Anime opens the door to Japanese language and its art

"My parents are the only people in my family, who can not speak Japanese", a Sydney-based artist Vivian White said.

Sydney-based artist Vivian White spent a month at Arita in Saga, Japan. She learnt Japanese Arita porcelain as part of artist in residency program. Source: Vivian White

PET bottle shaped Japanese Arita porcelain artwoks by a Sydney-based artist Vivian White. Source: Vivian White

Vivian White is a Sydney-based artist who is educated both in Australia and UK.  When she was a kid, she used to enjoy watching Japanese anime with her brother and they both "naturally" learnt the language.

"I first started watching anime series dubbed in English.  I wanted to watch more but dubbed ones weren't yet available.  So I decided to watch the original in Japanese.  That was the start", Ms White said.

Ms White took French at high school but studied both Japanese and art at university.  She spent two years in the UK to study art further.

Ms White has learnt Japanese, Italian, French and German.  She said that Japanese was kind of easiest, because she had access to Japanese cultural material in her everyday life such as anime content, which encouraged her to learn the language.

In the audio, Ms White talks about how she learnt the language and shares her experience in Japan, including a month-long Artist in Residence program at Arita in Saga, Japan.  Arita is globally famous for its porcelain.  She made a porcelain artwork with a PET-bottle -shaped mould.

Ms White is now working on paintings for her first solo exhibition.

Artwork by a Sydney-based artist Vivian White. Source: Vivian White

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