Huang Hai

Huang Hai is a Chinese poster artist who created numerous Star Wars posters for Lucasfilm. He created the promotional posters for the 2020 Chinese web-novel The Vow of Silver Dawn. Huang also marked Chinese New Year in 2021 with a Star Wars–themed illustration informed by Chinese culture named "MASTER · Tribute."

Having first experienced Star Wars through the prequel trilogy, Huang saw that the Jedi of George Lucas were similar to the Xia Ke (俠客) martial artists of traditional Chinese wuxia novels, and for his tribute poster, the artist spent four months considering how to explore the nature of the Force via Eastern aesthetics and traditional Chinese art forms apart from ink painting and calligraphy. Believing that a Jedi "embodies a kind of culture" in Eastern philosophies and that cultures are "always interlinked," Huang chose to respond to the idea of "looking into oneself by looking into the Force"—specifically, a Jedi Padawan learner's introspection from within the mask of the dark side and its temptations to find balance, since maintaining a balanced mastery of the Force, rather than one's skills, made a Jedi Master. The grille of the helmet of Darth Vader could indicate an oppressive prison cell or a room with a window to the world beyond, and the Padawan could see despair or hope; while the artist believed that each person would come to their own conclusion, Star Wars is a "universal story" with which each person could relate in their own way.

Text and facts from the “Huang Hai” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.