This book presents a contextualized overview of the history of Chinese animated film, pointing out the most influential self-definitions of Chinese culture employed in animation art of Mao Zedong’s rule (1949–1976) but largely focusing on the representation strategies created in the times of reforms and opening-up under Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989/1992). Deeply grounded in cultural studies, the book employs an interdisciplinary approach, interlacing the reflection with the perspectives of political science, film studies, and film festival studies. It focuses on phenomena anchored to the paradigms of nationalization, reform, and internationalization: among them, nuanced understanding of the minzu (national) category (including the classic style of Chinese animation); invention of wash-and-ink painting animation (shuimo donghua); renewal of film theory and animated film language; soft power and cultural diplomacy; and regular access and co-creation of the international industry (festival distribution). This book will be of great interest to those in the fields of animation studies, film studies, political science, Chinese area studies, and Chinese philology.

This book examines animated propaganda produced in mainland China from the 1940s to the 1970s. The analyses of four puppet films demonstrate how animation and Maoist doctrine became tightly but dynamically entangled. The book firstly contextualizes the production conditions and ideological contents of The Emperor’s Dream (1947), the first puppet film made at the Northeast Film Studio in Changchun. It then examines the artistic, intellectual, and ideological backbone of the puppet film Wanderings of Sanmao (1958). The book presents the means and methods applied in puppet animation filmmaking that complied with the ideological principles established by the radical supporters of Mao Zedong in the first half of the 1960s, discussing Rooster Crows at Midnight (1964). The final chapter discusses The Little 8th Route Army (1973), created by You Lei in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. This book will be of great interest to those in the fields of animation studies, film studies, political science, Chinese area studies, and Chinese philology.

This book presents a contextualized overview of the history of Chinese animated film, pointing out the most influential self-definitions of Chinese culture employed in animation art of Mao Zedong's rule (1949-1976) but largely focusing on the representation strategies created in the times of reforms and opening-up under Deng Xiaoping (1978-1989/1992). Deeply grounded in cultural studies, the book employs an interdisciplinary approach, interlacing the reflection with the perspectives of political science, film studies, and film festival studies. It focuses on phenomena anchored to the paradigms of nationalization, reform, and internationalization: among them, nuanced understanding of the minzu (national) category (including the classic style of Chinese animation); invention of wash-and-ink painting animation (shuimo donghua); renewal of film theory and animated film language; soft power and cultural diplomacy; and regular access and co-creation of the international industry (festival distribution). This book will be of great interest to those in the fields of animation studies, film studies, political science, Chinese area studies, and Chinese philology.

This study of ‘independent’ animation opens up a quietly subversive and vibrant dimension of contemporary Chinese culture which, hitherto, has not received as much attention as dissident art or political activism. Scholarly interest in Chinese animation has increased over the last decade, with attention paid to the conventional media circle of production, distribution and consumption. The ‘independent’ sector has been largely ignored however, until now. By focusing on distinctive independent artists like Pisan and Lei Lei, and situating their work within the present day media ecology, the author examines the relationship between the genre and the sociocultural transformation of contemporary China. Animation, the author argues, has a special significance, as the nature of the animation text is itself multilayered and given to multiple interpretations and avenues of engagement. Through an examination of the affordances of this ‘independent’ media entity, the author explores how this multifaceted cultural form reveals ambiguities that parallel contradictions in art and society. In so doing, independent animation provides a convenient ‘mirror’ for examining how recent social upheavals have been negotiated, and how certain practitioners have found effective ways for discussing the post-Socialist reality within the current political configuration.

This is an open access book. The aim of the Conference is to provide a shared platform for academics, scholars, PhD students, and graduate students with different cultural backgrounds to present and discuss research, developments and innovations in the fields of contemporary education, social sciences and humanities are referred with the understanding of the Human being. Papers concerning education, philosophy, philosophical anthropology, sociology, theory and history of culture, epistemology, religions, ethics are strongly related with analyzing of the Human being will be considered. Interdisciplinary approach and comparative perspective are encouraged.

China’s role in the history of world animation has been trivialized or largely forgotten. In Animated Encounters Daisy Yan Du addresses this omission in her study of Chinese animation and its engagement with international forces during its formative period, the 1940s–1970s. She introduces readers to transnational movements in early Chinese animation, tracing the involvement of Japanese, Soviet, American, Taiwanese, and China’s ethnic minorities, at socio-historical or representational levels, in animated filmmaking in China. Du argues that Chinese animation was international almost from its inception and that such border-crossing exchanges helped make it “Chinese” and subsequently transform the history of world animation. She highlights animated encounters and entanglements to provide an alternative to current studies of the subject characterized by a preoccupation with essentialist ideas of “Chineseness” and further questions the long-held belief that the forty-year-period in question was a time of cultural isolationism for China due to constant wars and revolutions. China’s socialist era, known for the pervasiveness of its political propaganda and suppression of the arts, unexpectedly witnessed a golden age of animation. Socialist collectivism, reinforced by totalitarian politics and centralized state control, allowed Chinese animation to prosper and flourish artistically. In addition, the double marginality of animation—a minor art form for children—coupled with its disarming qualities and intrinsic malleability and mobility, granted animators and producers the double power to play with politics and transgress ideological and geographical borders while surviving censorship, both at home and abroad. A captivating and enlightening history, Animated Encounters will attract scholars and students of world film and animation studies, children’s culture, and modern Chinese history.