Hanzhang Mao

Sophia and the Orange Planet

Sophia and the Orange Planet explores the forming of identities under different situations of group dynamics. I wrote and visualized the story of Sophia, to encourage reflections on how an individual will accept or change his or her identities during interactions with different social or cultural groups, while dealing with the tension between freedom and constraints, assimilation and dissimilation.

The creatures on the orange planet stand for primitive human desires. When Sophia desires to rule due to her frustration of being different, the creature comes to her bedroom and leads her to the orange planet, a place full of madness, wildness, and arbitrariness. Every individual has an orange planet, where the individual can achieve whatever he or she wants to, choose to live forever or leave.

The audience will be children over the age of 8, teenagers and adults of all ages including parents who are interested in child psychology and parenting pedagogy.