The National Style of Chinese Animation

After the founding of New China, Chinese animation began its broader development. As early as 1947, the People's Artist Chen Bo'er and Japanese animation expert Fang Ming (持永只仁) created China's first puppet movie "Emperor's Dream" and the animated movie "Catching Turtle in a Jar". They completed the filming work under the difficult conditions of insufficient personnel and poor equipment, which opened the prelude to the development of animation in new China.

Chinese animation has consciously started to explore the road of national style in the development since then, which was made possible by the times and the world environment. 1957 Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was established, and Te Wei was appointed as the director of the studio, and at this time, Chinese animation people had developed to more than two hundred people. There were a large number of famous artists and literary scholars, such as Wan Lai Ming, Wan Gu Chan, Wan Chao Chen, Qian Jia Jun, Yu Zhe Guang, Zhang Chao Qun, Lei Yu, Jin Jin, Ma Guoliang, Bao Lei, etc., who successively joined the ranks and made great contributions to the development of China's animation industry.

The beginning of the founding of new China

The beginning of the founding of China is the period when Chinese animation is toddling around, Chinese animators actively learn advanced animation technology and art from abroad, mainly from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and there is a great improvement in animation skills. At the same time, the style of animation was inevitably influenced by the animation of these countries, such as "Kitten Fishing" (1952), "Mei's Dream" (1954), "Encounters in the Wild" (1955) and other films have left the shadow of Soviet animation. Especially in 1956, "Why is the Crow Black" won an award at the International Animation Festival, and it was disheartening that the participants thought it was a Soviet film. This misunderstanding made Chinese animators realize that "imitation of other countries' animation is not conducive to the development of Chinese animated films." It can only lead to the decline of Chinese animation. "Only nationalization is the way out for Chinese animation films." In fact, China's early animated films also have this tendency, Wan Brothers' "Paper Man Trouble" is an imitation of American animation production, the pursuit of fun and funny, only a simple gimmick farce. In fact, this is also a reflection of the nature of animation and entertainment, the movie gives people entertainment to amusement, there will be an audience, there will be a market. At the same time, it still has national characteristics in the styling design of the characters.

In 1957, Te Wei, director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, put forward the slogan of "exploring the road of national style", and from then on, the construction of national style of Chinese animation began. Chinese animation artists from the Chinese traditional culture and art to draw nutrition, for their own use, and strive to show China's unique style, and has achieved remarkable results. In the animated film "The Proud General", the national characteristics are full, the general's facial features are borrowed from the Peking Opera character modeling, and the design of the action also adopts the style of the Peking Opera. The background music of the movie uses folk music appropriately. When the general is at a loss and helpless, the ancient pipa song "Ambush on Ten Faces" sounds, and the picture and the music are perfectly combined to achieve the effect of accentuating the moon and clouds. This 30-minute animated film was full of rich nationalization, which gave people a refreshing feeling and greatly encouraged the exploration of nationalization 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. In the development of a large area of Chinese animation, puppet animation, the famous puppet film directors Jin Xi and Qian Yuanda, had gone to the Czech Republic in the 1950s to study under the tutelage of Dernka. Jin Xi's first masterpiece, Princess Peacock, had a moving storyline. Later, Jin Xi's film Who Sings Best was technically perfect, but ideologically limited. At that time, the literature and art policy was rather dogmatic, and the over-emphasis on "political importance", "revolutionary tradition", and "theme first" limited the further development of puppet films. Qian Jiajun directed "Pulling the Carrot" in 1957 and "Dr. Ku's New Discovery" in 1958, which paid attention to exploring children's interests and hearts in animated films.

In 1958, Chinese animators developed China's first paper-cut film, "Pigs Eating Watermelon", which added a new variety of Chinese animation with distinctive folk art characteristics. Then the paper-cut film "Fisherman Boy" (1959), "Jigong Fighting Cricket", "Golden Conch" (1963) and other films were made, absorbing the artistic characteristics of Chinese shadow play and folk window decoration, which shaped the animation image into a vivid and full-bodied image, and also made China's traditional folk art to be carried forward.

The 1980s

In the 1980s, the technology of paper-cutting film became more and more mature, on the basis of which, the American Film Studio successfully developed a new technology of paper-cutting "pulling hair", and produced the ink and water style paper-cut film "Snipe and Mussel", which was honored with the Silver Bear Prize at the 13th Berlin International Short Film Festival, The film won the Silver Bear Award of the 13th Berlin International Short Film Festival, the Special Award of the 6th Zagreb International Animation Film Festival in Yugoslavia, the Special Award of the Toronto International Animation Film Festival in Canada, and the Outstanding Art Film Award of 1984 by the Ministry of Culture, and the Straw Man produced in 1985 was also well received, and it won the First Prize of the Children's Film in the 2nd Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival in Japan, the Outstanding Art Film Award of 1985 by the Ministry of Culture, and the Tenglong Award of National Minority Subjects Films. "Tenglong Prize", the second prize of the national minority theme movie. This film has been recognized internationally and domestically, and has been welcomed by the audience. In addition, in 1960, the origami film "Smart Duck" was produced, which was full of fun and lively. In the same period and the invention of ink animation film, can be said to be the most Chinese style of animation, it will be China's ink painting and animation film combination, so that China's unique ink and wash feelings perfectly reproduced on the screen, the formation of the most Chinese characteristics of the art style, shocked the entire world of the film industry.

"Tadpole Looking for Mom" (1960) and "The Pastoral Flute" (1964) can be said to be the masterpieces. The rhythmic images and poetic mood gave people the enjoyment of beauty, and the art of animation also reached an aesthetic realm.

At this time, animation creation reached an unprecedented height, and it can be said that the late 1950s to the mid-1960s was a high point of Chinese animation. It was also a stage of maturity for the national style. The upper and lower episodes (1961, 1964) of the animated film "The Great Wizard of Heaven" borrowed the characteristics of ancient paintings, temple art, and folk New Year's Paintings in terms of modeling, setting, and coloring, as well as integrating the performance art of traditional Chinese opera into the depiction of Sun Wukong, who is a household name, so as to make this image leap out onto the screen, transforming the intangible into the tangible, and "tapping into a wide range of artistic means of expression; with a distinctive national style and superb artistic skills". Foreign comments said, "The Great Palace of Heaven not only has the general American Disney works of beauty, but also the stylized art and Disney-style art film can not do, that is, it completely expresses the traditional Chinese art style." "A true masterpiece of animated films."

The artistic standard achieved by Chinese animated films has not only been internationally recognized, but has also enabled animated films with Chinese national characteristics to reach out to the world's population. Because of its unique national characteristics, Chinese animation is independent of the world's animation, exuding its unique artistic charm. Chinese animation has gained a higher and higher reputation at home and abroad.

But due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, China's animation industry was hindered and developed slowly. "After the end of the Cultural Revolution, a hundred flowers opened up, and China's animation industry ushered in its second spring. Chinese animators put more enthusiasm into animation creation, adhering to the previous "national style" road, in the content of the subject matter, art form and production techniques, etc., to carry out new development, and achieved gratifying results. At the same time, due to the implementation of the open policy, expanding foreign exchanges, China's animation industry is also more in line with international standards, breathing more fresh air, showing a vibrant scene.

In 1979, China's first color widescreen animated feature film "Ne Zha Follies the Sea" appeared on the scene, which was praised as "colorful, elegant and imaginative", and was highly praised both at home and abroad. The national style has been well continued in it.

The animated film "The Three Monks" inherited the traditional art form and absorbed the modern expression of foreign countries, making a new attempt to develop the national style. The animated film "Snow Child" has a beautiful and poetic picture; "Mr. Nanguo" expresses the artistic style of the Han Dynasty and has an ancient and elegant style; "Fire Boy" combines decorative modeling and national artistic characteristics. In the same period, there are "Two Little Peacocks", "One Night in the Gallery", "Fox Hunter", "Good Cat Mimi", "Fool Buys Shoes", "Black Rooster", "Duckling Gluttony", "Ginseng Fruit", "Naughty Golden Monkey", "If I Were Wu Sung", "Butterfly Spring", "The Wonderful Book of Heaven", "Rabbit Sends a Letter", "Thirty-Six Words" and so on, which also continue the idea of this creation.

The large-scale animated film "The Golden Monkey Subdues the Demons" in 1984 once again brought the Monkey King to the animation screen, and created a touching image of the Monkey King; in terms of presentation method, it explored the new development of the national art by combining the traditional national style and the technique of abstract painting with the fusion of modern music. The animated film "Clip Saves the Deer" is elegant and lyrical, with the simple and ancient style of Dunhuang murals. The paper-cut film "Straw Man" simulates the form of Chinese brushwork flower and bird painting. The Magic Box and Songs" is a series of adventures in which the main character collects songs from ethnic minorities to defeat evil. In addition, "Nuwa Mending Heaven", "Robbing Pillow", "Hailibu", "Water Deer", "Sweeping", "Net", "Stealing Donkey", "Witch Crocodile and Little Girl", etc., are also rich in ethnic flavors.

New development after 90 years

In the development of animation to the 1990s to the present, China's animation creation relative to the development of the world's animation appeared slow trend. In the United States and Japan under the impact of animation, but also due to the lack of market-oriented operation, the recovery of animation is relatively slow, Chinese animation used to be a purely state investment, private investment is reluctant, which led to the loss of animators and the slow development of China's animation industry. Chinese animation has to change its previous operation. In order to revitalize the domestic animation, the United States film studio took four years to produce the animated film "Po Lin Lantern", which is China's largest investment to date a theatrical animation feature film, the story is based on Chinese folklore, in the picture, the characters are well-designed, the music is extremely elaborate, while the use of modern high-tech film also adds a lot of color to the film, giving a person a sense of refreshing, and has won the audience's praise. At the same time there are "five weeks on the balloon", "Marco Polo back to the incense", "ouch, mom" and a number of excellent animated films were born, to the animation injected new vitality, animated film presents a thriving scene.