What is the history of Chinese animation?

Birth - spirited

The world's first animation was born in 1906 in the United States, 20 years later in China, there are four brothers surnamed Wan, they produced China's first animation, "The Big Trouble Drawing Room", see the Chinese animation started very early, we must know that the world-famous Mr. Mi is also just It was born in 1928.

In 1935, the Wan brothers produced China's first animated cartoon with sound, The Camel Dances. Before the war, they had produced nearly 20 animated shorts, most of which imitated American styles and did not attract much attention. At this time, the eldest of the Wan Brothers, Wan Lai Ming, had already realized the problem of their animation, that is, they were imitating the American style, but did not have something truly Chinese. He reviewed this shortcoming in his article "Gossip Cartoon": "In order to make the Chinese animation business have unlimited vitality, it must take root in the soil of its own national tradition."

In 1941, Wan Lai Ming was inspired by the first American animated feature film "Snow White" to make "Princess Iron Fan". This animation feature, which was made with great efforts, was taken from the classical masterpiece "Journey to the West", which made it obvious that it could gain more recognition from the Chinese people in terms of story. Secondly, it didn't copy the American animation's monolithic single-line painting mode, but used a lot of painting methods of Chinese painting, because this film is a black-and-white animation, and in terms of the animation background, it has a strong ink and water painting meaning, which forms a distinctive national cultural and fine art characteristic. Princess Iron Fan" almost unexpectedly caused a huge sensation, and the first release to Southeast Asia and Japan, Chinese animation in the international impact, even the Japanese animation giant Osamu Tezuka, also by the "Princess Iron Fan" infection began to decide to devote themselves to animation.

Prosperity--Chinese School

After the founding of New China, Chinese animation went through a period of learning from the Soviet Union, which made it difficult for Chinese animation to be influential despite its achievements. Chinese animators realized that they needed to create their own style and returned to the Chinese aesthetics in April 1957, when Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was established. The director of the studio, Te Wei, put forward the slogan of "exploring the road of national style", and from then on, the construction of national style of Chinese animation began, and the animation they produced, "The Proud General", became the founding work of the "Chinese School".

The protagonist of "Proud General" is the general who borrows the face of the king in Peking Opera, the diners borrow from the clowns, and the walking steps of the characters are also from Peking Opera. Costumes, backgrounds, architecture, patterns, etc., are all expressions of Chinese culture, and the general's appearance, lifting the tripod, shooting geese, and finally "sharpening the spear in the battlefield" can all be found in traditional Chinese culture and storytelling. In the general's hasty escape scene also used the ancient song "Ambush on Ten Sides". This only 30 minutes of animation, art style and music are full of rich national flavor, so that the audience at the time not only refreshing, but also for this interesting story touched, good response naturally to the exploration of the nationalization of the time played a great role in encouraging.

1961-1964 by Wan Lai Ming, Tang Cheng directed "The Great Pandemonium" is a fine work of art, first of all, in the original itself has the charm of the charm of the Sun Wukong's image of the character of the portrayal of the very good, animation performance is also brilliant, coupled with the domestic animation talent at that time, the production of the lineup is unprecedentedly strong, it can be said that the "The Great Pandemonium" almost represents the highest achievement of Chinese animation at that time. It can be said that "The Palace of Heavenly Creatures" almost represents the highest achievement of Chinese animation at that time. At the same time, Chinese animation artists actively devoted themselves to the exploration of new animation techniques and the improvement of animation skills. The famous puppet director Le Xi went to Czechoslovakia to study, and his "Who Sings the Best" proved that Chinese puppets had become technically perfect, not inferior to the West in any way. 1958, Chinese animators developed China's first paper-cutting film "Porky Pig Eating Watermelon", and then made paper-cutting films such as "Fisherman Boys", "Jigong Fighting Crickets", "Golden Conch", etc., absorbing the artistic characteristics of Chinese shadow puppetry and folk window decoration to make animated images. They absorbed the artistic characteristics of Chinese shadow play and folk window decoration, and made the animation image vivid and full. This unique Chinese animation genre of paper-cutting not only adds valuable wisdom and experience to Chinese animation in a new technology, but also promotes the traditional Chinese folk art.

However, the ten-year turmoil of the Cultural Revolution made the golden age of Chinese animation fall into a trough, not only was the subject matter restricted, but the destruction of animation talents made the development of animation missing a whole generation.

Until the end of the Cultural Revolution, the influence of politics on animation was relatively relaxed, and the following year, 1978 saw the preparation of the production of "Ne Zha Pandemonium", China's first wide-screen feature-length animation. Inheriting the national character of Na Zha's Pandemonium, the film also improved to a certain extent technically, but the character design and creativity of the characters were obviously still the same as in Na Zha's Pandemonium, and it is important to realize that the two animations were made fifteen years apart, so the Cultural Revolution's damage to animation can be seen clearly. The success of Nezha in the Sea has given Chinese animation a shot in the arm and ushered in a period of revitalization. Finding the direction of Chinese animation again, i.e. insisting on drawing nutrients from the tradition of Chinese national aesthetics and culture, Chinese animation entered into a new period of creative climax, with not only the number of animation productions increasing rapidly, but also the form and theme of animation being constantly innovated. The story of the puppet film "Avanti" comes from the folklore of Chinese minority, the wise and interesting Avanti adopts the shape of real people, and the color comes from Tang Sancai, which gives people a wonderful and vivid feeling. In addition, there are animated films made of paper cutouts, such as "Ginseng Doll", "Golden Conch" and "Fishing Basin"; animated films made of ink and wash paintings, such as "Tadpole Looking for Mother", "Shepherd's Flute", and "Love in the Mountain and Water"; animated films made of "Nine-Colored Deer" drawn from Dunhuang mural paintings; animated films made of "Nuwa Mending the Sky", which borrows the style of drawing from Dunhuang mural paintings, and animated films made of "Fire Child", which borrows the ethnic motifs of Yunnan Province, etc. In addition, the Chinese animated feature films are made of the folklore of ethnic minorities. In the Chinese animation feature film works, Chinese aesthetic elements is one of the labels of Chinese animation, such as "Tianshuqi Tan" background drawing, it has the ancient Chinese painting masters of the mountains reflecting the green water folds of the interesting.

It can be said that Chinese animation in a long time to become one of the highest achievements of Chinese films in the world, and Chinese animators adhere to the essence of traditional Chinese culture to absorb nutrients, the core of the story is born out of the national, the beauty of the culture and the most classical romantic fantasy temperament combined, to give birth to so many cultural masterpieces are still unforgettable for many people.

Decline -- foreign impact

80s, China's animation level previously in the forefront of Asia, but there has been a lack of market-oriented operations leading to animation slow trend, and the opposite is the reform and opening up of a large number of commercial animation from abroad was introduced to China, such as "Transformers", "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck", "Iron Arm", "Iron Man", "Iron Man", "Iron Man", "Iron Man", and so on. In contrast, after the reform and opening up, a large number of foreign commercial animations were introduced into China, such as "Transformers", "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck", "Astro Boy", "The Smurfs", "The Clever One", etc. Foreign animations quickly attracted the eyes of Chinese children with their vivid characters, interesting storylines, and excellent production techniques, thus bringing a great impact on the animation industry in China. Against this background, Chinese animators still use the power of Lian Po to produce a lot of domestic animation that can still compete with foreign animation, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio has produced "Sheriff of the Black Cat", "Wanderings of Sanmao", "Gourd Brothers", "The Adventures of King Dirt", "Shuk and Beta" and other outstanding animation, these animations are close to the life of the characters and scene design, detailed and vivid action portrayal, and a heart-warming storyline. These animations, with their close-to-life character scene design, delicate and vivid action portrayal, and heart-warming storylines, are still the warm memories of the post-80s in China.

At that time, China's animation was only invested by the government, and then purchased by TV stations, which directly led to the lack of more funds injected into the animation industry, for a long time, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio almost represented the entire Chinese animation, stagnation in the production cycle, technological lagging behind, the loss of talent, the output of the doldrums, a series of problems came, which led to the direct result of the difficulty of China's animation and the industrialization of animation to compete with foreign animation production. This series of problems have directly led to the difficulty of Chinese animation to compete with the industrialized production of foreign animation. Worse still, in the most proud of the Chinese people, in Chinese animation has a core position in the cultural heritage has been gradually abandoned, animated cartoons for a long time in the consciousness of the Chinese people play a low-age, childish, uninteresting image, in the consistent understanding of the Chinese animation to further decline.

It is worth mentioning that, Chinese animation atrophy, across the sea from Japan, but the emergence of a lot of Chinese elements of animation, such as Akira Toriyama's original "Dragon Ball", the protagonist of its good and martial arts Sun Wukong; Cheddar Masami's "Saints", one of the main characters of the Purple Dragon is to cultivate in China; Takahashi Rumiko's "chaotic horse," the chaos of the father and son, as well as all the characters with the function of transformation, are in the hot spring countryside in China. In Rumiko Takahashi's "Chaoma", Chaoma's father and son, as well as all the characters with the ability to transform, are "demonized" by falling into hot springs in China's hot spring towns; Etsuji Ogawa's "China's Little Pawnbrokers" is simply a story about Chinese people in China. This bizarre situation from the side of the powerful charm of Chinese culture.

Return - not forgetting the original heart

It is obvious that Chinese animation to go on there are two problems must be broken, the first is the need to find the genes of domestic animation, that is, belonging to their own language, so that we can get rid of the stereotype of the young, improve the impact. The second is that animation must be profitable in order to attract more animation talent.

Conclusion:

Previous generations have created countless cultural treasures with their abundant imagination and romanticism, and her inheritance from the previous year itself means a strong creativity and vitality, which is an inexhaustible treasure for our domestic animation. Facts have proved that the Chinese school is the soul of Chinese animation should have, in the context of the new era, with an open and tolerant mind, to realize the creative transformation, in the realization of the characteristics of the Chinese school on the basis of the strengths of the public, innovation, in order to truly realize the revival of Chinese animation.