultural identity,” ultimately realizing the value increment of traditional cultural symbols.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Anni Wei
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Distanciation and Empathy: on the Transformation of the Fox Spirit Symbol in Animation from the Perspective of Female Consumption
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 176
EP  - 183
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_19
ID  - Wei2026
ER  -