Source: China News Network
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Why are there Monkey Kings in Chinese and Japanese cartoons?
In 2022, Chinese animation has gone through a hundred years. This long story spanning a hundred years bears witness to the past of Chinese and Japanese animation people learning and growing up from each other, and also records the imprint of friendly exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations between the two countries.
Among these imprints, there are the cross-century handshake of Sun Wukong and Astro Boy, the childhood memories of Xiao Nezha and Yi Xiuge, and the beautiful interplay of Chinese ink and Japanese painting.
How does classic animation embody the core of Chinese storytelling? How can animation build a bridge for Cultural Exchange between China and Japan? What is the road to the development of the animation industry? Recently, the China News Agency invited Chen Bo, deputy director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, Chen Gong, doctor of representation culture at the University of Tokyo, and Takashi Endo, chairman of Japan Peacock Animation Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (アニチャイナ Co., Ltd.), to conduct a dialogue.
Excerpts from the dialogue are as follows:
Why does national style appear in the world?
China News Service: The Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio has contributed more than 500 works in more than 60 years. Why can these classic animations become a memory of the times? What are some of the landmark works?
Chen Bo: Looking back at the history of Chinese animation in the past century, it is actually a long way for Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio (hereinafter referred to as "Shangmei Film"). As the birthplace of Chinese animation films, Shanghai's openness and diversity have cultivated a deep cultural soil for animation creators and inspired generations of animators to realize their dreams.
During this period, Shangmei Film contributed a lot of "firsts": the first color animation film "Why the Crow is Black", the first internationally awarded Chinese art film "Magic Pen", the first color puppet film "Little Hero"... These excellent works have created a brilliant era of Chinese animation. From the perspective of artistic aesthetics and artistic accomplishment, the older generation of animators have deeply explored traditional Chinese culture, combined with Chinese folk tales, traced the roots of the art style, and strived for excellence, creating various forms of ink animation, paper-cut animation, puppet animation, etc., constantly exploring a more "Chinese style" national style, laying the foundation for the development of Chinese animation, and many familiar works have also become childhood memories of generations.
China News Service: Which animations in China have successfully gone to sea? How were these works created?
Chen Bo: "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", "Nezha Noisy Sea", "Sandpiper Clams Fighting", "Three Monks" and other animation works based on traditional Chinese stories have won many awards internationally, which can be said to be household names. Taking "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" as an example, this animation recreates Sun Wukong, a Chinese-style mythological hero, on the screen, and was praised by the French newspaper Le Monde as "a work that does not lose Disney in aesthetics and perfectly presents traditional Chinese art in style".
The reason why Chinese animation can get more and more attention from overseas audiences is because the unique theatrical elements and painting styles present different animation expressions for everyone, which is a high refinement of "nationality", and the artistic expression of the film spans language, borders and time, casting classics. From the perspective of creation, behind the classic animation is the thinking of the older generation of artists on life, the world, and the aesthetics of art. Whether it is from the delicacy of the performance, the plot structure, or the art foundation, excellent works must be able to endure the test of time, give people a sense of constant watching and new, and bring different levels of thinking to the audience.
Why has Chinese and Japanese animation held hands for a hundred years?
China News Service: As a researcher of Chinese and Japanese animation, what do you think is the connection between Chinese animation and Japanese animation?
Chen Gong: The animations in China and Japan started at similar times, both belong to imported products, and although they have their own styles, they interact closely in terms of technical exchanges and talent training.
Japanese anime is full of Chinese elements with oriental charm. In 1926, Japanese animation director Noburo Oto created Japan's first Journey to the West manga, Journey to the West Monkey King Story.
Some Japanese animators also went to China to create and live, and ZhiYong only resided and created in China under the Chinese name "Fang Ming", and his 1950 "Thank You Little Flower Cat" has been passed down to this day, making an important contribution to the development of new Chinese animation. It is worth mentioning that in 1958, Japan's first color long-form animation "The Legend of the White Snake" also told a Chinese story.
In the 1980s, the interaction between Chinese and Japanese animation became more and more intense, typically represented by Osamu Tezuka, the "god of Japanese manga". Tezuka entered the industry after watching "The Iron Fan Princess" directed by Wan Liming, and was deeply influenced by it throughout his life. Three months before his death, Tezuka still endured his illness and went to Shanghai to visit Wan Liming. His first anime was based on Journey to the West, and his last work was titled My Monkey King.
During this period, Japanese TV anime entered the Chinese market, from "As boy" to "Doraemon" to "Smart One Break", these works are the beautiful childhood memories of generations.
At present, the exchange between the Chinese and Japanese animation circles is becoming more and more frequent, in addition to the production of common animation projects, there are also the contact of creators and the interaction between audiences.
China News Service: 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, how can the animation industry promote people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan?
Takashi Endo: Animation is an important industry in cultural dissemination, and Japan and China are both Asian countries, with similar cultural values and social environments, and it is easy for people to resonate.
Chinese animation has unique features in character dialogue, interpersonal relationships, world view, food and emotional expression, etc. Japanese audiences will have a strong interest in Chinese culture through exposure to Chinese animation. Therefore, I believe that it is necessary to create and expand opportunities for people-to-people exchanges between Japan and China, and to strengthen cultural ties between people in order to seek new developments.
Chen Gong: The exchanges in the animation industry are mostly spontaneous acts of the people. Therefore, to strengthen the contact and exchange between Chinese and Japanese animation creators, so that more excellent works have emerged in the industry, so that Chinese and Japanese audiences can become friends with the same culture and the same hobbies, and find the beauty in each other's culture, they will naturally find the best way to communicate, this way of communication may be a dress, or it may be a role, which is the charm of animation beyond language.
Why does the animation market continue to write legends?
China News Service: With the expansion of the animation market, it is inevitable that there will be products that only look at the box office and do not look at production, in your opinion, how can animation achieve a win-win situation between content and the market?
Takashi Endo: The anime industry is in the ascendant, and to achieve a win-win situation for both content and market, it is first necessary to cultivate the original manga and fiction market. The model of adapting popular original works into anime will not only further develop the value of works, but also become more and more active in the animation market. Secondly, successful anime works depend not only on the choice of story themes, but also on the creation of character IP. Attractive roles are key to attracting consumers and guaranteeing business profits. For example, Studio Ghibli's work "Totoro" was released at the beginning of the box office less than expected, but through various peripheral derivatives, it successfully profited. This cute object, which seems to be very suitable for embracing, has also become Japan's "Mickey Mouse", which shows that the secondary development and utilization of peripheral products and copyrights can become the pillar of the animation industry. Finally, I think it's important to look at overseas markets, where character merchandise is very popular around the world and can bring heat and boost to anime content and the market.
China News Service: How can the domestic animation market emerge more excellent works?
Chen: In my opinion, the ecology of the domestic animation industry needs to be further improved. We need not only good creators, but also good teams and investors.
"The Return of the Great Sage" is an example of an industrial virtuous circle, the audience pays for high-quality animation, investors' funds can be recovered, so more funds are willing to flow into the animation industry, feeding out a suitable creative atmosphere. In this environment, creators are more willing to show their works, providing the possibility for investors to discover "dark horses".
Chen Bo: There have been many classic works created in the history of Chinese animation, but the commercialization of animation is still in its infancy.
The exploration of animation art requires a lot of time and money, and the creators must not only understand the relevant history and culture to carry out in-depth understanding and innovation, but also have a knowledge of communication, sociology, psychology and so on. On the basis of ensuring the level of painting, practitioners must also build an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
Commercialization to provide financial support for animation creation, classic IP will bring market value, now China has a good market environment, how to carry out new packaging in IP development, tell a good story to consumers or brands, let more people have emotional resonance, and feed back animation creation is an urgent problem that the commercialization team needs to solve.
In the long run, creation is still the core of the animation market, and only with excellent works can the animation market develop well.