may well have been the earliest pioneers of cinema. Modern-day animation began in China
with the four Wan brothers. From their first film Uproar in the Art Studioin 1926 until the
war years, they seem to be the only animators. They made a number of films and developed
an animation department at the Mingshin studio. When the Japanese invaded Shanghai, the
Wans escaped to Wuhan and produced resistance films before returning to Shanghai to
establish another animation unit at Shinhwa in the French concession. There they made the
first Chinese feature,The Princess with the Iron Fan(1941).About this time other artists
began to make animated films in China, including Qian Jajun, Fang Ming (who was actually
the Japanese animator Tadahito Mochinaga), and a group of Communist party members,
who made an animated puppet film.
An animation unit was formed in 1949 in Changchun, which later became the anima-
tion unit of the Shanghai Animation Studio (SAS). The unit grew after the animators moved
to Shanghai. SAS was officially founded in 1957, and by the 1960s it had close to 400 workers.
These films had to be educational and entertaining and retain a national sense. Animation
was done with cutouts and puppets and on cels. Hundreds of excellent films were made,
including Wan Guchan’s Zhu Baizhe Eats the Watermelon(1958), Te Wei’s and Qian Jajun’s
The Tadpoles in Search of Their Mummy(1960), Wan Laiming’s feature Confusion in the
Sky(1961 and 1964), and Qian Yunda’s The Red Army’s Bridge(1964). As the Communist
government changed with the slogans of “One Hundred Flowers” and “The Great Leap
Forward,” the character of the animation changed as well. SAS closed in 1965, animators
were sent away for reeducation, and the studio didn’t reopen until 1972. The government-
sponsored studio is now Shanghai Fine Arts and Film Factory.
After the Cultural Revolution, most animated films were propaganda films like
Yan Dingsian’sThe Little Trumpeter(1972). When the Gang of Four fell from power in
1976, animation production increased. Major animators at this time included Xu “A
Da” Jingda, Tang Cheng, and Jin Shi. More recently animators have been able to work
at one of the broadcasting companies like China Central Television (CCTV) or at one
of the newer studios like the Institute of Digital Media Technology (IDMT), Dalian
Animation Studio, Tianjin Animation Studio, Beijing Film Academy, Beijing Scientific
and Educational Film Studio, Hosem Animation, Shanghai New Age Art, Jiang Toon
Animation, or Hung Ying. Animation service companies like Shenzhen HBB and Color-
land Animation Ltd. opened after the Chinese government set up a special economic
zone near Hong Kong during the 1980s. Early in the twenty-first century the State
Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARF) drew up plans to develop the film
and animation industry and set up requirements for local broadcasters to program at
least 300 minutes of animation monthly, with 60 percent of that domestically produced.
With China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization, new opportunities opened up
internationally as well.
James Wang founded Wang Films in Taiwan in 1978, and the animation unit Cuckoo’s
Nest became one of the top Asian animation studios, thanks in part to a great deal of service
work for Hanna-Barbera. In the early 1990s the studio had around 875 employees. Other
Taiwan studios have included Green Paddy Animation Studio, Dragon Animation, and
Morning Sun Animation.
291988Who Framed Roger Rabbitspawns a golden age
of animation in in the United States in the 1990s.