Design Map · Eindhoven
The Ghost of Chun-Li
Graduation project by Zhiyi Lan at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
‘The Ghost of Chun-Li’ explores what happens when fictional characters enter the physical world through costume and body. Introduced in Street Fighter II as the video game series’ first female character, Chun-Li is designed as powerful and highly skilled, yet her body and costume are defined by sexualised representations of femininity. Outside of the game, she is a popular cosplay character and through interviews with thirteen Chinese cosplayers, Zhiyi Lan reveals how this contradiction becomes a point of friction: wearing the costume feels empowering, yet when entering public space it draws unwanted attention.
The installation features a fabric work made of second-hand Chun-Li costumes that are cut and reassembled into a textile “skin”, while a projection shows the process behind it. A second film traces Chun-Li’s cultural construction through interviews and fictional narrative. The work explores representation as a feedback loop between fictional characters and the real bodies that inhabit them.