Chinese steampunk: The art of reviving dead insects
An intersection between the worlds of insect and cybernetics enthusiasts.ย
![Chinese steampunk and bio-cybernetics](https://thechinaproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Steampunk-1.jpg)
Carving carefully from a Caucasus beetle, Wรกng Pรฉng ็้น removed the insectโs intestines and replaced it with a gear and engine. Frowning, Wang seemed determined to put all of his whimsical ideas into these intricate pieces. Holding his breath with a serious expression, Wang pressed a button. The beetleโs wings started to vibrate as if it had come to life.
This is what making steampunk insects is all about โ turning dead bugs into pseudo-Victorian art pieces by adding mechanical components like wheels and motors.
โInsects and mechanics always lure me in a special way,โ said Wang, smiling.
The 40-year-old Wang has been working as a full-time steampunk insect artist for the past year. He quit his job as a senior engineer and now spends up to a week finishing just one piece. His creations sell for more than 4,000 yuan ($620) on Alibabaโs ecommerce platforms Taobao and Idle Fish.
Wang told me that the market has been lucrative so far. โI can make up to 100,000 yuan ($15,500) per month by selling steampunk insect artwork these days, which is far more than what I earned as an engineer,โ he said.
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In China, the market for steampunk insects has developed rapidly. The community was first founded by a Shanghai-based young designer known online as Lรกn Tรบsฤซ ่ๅพๆฏ. In 2014, he formed a steampunk insect club on the Reddit-like forum Baidu Tieba. To this day, the group maintains an active presence with around 23,000 members and an archive of 75,000 posts.
Wang was first introduced to this art form last year when he saw Lanโs work on social media. Instantly drawn to the otherworldly beauty of the elaborate pieces, Wang started to buy dry insects and obsolete mechanical parts from independent vendors to imitate Lanโs pieces.
But instead of simply gluing the components together, as Lan does, Wang invented โdynamic insects,โ in which he puts motors inside of the bugsโ bodies, making them move as if they were โalive.โ He now owns a patent for the motor and has been selling this device in China and overseas via Amazon.
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The steampunk culture originated from Western science fiction films. The machinery aesthetic influenced by the steam-powered 19th century often speaks to futuristic fantasy. Drawing visual cues from late Industrial Age Europe, movies like the lavish Victorian steampunk adventure Steamboy and the Studio Ghibli classic Howlโs Moving Castle were big hits in China.
The steampunk insect craft was first created by a contemporary American artist named Mike Libby, who established Insect Lab in 1999 to make insect specimens using recycled materials. In 1998, Libby came up with this idea when he noticed the surprising similarity between a dead intact beetle and a mechanical device. He then used mechanical parts from his broken wristwatch to combine the two.
In Wangโs view, insects are powerful creatures. โI think insects are aliens from outer space. Theyโve got nearly everything humans have and a plus โ wings,โ he said.
Wang is not alone in appreciating the unusual beauty of bugs. In fact, the boom of the steampunk insect market was in part driven by the rising number of bug lovers in China, many of whom see keeping exotic insects as a stylish hobby. According to a survey conducted by Jiangsu Vocational College Agriculture and Forestry this May, nearly 50% of respondents said that they were willing to purchase insects as pets or to do insect artwork.
Since last year, there has been a 70% increase in sales of Wangโs insect artwork. โI saw a surge in consumersโ purchasing behavior in the past two years and I believe the future is promising,โ he said.
Mike Libby came up with this idea [of steampunk insect craft] when he noticed the surprising similarity between a dead intact beetle and a mechanical device.
Lว Nรจ ๆ่ฎท, a 19-year-old college student, told me that he really enjoyed collecting the insect artwork even though they are usually sold at a hefty price. โThe collision between nature and mechanics created a spark that attracted me,โ Li said.
Wangโs customers vary from students and businessmen to housewives. But many of them often have โunreasonableโ requests for him, Wang said. There was a time when a customer wished to have a steampunk insect customized with the ability to talk, like the virtual assistant Alexa.
โI guess that customer really wished my insect artwork could be his friend and listen to his worries in life,โ Wang said. Even though he politely rejected the request, Wang is looking into incorporating coding into his artwork to make his insects โtalkโ one day.
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Chinaโs pet market saw an interesting turn last year. A report (in Chinese) by Chinese consulting firm iResearch shows that the industry reached 300 billion yuan ($46.4 billion) in 2020, with a growing number of millennials in first-tier cities starting to raise exotic pets such as bugs and aquatic animals.
โTable pets will be office workersโ go-to pets in the future, as they can be kept on an office table and provide hours of entertainment without too much hassle,โ said Wang, who predicts that with more people raising โtable petsโ (ๆก้ขๅฎ ็ฉ zhuลmiร n chวngwรน) like insects and reptiles, more people โ when their animal companions die โ will turn to artists like him for an artistic reincarnation of their deceased pets.
Echoing Wangโs passion for bugs, Fรฉng Yรบtรฉng ๅฏไบ่ พ, a 34-year-old steampunk insect artist with a penchant for unconventional pets, told me that he loved being with insects and snakes. โThey can calm my nerves,โ he said. โBefore I became attracted to computer games, in my childhood, my playmates were also insects in the bushes.โ
To Wang and Feng, steampunk insects are more than just a business. As insect enthusiasts, they are hoping to get important messages across through their art pieces. For one, they are concerned about the flourishing black market โโfor invertebrates, a little known corner of the illegal wildlife trade.
โThere should be a guideline on what to do and what not to do in the exotic pet business in China. Many people do not know the rule,โ Feng said, adding that several people he knows in the business were arrested because of selling protected species like Burmese pythons.
Wang also revealed that several exotic bugs in the market were brought by smugglers from Hong Kong and Taiwan to meet the rising demand of Chinese consumers. But as of now, there are no regulations targeting the insect market in China. โI am working on forming an insect association so that we can set some rules in the market to avoid illegal acts,โ Wang said.
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Thereโs an educational element in their work, too. Sometimes in collaboration with local museums and environmental groups, both artists have formed several programs in China, teaching young children to appreciate insects and create their own steampunk insect art pieces.
Jiฤng Sฤซhรกn ๆฑๆๆถต, a seven-year-old boy who attended Fengโs steampunk insect-making workshop in Hangzhou, told me that this was his first time making steampunk insect artwork, but he wished to come again, as he enjoys listening to fun facts about those little creatures.
โI often took my son hiking on the mountain to observe beautiful insects,โ Feng said. โMore kids should get their insect knowledge from nature, not from books.โ
At a time when the numbers and diversity of insects are declining globally โ a worrying phenomenon thatโs been referred to as โinsect apocalypseโ by scientists โ Wang hopes that his art will inspire a reexamination of the link between man and nature. โNature can nurture human beings who create this mechanical world, but it can also punish us for destroying natural habitats,โ he said. โMost of my work shows how insects attack human beings after they are invaded by artificial nuclear weapons.โ
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