The History of Cartoon Development in China

The budding period of Chinese animation (1922-1947):

Let's focus on the China of the 1920s, the China that was suffering from the division of the great powers. At that time, China was undoubtedly suffering from foreign impacts in terms of politics, economy and culture. And this semi-colonial and semi-feudal society is also making the people of China open their eyes to the world. So it was at this point that animation began to jump into the eyes of the Chinese.

In the early 1920s, a number of American animations such as Popeye landed in China. These moving images caught the eyes of the Chinese, especially a family of Wan brothers - Wan Lai Ming, Wan Ku Toad, Wan Chao Chuan and Wan Tui Huan. After being influenced by American animation, the Wan brothers embraced the belief of creating China's own animation and set the first milestone for Chinese animation.

In 1922, with the help of a frame-by-frame camera converted from a worn-out camera, the Wan brothers produced China's first animated advertisement, "Shu Zhendong's Chinese Typewriter," after painstaking exploration and development, followed by animated advertisements such as "Yili Soft Drink," "MSG," etc. Although it was an animated advertisement, it gave China a great opportunity to create its own animation. Although they were animated commercials, this gave the Wan brothers, who were making animation for the first time, a lot of experience. Subsequently, in 1924, the China Film Company produced the animated film Dog Treats and the Shanghai Tobacco Company produced the animated film Chinese New Year. Although these two films were the earliest animated features in China, neither of them made an impact until the Wan Brothers drew their first animated short, The Big Foolish Drawing Room, in 1926, and China's first animated cartoon with sound, Camel Offering Dance, was also produced under the Wan Brothers' direction in 1935.

But these were not the peak of the Wann Brothers' career, so in September 1942, the Wann Brothers produced the animated feature film "Princess Iron Fan" at the Shanghai Xinhua United Film Company. Princess Iron Fan" was the first Chinese animation to leave China, and became the second animated feature film in the world after Disney's "Snow White". The Princess Iron Fan" is based on the story "The Three Borrowed Banana Fans" from the Chinese classic "Journey to the West", and has been very well received in China, as well as in Southeast Asia and Japan. It is worth mentioning the story of Princess Iron Fan and Osamu Tezuka, the originator of Japanese animation. At that time, Osamu Tezuka was very passionate about animation, but the strength of American animation and the vacancy of his own country's animation business made Osamu Tezuka give up his dream for a while. However, when he saw "Princess Iron Fan", it was like a shot in the arm that strengthened Osamu Tezuka's dream of animation. Thus Osamu Tezuka, the father of "Astro Boy", was born. Osamu Tezuka once said that the Mann brothers were his inspirational teachers, so it is clear that "Princess Iron Fan" was so influential at the time.

But unfortunately, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Wan brothers were forced to discontinue their animation work, and the nascent period of animated film development in China came to an end.

And with China's social unrest and transportation difficulties at the time, animation could only be seen in big cities like Shanghai. Most of the animators in China at that time embarked on this path because of their personal hobbies. Such social conditions doomed the early Chinese animation will not appear like Disney's animation business. So although Wan's animation could be considered one of the strongest at the time, the entire industry of Chinese animation did not develop, and the quality of animation did not improve significantly over the years.

The first peak period of Chinese animation (1947～1978):

As early as 1947～1948, the people's artist Chen Bo'er and Japanese animation expert Fang Ming (Holding Nagasu Only In) and others produced the puppet film "Emperor's Dream" and the animated film "Caught in a Jar" in the Northeast Film Studio. Although the staff was insufficient and the equipment was simple, it laid the foundation for the development of animation after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and also opened the prelude for the development of animation in new China.

The founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 finally provided a stable social environment for the development of Chinese animation.

Subsequently, Chinese animation began to serve children and teenagers in terms of subject matter, mostly fairy tales, such as "Kitten Fishing" produced in 1952; stylistically, Chinese animation embarked on the road of nationalization, such as the puppet film "The Divine Brush" produced in 1955 and the animated film "Proud General" produced in 1956; and technically, the transformation of black and white films into color films, such as the first color puppet film "Tiny Little Puppet" produced in China in 1953. first color puppet film Little Hero and the first color traditional animated film Why the Crow is Black in 1955.

Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was established in 1957, giving China its first professional factory to produce art films independently. A large number of artists and literary figures joined the industry. From then on, Chinese animation entered its first period of prosperity. Under the guidance of Mao Zedong's policy of "let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" and the inspiration of the slogan of "exploring the road of national style", the enthusiasm of artists was fully mobilized, and the artists drew nourishment from Chinese traditional culture and art and tried to express China's unique style characteristics. Artists drew nourishment from traditional Chinese culture and art and tried to show China's unique style characteristics, which made China's animation production enter a prosperous period of development. The output of animation was on the rise and reached an unprecedented level in terms of artistic and technical quality. As a result, many films won awards at international film festivals, and a school of Chinese animation was formed that was recognized by the world.

Since then, the variety of Chinese animation has also been increasing: the successful trial production of the first Chinese-style paper-cutting film "Pigs Eating Watermelon" in 1958, the completion of the first origami film "Clever Duck" in 1960, and the birth of the first ink animation "Tadpole Looking for Mother" in 1961 have all added new films that can best represent the Chinese style to the Chinese or even the world's animation film industry. The Tadpoles Are Looking for Their Mothers Among them, Tadpole Looking for Mom gave Qi Baishi's ink painting a vivid "life". Originally only a group of ink dots tadpoles, but now in their rhythmic movement changes, swimming out of the flavor of Chinese landscape painting.

In 1961, the world-renowned classic blockbuster "The Palace of Heaven" (first episode: 1961, second episode: 1964) was born, and in 1963, the ink animation film "The Pastoral Flute" was produced, which used ink to express the characters, livestock and landscapes, expanding the field of expression of the ink animation film. These two animations became world-famous and pushed Chinese animation to a peak.

Works such as "The Great Pandemonium", "Tadpole Looking for Mother", "Princess Peacock", "Porky Pig Eating Watermelon", and "Golden Conch" are not as high quality as the animated cartoons of the United States and the USSR, but they carry forward the national culture of the Chinese nation and their own characteristics.

One of the masterpieces of this period is "The Greatest Havoc in Heaven", which was a sensation in Europe and the United States, and was released in more than 40 countries and regions, setting the highest record for the output of Chinese art films. It almost became synonymous with Chinese animated films in the minds of foreigners. Although the conditions were simple at that time, it was first-class in terms of image, background, action and plot. A lot of Peking Opera elements were added, such as face painting. The action is even more typical of the Peking Opera program. The whole "Big Trouble in Heaven" is simply a national masterpiece.

1957～1965 is the golden age of Chinese animation. During this period, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, as the only animation studio in China, ****produced 105 films, including 40 animation films, 37 puppet films, 16 paper-cutting films, 3 origami films, puppet documentaries, etc. 9, practitioners also reached more than 380 people, training a large number of excellent animation original talent.

1966 ~ 1976, China entered the Cultural Revolution. Due to the national animation manufacturers are uninterrupted "stop production and revolution", making China's animation development lagging behind. 1972, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio took the lead in resuming production, to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, **** ingested 17 animated films. The animation films in this period all depicted the revolutionary war before the founding of the country, the class struggle, line struggle and ideological struggle in the socialist society, and glorified the workers, peasants and soldiers as the content, such as "Trumpet Player", "Little Eight Road" and "Little Sentinels of the East China Sea" in 1973), etc.; and in the presentation method, follow the realism, such as the ink and paper-cutting film "Bamboo Shoots Growing in the House" in 1976, which skillfully combines Chinese ink and paper-cutting paintings and folk paper-cutting, providing a good opportunity for the development of animation in China. For example, the 1976 film "Bamboo Shoots in the House" combined Chinese ink painting and folk paper-cutting skillfully, adding a new seedling to the world's animation garden.

But we should also see that while the planned economy brought scale and better working conditions to Chinese animation, it also unceremoniously cleansed the animators' minds of the market concepts that they had increasingly cultivated. Not only is it impossible for operators to take advantage of the scale to embark on the path of overall development, it is even more impossible for them to consider how to operate the animation industry in terms of product structure. Animation is no longer a commodity, but a political necessity. The audience is no longer God, but the object they are trying to educate. Obeying the leadership's intention to educate the audience has become an ancient Chinese tradition? a natural continuation of the role of literary indoctrination in Chinese animation.

The ten-year Cultural Revolution also almost devastated Chinese animation. Although a group of talented Chinese animators still produced short animated films of top international standards and won awards at the international level, behind the light, Chinese animation has not been guided to the right track, but rather make these artists think that winning awards is the first priority, as for whether there is no audience does not matter much.

The second peak period of Chinese animation (1978-1989):

From the end of 1978, China entered the era of reform and opening up. The creative enthusiasm of animation workers rose again. This period was the most prosperous era for Chinese animated films in the 20th century.

During this decade, several new animation production departments emerged, changing the situation of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio being the only one.

Nationally, 219 animated films were produced, and a number of excellent films representing the highest level of Chinese animation were produced, such as 1979's Nezha Follies the Sea, 1983's The Wonderful Book of Heaven, 1982's Deer Bells, 1988's Love in the Landscape, 1978's The Fox Hunter, 1980's My Friend the Little Dolphin and Snow Child, 1981's Monkey Fishing, 1981's Monkey Fishing, and 1981's The Snow Child. , 1981's Monkey Fishing for the Moon and Mr. Nanguo, 1983's Snipe and Butterfly Spring, 1983's Fire Boy, 1948-1985's Golden Monkey Subdues the Demon, 1985's Straw Man, Clip Saves the Deer, and Nuwa Mending Heaven, and 1988's Fish Plate and Unshootable Shot.

With the popularization of television, the series of animated short films are very adaptable to the requirements of television, so the first production of animated television films and animated series, including a number of excellent works loved by the general public, such as the 1981-1988 "Tales of the Avanti", 1984-1087 "Black Cat Sheriff", 1987 "Gourd Brothers" and "The Adventures of the Raggedy King".

The animation theme is more broad, the emergence of a number of profound content, irony, sharp, critical of the art of animation, such as 1080 years of the "Three Monks", 1986, "Super Soap" and "new doorbell", 1989, "Cow Grievance" and so on. This is of great significance in correcting the prejudice of "animation is children's movie" and expanding the audience of animation. At the same time, the social influence and international reputation of Chinese animated films have also risen dramatically, winning wide acclaim.

Ne Zha Follies the Sea is a masterpiece of this period. The movie is based on the book "Feng Shen Ban", removing the dregs of superstition and focusing on the conflict between Ne Zha and the Dragon King, and portraying Ne Zha as a hero who is courageous and self-sacrificing in his quest to rid the world of evils. At this time, filming techniques were much more advanced than those used in The Palace of Heaven, and the traditional national styles and characteristics that have been passed down through the generations have not diminished. For example, more than a hundred of the shots of the sea waves in it are painted using the method of painting the waves in Chinese national paintings, so that people know at a glance that this is the sea of China.

The nascent period of Chinese animation (1990 to present):

The 1990s was a period when China's animation industry expanded one after another. The exchange of experience with foreign animation manufacturers, the massive intervention of digital production means, the diversified development of production units of various systems, and the continuous growth of multi-talented animation talents, etc., made the production of Chinese animation films take a leap in quantity and quality. Especially from 1995, the China Film Projection Corporation no longer implements the planned economic policy of unified purchase and sale for animation films, and pushes the animation industry to the market, changing the state of animation production and business mode, and gradually establishing the concept of win-win situation for both social and economic benefits. These undoubtedly injected new vitality into the traditional animation, thus promoting the animation industry.

At the same time, China's animation began to turn to large-scale animated serial series, turning into the international trend of large-scale TV animated films, serialization, series. This period of animation works, in addition to several animated feature films such as "Po Lin Lantern" in 1999 and some animated shorts such as "Twelve Mosquitoes and Five People" in 1992, most of the animated serials, such as "Shuk and Beta" in 1989-1992, "Blue Peppermouse and Big-Faced Cat" in 1993-1994, "Big Headed Son and Little Headed Dad" in 1995, "Haier Brothers" in 1998, and so on. Haier Brothers" in 1998, etc.

In terms of production, computer technology has been popularized and developed in animation, and the development of two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer animation has been particularly rapid. Chinese animation began to form a new concept of "big animation system" from planning, creation, dissemination to series development.

Entering the 21st century, China's animation companies, animation production enterprises and animation production continued to grow. Artistic animation movie short film has raised the trend. Computer animation and network media animation developed rapidly. For example, "Blue Cat Naughty 3000 Questions" was produced entirely by computer, and Flash animation in the network was loved by young people. The animation of this period is still mainly animated series, such as "Little Tiger Returns Home", "The Legend of Nezha", "Little General Di Qing", "I am crazy about the song" and so on.

At the same time, there was a gradual increase in the number of colleges and universities with animation programs. Programs and channels for animation are also being upgraded and are being emphasized and supported by the government. Hangzhou, China, also began organizing the first China International Animation Festival animation in 2005.

But at the same time as the rapid development, the problems of China's animation industry are equally prominent. The number of classics that can be compared to animations such as "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Nezha in the Sea" has significantly decreased during this period. Most of the animations had crude characters and bland plots. Moreover, due to the impact of the decade-long Cultural Revolution, there is a gap in the number of high-level animation talents in China today. Although there are a lot of new generation animators, there is a lack of truly successful ones. And because of the slow recovery of private investment in animation production, small returns, so that the country is still the majority of state-produced animation.

Coupled with the impact of well-produced and interesting foreign animated films, making Chinese animation in the international market eclipsed. Many domestic animators are engaged in the animation processing industry, so the loss of a vital force in the original power of Chinese animation production.

It can be seen that in this new period of Chinese animation, Chinese animation is facing unprecedented huge challenges. But the power of Chinese animation is also gradually growing. When we look back all the way from the beginning of Chinese animation to today, we have reason to believe in Chinese animation, because the roots of Chinese animation as early as 80 years ago, y rooted in the breeding of the Chinese nation of China on the land. Chinese animation, like its people, can not be defeated, can not be overwhelmed. As long as there are people like us who love animation, as long as there are people who are interested in Chinese animation, Chinese animation can usher in its splendor again.