Chinese Animation

This page is about the development of animation and comic industry in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

=Early History=

Chinese animation have started in the 1920 s before the emergence of Japanese animation in the 50 s. Inspired by Disney and Hollywood films produced in America, WanSi Brothers() produced the first Chinese silent animation Choas in the Studio () in 1926. WanSi Brothers highly acclaimed the animation development in United States, Russia, and Germany. He believed that Chinese animation should be instructive, logical and thought-provoking besides being entertaining to its audience. As a result, Chinese animation emerged as the only dominant animation style in the Far East throughout the 1930 s and 1940 s. At the same time, comic development also gained momentum. The most famous work of the period is Zhang Le Ping s () San Mao s Travel Diary (). The story depicted an orphan boy named San Mao who drifts from place to place and suffers various hardships. Being always optimistic in the face of hardships, he eventually got his fortunes and blessings. The main character had been compared frequently with AQ (Q), the fictional character from Lu Xun(), one of the greatest literary figure in the 1930 s. Eventually, San Mao have been put into animation at much later time. In Hong Kong, the story of Lao Fu Zi(), a comical character bear some similarity with old Confucian scholar who could not fit the modern life, has become popular and has been animated in Hong Kong in the 80 s.

=The Founding of ShangHai Arts and Film Production Company=

After 1949, the founding of ShangHai Arts and Film Production Company () sponsored by the central government helped China to enter its animation golden era during the 50 s and 60 s. In 1956 the company s first colored animation Why is the Crow Black-Coated() won the first international award. Increasing Chinese style mixing with traditional Chinese opera schemes and figures helped the company to launch new animation films such as Magical Pen() and The Proud General (). As a result, the animated movie Magical Pen won five series awards internationally for its unique style of representation.

=the 60 s =

During the 60 s. Chinese animation style culminated to the peak of its own styles, mixing with elements of traditional art characteristics. The Frog who finds his Mother , The Pastoral Pipe], [[The Journey to the West have all won international fame. However, Chinese started its rapid decline due to Cultural Revolution and fell quickly behind its peer Japan.

=the 70 s=

While the mainland animation suffered major setbacks, Hong Kong and Taiwan s animation industry started to boom. Famous Hong Kong comic and animation artists includes Ma Rong Cheng(). Taiwanese animator and artist Cai Zhi Zhong()also started to gain fame.

=the 80 s =

The 80 s is a time of change in China after the turmoil, several animation series were produced though international recognitions are not received. Among these works, the Hulu Brothers ()and Marshall the Black Cat () have become popular among children. At the same time, the rapid commercialization of Japanese animation industry have started to find its way into the Chinese market.

=the 90 s=

By 1990 s, Chinese animation faced major decline by the onset of Western and Japanese animation industry. Saint Seiya is published in China under Hainan Photography and Arts Publication (). Doraemon and Transformers sereis entered the market by broadcasting on the CCTV central television channel. The commercialization and innovation of Japanese and American animation pushed the traditional Chinese animation out of the market. Complaints have been heard throughout the 90 s about the problems facing Chinese animation. Therefore, the 90 s is an increasing time of change. By the mid 90 s, numerous artists have adopted into American and Japanese styles. In 1994, the mainland published its first bi-weekly comics magazine called King of Hua Shu (). Numerous artists started to publish their works on the magazine. Including Chen Xiang s () Xiao Shan s Diary (), a story about a crazy scientist, bearing some resemblance to Dr.Slump. The publication of King of Hua Shu is forced to shut down by the government due to its copyright violation of using some Japanese manga in some of its pages. Nevertheless, it is a first journal and first attempt to change the direction of Chinese animation. Following King of Hua Shu, several weekly, monthly, and bi-weekly animation journal started to appear in China. Shao Niao Weekly ()is one of the most popular. At the same time in Taiwan, new comic artists emerged including Zhu De Yong (). He published satirical style cartoon about secular life in a humorous, self de-facing manner and won numerous awards and gained popularity. Some artists such as You Su Lan () from Taiwan has become one of the few foreign manga artists established in Japan.

= the 21st century =

A major change has took place in 1999 both in China and Taiwan when the Internet has open major opportunities for animators, artists all over the country to work together in animation. In China, the first change is the emergence of Flash animation and Flash artists. FlashEmpire () become the first Flash community in China to formulate a weekly ranking system () with functionalities such as receiving score, votes, and comments from each viewers. It become so popular that by the beginning of the year 2000 it had 10,000 visitors visit the site daily with more than 5,000 individual works published. However, most of the works are amateurish. Among the amateurs, Bai Ding s No View Below 18(), intending to show audience a picture of a nude woman but ending up showing a picture of a dog, become the typical work of this period. A real trend of change started in August, 2000 when Lao Jiang () published the world s longest and first full vector graphic animated MTV in Flash using the pop star Cui Jian s A New March in The 25,000 Li(). This work received more than 10 million hits up to date. Since its release, animated MTV in China took a new directions. Many successful artists started to produced MTV in flash.

By 2001, Xiao Xiao () Kung Fu stick figures () not only become the most popular animated shorts in China, but overseas as well. His total work received more than 50 million hits up to date, making his the most known flash artist in China and in the world. By year 2002, flash artists in China is moving toward a more artistic direction. The work of Buhua s () Cat () used painting like style and mentioned about a story of a baby cat and his mother s suffering. In addition, labix s (X) works have become one of the best fairy tale styles flash history. By 2003, new studios such as B&T, Snailcn, and Sinodoor formed and has become the first private, non-state owned animation companies in mainland China. Moreover, several novels based on animation and comics way of story-telling have been proposed to be transformed into animation. These works included Guo Jing Ming() s Phantom Castle() and Xuan Yu() s Legend of a Small Soldier().

At the same time in Taiwan, Chun Shui Tang()established themselves as an online disney world for all Chinese speaking audiences. By 2001, Time magazine Asia edition listed Akuei as one of the top 100 new fugures in Asia. In Hong Kong, Showgood.com sponsored one of the most popular online work series called the Romance of San Guo (). This work is still the most widely read online animated series in China. The work is known for its parody of the traditional historical story of the Period of Three Kingdom.

In Hong Kong, the first 3D company, GDC entertainment established in Shen Zhen. Their very first 80 minute 3D rendered movie Through the Moebius Strip have already undergone the review is scheduled to realease into North American Theaters in 2005.

=Incomplete List of Recent Notable Chinese Animated Shorts/Series Completed/In-Progress=

*Craze for Song() *Akeui Series(): popular online animation from Taiwan *Showgood Shan Guo Series(): popular San Guo Series published online *Through the Moebius Strip: the first Hong Kong 3D animation *Da Hai* Yu Tang(.):Short animated film produced by B&T Studio

*Sutown League(): a Pilot Web Cartoon lead to Cool Joke Phenomenon

*Yao Yan():long series about a frivolous girl s called Xiao Yao love with Sakura *Romance of Li Bai() *Story about a House():E-toon s production *Gan Jia Long () *Little Soldier s Story():10 episodes story created by showgood about a little soldier

=External links=

*[http://www.flashempire.com]: One of the largest Flash portal in China *[http://www.flash8.net/]: Flash8, based in Shanghai *[http://163.cartoon.com]: netease cartoon *[http://www.huoshen.com/]:(huo sheng forum) *[http://www.showgood.com/showgood.com *[http://www.xxbt.com/]:B&T studio *[http://www.sinodoor.com/]:(sinodoor) *[http://www.snailcn.com/]:(snailcn) *[http://www.gdc-entertainment.com/]:GDC Entertainment *[http://www.the4world.net]:(the4world) *[http://www.comicren.com]:(comicren) *[http://www.itscartoon.com]: (itscartoon)