Transferred from: China News Service
China News Weekly reporter: Li Jing
For a hundred years, generations of Chinese animators have been asking," Who am I?" "They have explored the artistic style that belongs to China alone, once so close to the world-class level that it can even be said to be one of them, but then they are confused, imitated and interrupted in the horrors of the times, and are still looking for the unique philosophy and character of Chinese animation to this day." Today's young animators, like the explorers of the past, are looking for a language to tell their stories. As far back as 1936, Wangu Toad, a pathfinder for Chinese animation, once said in the article "Gossip Cartoon": "To make the Cause of Chinese Animation have unlimited vitality, it is necessary to take root in the soil of its own national tradition." "Perhaps, this is not only a topic that belongs to animators, but the inner anxiety that we have been difficult to alleviate since the door of the country has been opened and foreign cultures and technologies have continued to enter daily life."
The "Iron Fan Princess" who enlightened "Astro Boy"
100 years ago, the Wan brothers of the founders of Chinese animation, Wan Liming, Wan Gu toad, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan, rented a 7-square-meter pavilion in the Sanfengli Lane on Zhabei Road in Shanghai, and Chinese animation started in a blank space. In 1922, they produced China's first animated short film with an advertising nature, Shu Zhendong Chinese Typewriter. In 1926, the real cartoon in Chinese history was introduced, "The Big Trouble Studio", which is a combination of live-action and animation, telling the story of a painter's ink turning into a small black man.
After the 1930s, the Wan brothers were influenced by left-wing literary and artistic trends, creating works that reflected social reality and propagated anti-Japanese resistance. In "Compatriots Wake Up", the huge male lion blocks the attack of the Japanese invading army, and the limbs and tail of the male lion evolve into the image of workers, peasants, merchants, and soldiers. Later, Wan Liming said in his memoirs that Chinese cartoons were not only a pastime for people to enjoy and entertain from the beginning, but also closely coordinated with reality and followed a different path from European and American animation films.
Inspired by "Snow White" produced by Disney in the United States, the Wan brothers created "Iron Fan Princess" based on "Journey to the West", using the Bull Demon King as a metaphor for the Japanese invaders and boosting the morale of the people. This is China's first audio animation feature film, and it is the fourth large-scale animation art film in the history of world cinema after the American "Snow White", "Villain Country" and "Pinocchio", which makes China's animation art at that time infinitely close to the world's advanced level.
The image of the "Iron Fan Princess" in the mud sculpture art group of "Journey to the West" in Turpan Flame Mountain, Xinjiang. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
In 1941, the 80-minute animated feature film "Princess Iron Fan" became a sensation on the beach. When the film was released for a month and a half, its influence swept through Asia, southeast Asia and even in Theaters in Japan. In Japan, a teenager became fascinated by the art of animation because of this film, he called Osamu Tezuka, and later became the "father of Japanese animation" with cartoons such as "Astro Boy". Decades later, in 1981, he came to Shanghai, finally met Wan Liming, shook the hand of his idol, and said, "I only engaged in animation after watching your film." ”
In early 1949, the Wan brothers were invited by the Hong Kong Film Company to engage in art design in Hong Kong. In 1954, Wan Liming returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong to visit relatives, infected by the atmosphere of the times, walked into the upcoming Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, and wrote back to his brother Wangu Toad, the brothers are about to create the most brilliant business card in the history of Chinese animation. With the continuous influx of talents from all walks of life, Shangmei Film was finally officially established in 1957.
"Chinese School"
From the word "fine art" in the name of Shangmei Film, you may be able to glimpse the taste and pursuit of aesthetics of the animators at that time. How to tell stories in their own national language is the core of what that generation of animators have always been groping for. In the spring of 1956, the "Road to Exploring The National Form" was proposed by Te Wei, the first director of Shangmei Film, and in the following years, the animation "Proud General", the puppet animation film "Divine Pen", the color paper-cut film "Pig Eight Commandments Eat Watermelon", and the classic ink animation film "Little Tadpole Finds Mother" were released one after another.
In 1959, "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" finally set up a group to prepare, they drew nutrients from a large number of national arts and pondered innovation, Zhang Zhengyu, who was hired by Shangmei Film from the China Youth Art Theater to do scene design, once said to the background designers: "You should not be too honest when painting, that is, you should not honestly move traditional things over and use them, you must use your brain to deform and paint again." In the end, the background design style of "Big Trouble in tiangong" is "green mountains and green waters" based on the strong painting style of Tibetan painting, and refers to the style of Mexican murals, and the action design of the characters borrows from Peking Opera, and is recreated by the animation designers.
In September 2020, the comprehensive original painting exhibition of "Haunting the Heavenly Palace" and the special commemorative exhibition of the 120th anniversary of Mr. Wan Liming's birth were held in Shanghai. Photo by Tang Yanjun, a reporter of China News Service
In 1961, when the last episode of "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" was released, it successfully shaped the familiar classic image of Sun Wukong, laid the foundation for the unique spirit of resistance and the pursuit of freedom of the Monkey King, and influenced many works of Sun Wukong in later generations, including the 86th edition of the "Journey to the West" series.
In 1978, the film went to the United Kingdom to participate in the London International Film Festival, which shocked the international animation industry, won the Best Picture Award, and was later released in dozens of countries and regions. "Le Monde" once commented: "'Haunting the Heavenly Palace' not only has the beauty of ordinary American Disney works, but also the plastic art is impossible for Disney-style art, and it perfectly expresses the traditional Chinese art style." ”
At this time, the unique national language of Chinese animation has basically taken shape. In 1979, Shangmei Film launched China's first color widescreen animated film "Nezha Noisy Sea", and in 1983, it produced "Tianshu Qitan". Together with "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", these two films have become the most classic masterpieces in the history of Chinese animation films.
Aesthetically, they combine Peking Opera, Chinese painting, ceramics, ancient architecture, marriage customs, classical furniture, and classical gardens, and the details are controlled to the extreme. In that era of reform and opening up, the ideas and values embodied by creators are also admired by today's viewers.
Chen Liaoyu, associate professor of the School of Animation of Beijing Film Academy, can't help but sigh whenever he mentions these animated feature films, if "Iron Fan Princess" uses "other people's words" to tell "their own stories", then "Big Trouble in Tiangong" is a sign of the complete formation of Chinese aesthetics, skills and the entire animation audiovisual language, "Nezha Noisy Sea" means that the Chinese aesthetic has reached its peak, and "Tianshu Qitan" is "one layer of window paper" from the cinema entertainment blockbuster. "We Chinese finally tell our own stories in our own words, we digest what we have learned and become our own things." Chen Liaoyu told China News Weekly.
It was an era of fantasy among the masters of animation, who were extremely ingenious in their shooting methods, and everything could be animated. "Snow Child", "Nine Colored Deer", "Three Monks", "Monkey Fishing moon", "True and False Li Kui", "Donkey Lifting", "Zhang Fei Judging Melon"... Excellent animated short films one after another, no matter how long or short, as long as they appear internationally, they will almost win awards, and the international animation industry will call these animations full of strong Chinese aesthetics as the "Chinese School".
The Japanese artist Hayao Miyazaki was deeply influenced by the "Chinese School", and in 1984, he went to Shangmei Film with a pilgrimage heart to exchange and study, which had a decisive influence on his future creations. Miyazaki later recalled that his works with more blank spaces were inspired by watching the ink animation "Little Tadpole Finds Mother".
Animation "Foxconn"
With the completion and operation of the first color TV production line introduced by China in 1982, color TELEVISION gradually became popular, and foreign series of animation films such as "Smart Break", "Flower Fairy" and "Popeye" began to occupy Chinese TV screens. At this time, Japanese and American animation has successfully completed industrialization, and foreign animation produced under the industrialization model has been bought in the Chinese market at a low price. Osamu Tezuka, who had switched to animation because of "Princess Iron Fan", ran to China many years later with "Astro Boy", followed by "Doraemon", "Slam Dunk Master", "Mickey Mouse", "Smurfs", "Transformers"...
In June 2018, taiyuan people watched "Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island" in a movie theater. China News Service reporter Zhang Yun photographed
After the mid-1980s, along with animation films, foreign animation processing companies entered China on a large scale. In Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, electronics factories and garment factories next to the animation processing plant, they undertake most of the business for line drawing, coloring, background and other low technical content of the link, a large number of young people with art skills, a little training can be hired, in essence, they are no different from "Foxconn".
When the big set of the era was suddenly replaced by a soaring and steel bone, those light and fresh fantasies could no longer rise. In the day-to-day OEM work, Chinese animation is like the child who lost his name in the illusion in "Spirited Away", gradually forgetting himself, and will only tell other people's stories in other people's languages, from the "Chinese School" to the world's largest animation processing base.
"Detective Conan", "InuYasha", "Naruto", "Bug Master", these Japanese animations that have gained wave after wave of fans in China, have the figure of Chinese foundry behind them. And Chinese animation, looking at the entire 1990s, can only leave the audience with memories of the first commercial "blockbuster" "Baolian Lantern" after the transformation of Shangmei Film, and entered the first decade of the 21st century, only for the young "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf", "Bear Haunting" and "Mobis Ring", which was completely Westernized and failed misastroke.
According to a survey by the Institute of Journalism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 66.7 percent of the cartoons broadcast in Beijing in 1991 were imported cartoons, of which 50 percent came from Disney. From 2002 to 2003, the producers of the most popular cartoons among teenagers were Japan in the first place and the United States in second place.
Find yourself
In 2015, the animated film Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage finally ended with a box office of 956 million, and by the time it was screened for 16 days, it had surpassed Hollywood's Kung Fu Panda 2 and became the highest-grossing animated film in the history of mainland cinema. In the film, Sun Dasheng, who once lost and found himself and put on the purple and gold crown again, seems to be a metaphor for a hundred years of Chinese animation.
Returning with Dasheng is the audience's interest and expectation in domestic animation, a group of audiences who would not have consumed domestic animation films have entered the cinema, and the cinema line has also begun to tilt towards domestic animation films in the scheduling. In 2019, another landmark work, "The Demon Child of Nezha", earned 5.013 billion yuan at the box office, becoming a phenomenon-level film and ranking second in the total box office in the history of Chinese films.
A movie promotional screen for "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" in a theater. China News Service reporter Zhang Yun photographed
The revival of domestic animation may really come. At this time, looking back at the 20 years of OEM, it did interrupt the former "Chinese school", but it also laid the foundation for the formation of the huge production capacity required by the Chinese animation industry, and cultivated a large number of animation practitioners, who came into contact with the production management experience and technology of foreign advanced animation films. Since 2004, China's animation outsourcing processing business has entered a period of adjustment and transformation, India and Vietnam have become strong competitors with lower labor costs, and some Chinese companies that do animation OEM work for Japan and the United States have embarked on the road of original project development.
The animators who grew up in this context have to use animation more diversely. These young animation practitioners, using the strengths of their learned families, are telling their own stories. From a certain point of view, history seems to have returned to its starting point at another latitude. Chen Liaoyu said: "Chinese animation has set off again, and we have actually set off twice. "Next, they have to re-establish their own artistic language like their predecessors, and this language is not from the data of the survey company, let alone some experts and practitioners sitting in the room to collectively plan and discuss, that is, a director should grow naturally from personal life experience and cultural soil, and cannot be pre-designed."
Original title: "A Hundred Years of Chinese Animation: Once Infinitely Close to the World's Peak | Something to ask"
Source: China News Network