Animation in Asia and the Pacific 0253340357

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Edited by John A. Lent

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis

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ISBN: 0-253-34035-7

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published in 2001 and distributed throughout the world, except in North America, by John Libbey Publishing, Box 276, Eastleigh SO50 5YS, England First

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© 2001

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Street,

Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797

)ohn Libbey Publishing

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No

book may be reproduced or

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V

Contents

Acknowledgements

vii

Notes on the Contributors

ix

Introduction John A. Lent

Part

National Perspectives

1

Cliapter

1

1

Animation in Cliina Diwid Ehrlich with Tiatiyijiti l

lgnette:

Vhgnette:

Te Wei’s

A

Life

7

Work

and

Da, China’s Animated

14

Open Door

to the

West

Daihd Ehrlich Vignette:

17

Zhan Tong, A

Stickler to the

Chinese Style 29

John A. Lent

Chapter 2

New Myths

for the

Millennium: Japanese Animation 33

Antonia Levi Vignette:

Memory

of an Animated Couple: Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita

David Ehrlich

Chapter 3

Anime Fred

Chapter 4

in the

51

United

States

55

Patteti

The Development of the Japanese Animation Audience United Kingdom and France

in the

Helen McCarthy Vignette:

Anime and Manga

John A. Lent

73 in Parts

of Asia and Latin America 85

Contents

vi

Korean Animation: A Short But Robust Jolui A. Lent and Kie-Un Yn

C'hapter 5

Life

89

Shin Dong Hun and Korea’s ‘Miserable’ Animation Beginnings I

\^tiette:

John A. Lent

The

Chapter 6

‘Art’

101

Movement Between Frames

in

Hong^ Kong^ Animation

GiiyiT.y.Hn I

lunette:

The

105 First

US-Mongolian Co-Production:

Geti^his

Khan

David Ehrlich

121

James Wang and His Crazy Climb

Chapter 7

to

Taiwan’s Cuckoo’s Nest

John A. Lent

125

The History of Malaysian Animated Cartoons

Chapter 8

Mnliyadi Mahaniood

131

Notes of a Cartoonist Temporarily Turned Animator Mohd. Nor Khalid (Lat)

153

Vignette:

Animation

Chapter 9

Lilian

Chapter 10

in

Singapore

Soon

155

Animating the Nation: Animation and Development in the Philippines

Rolando B. Tolentino I

lunette:

167

Dwi Koendoro and His Quest

for Viable

Indonesian Animation

John A. Lent

Chapter

1

1

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

181

Thai Animation, Almost John H. Lent

Vietnamese Animation: Harvey DetieroJ

Animation

in the

a

A

One-Man Show •

Australian and

193

Subcontinent 199

New Zealand

Animation 207

Keith Bradbiif)'

Part 2

Topical Issues

Cdiapter 15

Animation I leather

Chapter 16

for

85

Preliminary Look

John A. Lent

Chapter 14

1

Development

in Sotith

Asia

Kenyon

Overseas Animation Production

225 in Asia

John H. Lent

239

Index of Film Titles

247

Index of Names

255

Acknowledgements

Iways

jmledj^e>}ients

own

Strom, Karl Cohen, Robin Allan, Gene Walz,

mated

Norman

being with over the years:

Suzanne Williams, Roger Palmer, Mikhail Gurevich, Michael Frierson, Donald Crat'ton, Luca Raffaelli, David Desser, Jerry Beck, Heather Kenyon, Wendy Jackson Hall and Keith Bradbury.

would like to do something here have wanted to do tor years, and that is my hat to a number of characters (ani-

Finally,

that

I

to tip

Klein,

in their

may-care people

who

right)

I

have had tun

Many ot

the devil-

lived in the ‘patch’ ot

mining town of East Millsboro, Pennsylvania, where I grew up, and Pete Phillips, Reg Donohoe, Eddie Leydig, Jr., Sam Riley and many more. Thanks for the the coal

I

laughs.

John A. Lent

Notes on the Contributors

Keith Bradbury Tlieoiy

at

and Griffith University Queensland

College of Art

lectures in Art

I

listoiy

Brisbane, Australia.

in

co-edited the Spring

I

le

2()0() AtiinhUioii ]oimial

and co-anthored two books on Queensland art and artists.

Harvey Deneroff,

Ph.D., an independent

scholar and freelance writer based in Los

Angeles

is

the founder and past president of

the Society for Animation Studies.

author of The Art

of

Atmstasia

I

le

(New

is

the

York:

Harper Collins, 1997), edited and published The Animation Report, an industry newsletter, is a former editor ot Animation World Magazine and Animation Ma^azin.e, and a regular contributor to The Hollywood Reporter and Animation May^azitie.

David Ehrlich titioner articles

has been

a

teacher and prac-

sented worldwide. Ehrlich

ASIFA and member of the

is

an officer of

advisory board of

Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Society for Animation Studies. the

Ph.D candidate

Univerlong Kong, Department of C'omsity of parative Literature. She is currently a visiting researcher at Sophia University, Institute of I

is

a

toral thesis,

ema:

Fihfis

In

(jhihli.

of

I

ler

Miyazaki and Studio

layao

1996, with Lilian Soon, she co-

fonnded the esta.

1

Singapore Animation Fi-

First

have been published

essays

in

Animation World and Media Wia.

Tianyi Jin has been a longtime scholar of Chinese animation, having written a book and many articles on the topic. Employed by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, she edits the periodical

After three years as a

production

at

New

Film.

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons

liaison.

Heather Kenyon

is

editor in chief ot Animation World May^azine.

A

graduate of the University of Southern

California’s School of Cinema-Television,

of animation tor many years. His and papers have been pnblished/pre-

GigiT.Y.Hu

working on her docUnderstandin'/h//

cartoons have sold hundreds of thousands ol

whicli

lie

tion tor I

le

Comic Art, which he toiinded, Cinema, and chairs a comics group

started in the International Associa-

Media and Coinmnnication

Professor

is

at

Temple

Antonia Levi holds history

University.

Ph.D.

a

Studies.

in

copies. Lat

lis

I

was presented one

highest honours, the

Fred Patten

Japanese

from Stanford University, and cur-

some of the imporhappenings in the US. He co-

1972 and has figured tant aninie

in

founded

Portland, Oregon. She has been

Cartoon/Fantasy Organization

and

iiiam^a

Japan

aninie ever since she first visited

in the early 1970s,

begun

tan of

but has only recently

to incorporate that interest into her

scholarly work.

Her other

research interests

is

the

first

currently secretary.

articles

oured

Award

in 1994.

has been studying anime since

rently teaches at Portland State University in a

ot Malaysia’s

of ‘Dato’

title

ol

anime

He

tan

club,

the

1977, and

in

has written

many

on anime since 1980 and was hon-

in

1980 with the Comic-Con’s Inkpot

for serx'ices to

fandom.

He

has been

include the history of the occupation era,

director of marketing at Streamline Pictures

women’s

since 1991.

histoiy and comparative history.

Helen McCarthy

has been interested in

Japanese aniination since 1981. She had no previous academic or professional connection with the animation world; her authorial

was born out of sheer frustration that no one else was writing the books she needed. She has written four books on Japa-

career

nese animation, as well as

numerous

articles,

and was foundingeditor oi Aniifie UK, later H//////C FX, and editor ot'Man^a Mania. She has also worked ‘behind the screen’ on dubbing animation as an assistant voice director, producer and actor. pamphlets and

essays,

Muliyadi Mahaniood art hist(.)i*v as

is

senior lecturer of

well as coordinator of the Lib-

Soon

Graphic Design (Animation) from De Montfort University in Leicester, England. She was a Lecturer and Subject Leader at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore for six years, where she developed the animation course. She programmed and co-ordinated two animation festivals in Singapore and is now workLilian

ing in the

obtained her degree

in

UK.

Roland B. Tolentino teaches at the Department of Film and Audiovisual Communication, University

of the Philippines. Holder

of a Ph.D. from Universitv of SoutherifCalij

fornia,

he

is a

member of the Manunuri ng

Peliknlang Filipino (Filipino Film Chitics

Department, in the Faculty of Art and Design at MARA Institute of Technology in Malaysia. le received his Ph.D in Ckirtoon Studies from the University of Kent, Ckmterbury, UK in 1997, with a thesis entitled Malay lulitorial Cartoons: The Denelopnient of Style atul Critical I Inmonr. In 1990 he was the lounding president of PEKARTUN, the Malaysian Ckirtoonists’ Association, of

Asian Studies

Temple University

for the

which he

study of toreign cartoon copyrights

in East

eral Studies

Group) and the fAUigress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy

1

is

currently vice-president.

publishes articles and books about

art

I

le

and

cartoons.

Mohd. Nor Khalid

(C:ONTEND). Kie-Un Yu

finished his Ph.D.

one of Asia’s best known cartoonists, his works having appeared in editorial cartoon, magazine gag. is

Temple

where he wrote his dissertation on Korean animation. le was awarded a reUniversity’

I

search travel grant by the Center for East (.if

Asian cultural markets in taught Korean language

(Lat)

at

May

at

1995.

He

has

Temple Univer-

book on Korean animation, coauthored with John A. Lent, will be published by lampton Press in 2001. sity.

I

lis

I

1

Introduction John A. Lent

animation' and occasional chapters

he problem with scholarship on Asian

animation

(although

more

is

tlie

same

problem facing animation more generally - it simply is in short supply. Wliat’s more, the literatnre on Asian animation that does exist, for the most part, was generated only in the past decade and has dealt primarily with Japanese

treatment of

book

aiiiuie in

(7//////C.

(See Pat-

for an exhanstive

the United Sates, in-

cluding references to books and periodicals

on the

books

on more general topics, such as those ot l^eocampo. Lent, and Sussman and Lent.-

aggravated) as the

V

ten’s chapter in this

in

topic.)

During the second halt ot the 1990s, it was refreshing to read some articles on animation elsewhere in Asia besides Japan, in the Ko-

To understand why the academic, publishing and governmental worlds short-changed animation tor so many years, one must remember that cartoons in

were not

Asian countries

to be taken seriously, as they

identified with

usual

many

comedy and

were

children; that the

scholarly domiciles of animation

-

mass communications and film studies were late in developing in most ot Asia; that short fillers like animation were always marginalised in the many feature film-rich countries of Asia; and that for too long, governments did not see the value of animation.

rean/English periodical Aninhitoon; in Asf? Pacific Broadcasting,

Animation World Magazine

and New Film (China), as well as in popular magazines such as Variety, Far Eastern Economic Review, and (online). Animation Magazine,

Admittedly there was not much and for that reason, whatever did appear was valued as a rare find. Other materials on

.Asiaweek.

Asian animation consisted ot

a

skimpy bunch

of books and doctoral and undergraduate theses in Asian languages analysing Malaysian, Japanese,

Korean, Filipino and Cdiinese

Animation

some

in

.Aia and the Pacife aims to shed

on film and television cartoons in the region, by providing historical and contemporaiy perspectives on animation in 15 countries, by highlighting the lives and calight

of eight pioneering animators, and by analysing cross-national topics such as anime abroad (in United States, England, France, reers

the rest of Asia and Latin America), develop-

mental animation and animation made

in

1

folui .4.

and Australia for North American, European and Japanese clients.

Asia

As with any book of this magnittide, written bv a ntnnber of contributors from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, and covering many cotmtries of wide dissimilarities in political, socio-ctiltural and economic dimensions, there is botind to be unevenness. Such is

the case w'ith Afiiination

.Asia

in

and

the

and for which no apology is brooked. Chapters vary in length and differ in emphases because of the relative sizes and stages of develc:>pment of animation industries - from

Pacific,

the

mammoth,

global reaching aninie busi-

ness ot Japan, deserving of four chapters, to

written) exclusively for this

on the

Lent

book and repre-

of contributing atithors. Some of the vignettes written by me appeared first in Animation World Magazine and Animation fonrnal, but they too were revised and updated. The authors hail from sent original efforts

many

part

locales anci disciplines. Eight are Asian

nationals while the rest are

one

American (and

British) scholars, practitioners, or fans

Asia animation. Included

contributors arc

at least

among

two

the

list

of of

cartoonists/ani-

mators, five editors of film and animation

two organisers of an Asian animation festival and a number of university and college professors/researchers. periodicals,

the few and scattered instances of animation in

Thailand, meriting one brief chapter -and

material.

Commonalities of Asian animation

Some

Although

because of the degree of availability of source

contributors concentrate heavilv on

hundreds

worked independently of one another and were given free rein by the editor as to what they covered,

feeds

nevertheless they often dealt with issues and

animation for overseas prodtiction, reflecting the harsh reality that Asia,

home

of overseas animation service

to

studie:)s,

instances, chap-

the cartoon world. In

e:>ther

ters are built are)tmd

key people, either be-

authors

chapter

problems

common

cause they are the backbone of their cotmtry’s

Pervading

manv

animation or because they are the only ani-

dominance of offshore animation - Asian

mators about tained.

The

approach

whom

information was ob-

contributors used

to their subjects, not

a

bare bones

attempting to

push theory into animation but, instead, ing the

groundwork

for

lay-

further study by

identifying historical time marks, presenting

and analysing present conditions and prospects ot animation, and pinpointing important persons in the development of animation in Asia. Authors of these chapters took different routes to find out about Asian animation. Some of them treated animation as an art form, scrutinising content and styles, as Levi did with japan, while others spent more time on animation as an indtistry, exemplified by Lent and Yu’s coverage of South Korea. Still other

contributors

around

a crucial

All chapters

fashioned

chapters

person, as indicated earlier.

were written

(in

one

case, re-

to the region as a

cotmtrv^

analyses

whole. is

the

cotmtries providing the prodtiction labour tor foreign clients. In a

number of countries,

animation studios were started and continue

cheap labour pools for I lollywood; any domestic animation they made came later. By the 1990s, third and fourth levels of subcontracting animation existed throughout the continent. As an example, to serve as

I

lanna Barbera started subcontracting

to

Taiwan’s

Wang

Wang

Productions

work

in the 1970s;

tonnd cheaper pockets of labour in Cdiina, Indonesia and Thailand where it set up studios. A studio in the Philippines established by lanna Barbera and tied m Wang, by the end of the 1990s had branched out to India and Vietnam. Some of the affiliations among these overseas producers defied political and diplomatic considerations a South Korean animation studio stibcontracting work to North Korea, a Taiwanese studio (Wang) maintaining facilities in China later

I

Introduction

3

and vice versa (Cdiina's long Ying Animation and Shanghai Mt)rningSiin affiliated with Taiwanese studios). I

On

own

their

watch

television

screens,

Asians

disproportionate ratio of foreign ani-

a

mation, especially that of the United States and japan. A mid-1990s study showed that in japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India,

and

Indonesia

number

Lanka,

Sri

combined

the

ol htnirs yearly given to foreign ani-

mation was 82, 63, compared to only ,313 lor local shows. ^ This foreign animation in1

many

creased

appeared

in

1

fold

when

satellite

1

channels

the 1990s. For example, India’s

Doordarshan Television, used 150 minutes weekly of foreign to 60 minutes of local. The ratio was expected to become even more lopsided in japan and the Philippines after 1998, when Nickelodeon launched channels in those countries. national

The

perceived impact of foreign animation

has been is

system,

a

controversial subject

discussed by

some

at

times, and

volume. centm-y, Koreans tried

autheu's in the

For more than half a to keep out Japanese cultural products, including cminic and and Taiwanese, Philippine and Thai officials at various times voiced complaints about sex and violence in iwinie, going so far as to ban certain types of programmes. Other foreign animation, particularly Disney works (most recently. The Prince of E^ypt and Aladdin) met with opposition in religion-sensitive Southeast Asia.

The

on domestic animation that foreign films and programmes perpetuate is also a

drain

cause of alarm.

Domestic animation is a recent phenomenon in most of Asia, barring China, India and japan. Thus, as Mtiliyadi’s chapter reveals, almost

all

lease dates

land’s

Malaysian productions have re-

of the

late

1990s; similarly, Thai-

only feature-length animation film

was made in 1979, South Korea’s first was in 1967, and so forth. Cximmon to some of these chapters and vignettes are the reminiscences of pioneer animators about the make-

shift

conditions under which they

toilet! in

the 1960s and 1970s.

A boon

domestic animation has been the increasing use of co-production arrangements, usually brought on by the economic to

downswing

that seriously affected Asia after

Such joint operations often involve teams of Asian, North American, Australian or European partners. Kanipnnp Boy, about which its creator Lat talks in this book, is a 1997.

Malaysian production tieing together indige-

nous Matinee Entertainment with studios of C’anada, Philippines and the US; The Princess Mononohe is a japan-US co-production; U/exander results from a collaboration of Japan's MADI K")USE Studios and Korea’s Samsung Entertainment, and Dntnh Bunnies from tie-ins between Australia’s Yorain (iross Village Roadshowand studios in Ckmada, C’hina and Germany. C3)-production arrangements add to the attractiveness of Asian animation, helping it to achieve its goal of entering global markets.

With and without co-production, Japanese anifne has

been

vei*y successful in

finding

a

worldwide entertainment market. Supported by fan clubs in the US (as many as 125), Canada, England, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Norway, France, Spain and elsewhere, as well as its own conventions and fanzines both inside and outside Japan, aniine niche

in

the

as a cultural

export

is

almost

as

popular

sushi or karaoke.

A

links

with pornography

all

this aninie

supported by

as

prevailing notion that

US, 30

is

not

40 per cent of the overall aninie business consists of pornography. facts; in

the

to

Despite setbacks due to economic problems

experienced by a

much of Asia,

animation has bright future. Work-for-hire continues al-

though the production venues shift regularly, as do the means of production. Most moderate-sized Asian studios Ink and Paint and some,

3D

(.dfer

Digital

capabilities, de-

major capital investments required. Domestic animation, besides that done for advertising, was virtually iinkiunvn in much spite the

4

Johti A. Lent

ot Asia until recently; with prospects

producing, global marketing, sion

menu

to

and

fill,

a

of co-

a larger televi-

financial

supported by contracts with overseas local

clients,

animation never looked better.

base

Notes 1.

Among the books

arc:

Whang Sun

Kil,

Ki-joon, The Shills of Cartoon Movies

Animation Movie

II (Seoul:

Woo

Histor)> (Seoul:

Ram,

Baeksoosa, 1990) and Park

1988), both in Korean. Included

theses are about a dozen written at Institut Tcknoloji Mara, including that

Muliyadi, one of the authors of this book; four

and 2.

a

few others

in

Nick Deocampo,

BA

theses

at

done

in

among

1984 by

the University of the Philippines,

Korea.

Short Film: Emergence of a

New

Philippine

Cinema (Manila: Communication

Foundation of Asia 1985); John A. Lent, ed., Themes and Issues in .isian Cartooning: Cute, Cheap, Mad and Sexy (Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press, 1999), and Gerald Sussman and John A. Lent, eds.. Global Productions: Labor in the Making of the ‘Information Society’ (Creskill, Nf: Llampton Press, 1998). 3.

AnuraGoonasekera, ‘Children’s Voice in the Media: A Study ofChildrcn’s Television Programmes in Asia’, A/a//(7 Asu7, 25:3, 1998,

4.

Ibid, 125.

123-129.

1

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

I

I

1

J

7

CHAPTER

1

Animation

China

in

David Ehrlich with Tianyi

fin

Early history he

first

of the Inkwell’ series in

C'hincsc animation was cre-

ated by four brothers,

(1899-1997), 1995),

1992) and

Wan

Laiining

Wan

Giichan (bS99l Cdiaochen (1906-

Wan

Wan Oilman

(1907).

The Wans

had been set designers for live-action films, and were all painters and afficionados of Chinese shadow puppet theatre. In 1923, the Chinese people were treated to three American cartoons shown in a small Shanghai theatre. The Wan brothers were in this exaudience and they immediately set about teaching themselves by trial and error cited

how to make their own made

a

films.

They

few animated advertisements

for a

animated

Chinese typewriter and, in 1926, they joined the Ch'cat Wall Film Company, which had been established in 1921 by Cdhnesc artists who had studied filmmaking in the United States. Finally, in 1926, working at Cireat Wall, the

Wan

making their roar

of

a

ill

brothers spent three months

first

animated cartoon film. Up-

an Art Studio.^

The

painted figure on an

comes

film

tells

artist’s

clown jumps out ot a real lile inkwell and runs around on the drawing board.

The Wans continued their art form,

the cievelopment of

working

for several

newly

formed studios in Shanghai. By 1932, they had made five more animated shorts including The Price of Blood, a patriotic film inspired by the 932 Japanese attack on Shanghai. The youngest brother. Wan Dihuan, left the group to develop his own photography, and the three remaining brothers joined the Mingxing Production Company in Shanghai in 1935 where they were encouraged to set up an animation department. They created a number ot animated shorts with repeating recognisable characters, sometimes integrating the animation with live action shots. With the company behind them, they were able to produce the first Chinese sound animation in 1935, called The Cainel's Dance, in which a clumsy camel entertains a party ofanimals by singing and dancing. 1

the stoiy

canvas that

to life after the painter has left, runs

off the canvas and plays with the paints and

brushes.

which Koko the

The concept and technique were

quite similar to those ol the Fleischer’s ‘Out

In 1936, the brothers set forth their ge^als in

an

article,

‘Talking About Ckirtoons’, pub-

lished by the production

They

company

jcnirnal.

praised American animation lor

tertainment value and

its

efficient

its

en-

means

ol

David Ehrlich with

8

Tiafiyi Jin

throughout Asia. Jin Tianyi reports that the famous Japanese cartoonist, Tezuka Osamu, who was only 16 then, began his animation career after seeing this film, saying, ‘This film

showed

such

clearly

a

theme of resistance

ot

the entire Chinese nation against the Japa-

nese invaders’ brutal devastation of China’.-

The Japanese

entered the foreign conces-

sions late in 1941, and soon, because ot financial

problems, the brothers went on to

Kong where

they put their

Hong

artistic talents to

use in realms other than animation. There

then til

a

is

disjuncture in Chinese animation un-

1947,

when

Communist Party in ManChen Bo’er (1907) to make

the

churia enabled

the 30-minute animated puppet film. The

Dream (1947), and Fang Ming (1919) to make the drawing animation film. Turtle Caught in The Jar (1948). Fang Ming was the Chinese name of the Japanese animator, Tadahito Mochinaga, who returned EniperoPs

1.

Wan

92

years

Fig.

Laitning

at

old in 1992.

[Photo:

David

Ehrlich.]

production,

German animation

and Soviet animation for

qualities,

tional goals.

The

the

at

them but

they were entertaining

need to develop an animation uniquely Chinese.

hai,

its

educa-

same time

stressed the

style that

was

1937 the Japanese invaded Shangthe brothers escaped to Wuhan but, un-

Wan

work

there.

Cuichan returned

Wan

to

Laiming Shanghai in

1939, Just in time to see Disney’s first feature animation. Snow White. There in Shanghai,

with

new team of animators

a

they had

trained, in an atelier located in the

concession, they began

work on

nese animated feature,

the

French

first

C'hi-

black and white.

in

Princess with the Iron Fan.

Made under

very

and technical conditions, the film was completed and released in 1941 to great acclaim throughout China and the (diinese community in Asia. Based on a popular Chinese novel, Journey to the West, in which the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is difficult political

victorious over the Buffalo King, the film

struck

Japan in 1953, but who is still respected today in Shanghai as one of the tathers of animation in China. These were the lirst two films inspired by Communist ideology and to

Chiang Kaishek and his Kuomintang troops, a theme that was to play an ever-increasing role in Chinese animation both

ridiculed

in the

1960s and early 1970s.

in

able to continue

and

its artistic

brothers affirmed the value

of educating the audience

When

for

a

note of patriotism

among Chinese

The

birth of animation in the

People’s Republic of China In 1949, the

Zedong

Communist

troops under

defeated and drove from

Mao

C’hina,

Chiang Kaishek’s Kuomintang troops. The Ministry of Culture, under a directive from Zhou Enlai, asked the caricaturist, Te Wei (born

1915)

and

the

painter

Jin

Shi

who

had both shown an early interest in animation, to go to the Northeast of China and begin an animation group of .20 (1919-1997),

members at the Changchun Film Studio. As Te Wei relates, they ‘really had no idea of what animation was about, and there were only a few young people there who had had a little training’.'^ But as a caricaturist, Te Wei was able to adapt to the medium and, gather-

(Simpler

I

Animation

in C'liina

9

J9

^

-m'

'yr-.y

/•A’. 2.

Tlic

C'onccitcd

General ( I96H), China, Tc II Vi. /

(Anirtcsy Sluw'^luu

Animaiion Film Stiuiio.j

inga few

team done

in

artists

around

tlicin,

Tc Wei

led the

studying the animation that had been

in the Soviet

Union, the nation nu)st

friendly to China's political revolution.

team was transferred to Shanghai, the birthplace of animatie:)n, where better equipment for the animators was available, and the older pioneers were joined by younger artists and writers who had just graduated from the Central Academy ot Art, Snzhon Art School, and the Beijing Film In 1950, the

Academy. As the began to

Wan Chaochen

Two films that best illustrate

these goals were in tact directed by the

pioneers themselves, Jin Shi and

returned

bvnsli

(1955), clearly

Wan

Cinchan returned trom I long K(.)ng to join the Shanghai group. In 1957, the animation group became the Shanghai Ani-

mation Film Studio, officially set up as an independent entity under the directorship ot Te Wei and centrally controlled and tmanced by the Ministry ot Chiltnre. At

spirit’.

animated puppet film. The

Shanghai from the United States to which he had emigrated in 1946 to study American animation techniques. In 1954, Wan Laiming

and

national

Shi’s

to

that time, the

It

had been given the mandate to create animated films tor children that were educational at the same time that thev were entertaining. But in addition, just as the Wan brothers had written in 1936 and as Te Wei now admonished, \ve should not only absorb the essence of Soviet animation, but should explore films that would reOect onr

China

political situation in

stabilise.

more than 200 workers.

studio employed

shews

tb.e

Te Wei. Jin Paiut-

peasants’ vicit is

done

thore’mghly entertaining,

filled

teuT over the greedy landlord, but in a

way

with

that

is

stop-motion

tricks

seemed quite magical audiences.

two

And

to

must have the film’s young that

the backgixninds, puppets’

clothing and the charming interactions be-

tween the people

much

a

in

the village, w'ere very

part ot the everyday living experience

ot the average C4nne.se.

The

tilm raised at-

tention internationallv as well,

at

the Inter-

10

Diii'id Hlniicli with l iiuiyi Jin

Animated Film Days at Cannes, France in 1956 and at the Children’s Film Festivals in Venice and Yugoslavia.

national

Te Wei’s 1956

cel

animation, The Conceited

General (see Fig. 2), was unique in

its

use of

and some suggestion of the stylised movements of Beijing Opera. Its moral can best be indicated by its title. Humility and concern for the people must be shown by all, no matter how high a position

vivid, saturated colour

is

reached.

truly Chinese.

Animation Film Studio in 1987 states that the period from 1957 to 1966 was the heyday of Chinese animation films. With the policy of ‘Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend’ the artistry of Chinese animation films was brought into full play, displaying even more mature and perfect national style. The late premier hai

Zhou Enlai

addition to the tremendous credibility

given the Shanghai animators their

new

in

Chinese film industry’.^

official status as the state ‘Studio’,

new artists, equipment, and

The golden age of Shanghai animation (1957-1966) During this period a number of films were produced at a high enough level to reach international film festivals. his artists

worked

Wan Guchan and

for a year to develop a

new

animation technique based upon the folk

art

of paper-cuts. This first cut-paper animation, Pici^y (Zhn Baijie) Eats the IVatennelon (1958), won a number of awards in China and around the world. His animator at the time

was young

I

who went on

In Jinqing (1936)

to surpass his

master

in the

cut-paper tech-

nique 25 years later. Wan Guchan followed this film with The Little Tishennan (1959) and The Spirit of CTnsefpi (1961). The last is a

of a child who defeats a landlord with the help of the ginseng plant’s spirit. In Xiongluia (1931-1983) made IWiit for Tomorrow (1962) and More or Less (1964),

charming

stor\'

I

two more cut-paper (

1928-1998) made The

shorts.

I

le

Yiimen

Adnetitiires of the Little

Carp (1958), a magnificently coloured cel animation film. The Peacock Princess, made by Jin Shi in 1963,

was the

first

feature-length

puppet film made in China, marking the maturity of that medium.

full

1957 by

there was an influx of additional state support,

style in the

the Shanghai Animation

Film Studio was contemporaneous with and one of the effects of the ‘Hundred Flowers Campaign’ begun by Mao Zedong in 1956. The decision to launch the movement was in part an attempt by Communist Party leaders to understand and acknowledge the importance of Klirnschev’s attacks on Stalin’s memory made in January and February 1956.^ Many felt things were finally going well in China after the destruction caused by the revolution and the belt-tightening that had followed. Flowered blouses appeared in Shanghai and Beijing, and Zhou Enlai spoke of the importance of peaceful coexistence with the west. After eight years of self-imposed isolation following liberation, Mao Zedong was urging party members to learn more about the west, study foreign languages and, in a speech he gave on 2 May 1956 to a closed session of party leaders, to ‘let a hundred flowers bloom in the field of culture’. Finally in April 1957, Mao was able to swing the full weight of the press in favour of the hundred flowers campaign, and there was an outpouring of artistic energy on all fronts including, of course, animation. In

pointed out, ‘Animation films are

rather outstanding with their special and

unique

The founding of

A report written by the Shang-

the encour-

agement for them to abandon the Soviet model of animation, to study animation being done throughout the west and to develop their own animation models that were more

Special

mention must be made of Te Wei’s

I960 film, President

llliere

Chen

is

Yi,

Mania. In I960, Vicevisiting an

exhibition

dedicated to film animation, indicated his

work of the well-known contemporary painter Qi Baishi could one day

desire that the

be animated.^ Collaborating with Qian }ajun

(^lidfUcr

I

[]

Animation

in C'liina

Tc Wei went beyond

(1916),

11

the adaptation

of content, of stories, ideas, costnines

gestures spirit.

reflecting

With

this film, the

Cdhnese

traditional

the

Cdiinese

and

national

animators took the

f(.)rm of

brush-painting,

mastered by Qi Baishi, and develmeans of animating the brush strokes

specifically

oped so

a

they could

that

school

swimming

tadpoles

of

represent

flawlessly

a

gracefully

through the water in search of their ‘mama’, meeting other pond creatures along the way mistaken

in a series of

The

identities.

awards at festivals in Annecy, Cannes and Locarno, making the animation world take notice of the work being done at the Shanghai Animation Studio. The paint brush in this film captured perfectly the

movement and en-

sense of the pure joy of

tactile

of monochromatic brush Boy remains to this day one of

qualities

strokes. Buffalo

the masterpieces of C'hinese animation.

Also

in

I960,

work

Yu Zhenguang(190r>-1991)

set

developing the traditional Cdiinese folk craft technique of folded paper (a to

in

forerunner of Japanese origami technique), so that it could be adapted to animation. Yu’s folded-paper animation,

produced

in

A

(Aever Ducklifiyi,

I960, heralded the birth of yet

another genre of animation that was truly

won

film

range of spatial perception and the subtle

indigenous to C'hina and the (Oiinese

Wang Shuchen Dream

in

(1931-1991) made

seemed campaign soon

film depicts five kings

Go/Jc//

to presage the

1963, that

anti-lOghtist

.3

spirit.

to follow.

who torment

The their

subjects with the help of such old ‘rightist’

couraged Te Wei and Qian Jajun to produce their second brush-painting animation in

villains as a general, a tax-collector and,

1963, Buffalo Boy ami the Flute.

the ‘hundred flowers’ generation, an intellec-

Traditional brush-painting aims to express the spirit of both the artist and

what

is

being

depicted, by the modulation of speed and

pressure with which the fingers

move

the

brush. Although the viewer of the finished painting the

is

hand

not witness to the

that painted the picture,

ble to experience that cally

that

movement

by looking carefully it

movement of

has

left.

in traditional

of

Within

it

kinestheti-

that

abound

landscape painting and focus-

upon

man and

landscape

the delicate relation-

nature

Tc Wei and Qian Jajun genre

possi-

the strokes of ink

at

Using the images

ing their narrative ship betw^ecn

it is

in Buffalo

Boy,

of

young boy. The

film

a

tual.

Wan

Laiming had been far from idle during this period. Lie had been working on his second cel animation feature, Haiw in Heaven, surely the most ambitious and ultimately the most well-loved work produced at the Shanghai Studio during this Golden Age of animation. The first part was completed in 1961 and the second part in 1964. chapters Based again upon Journey to the three, four and five, the film tells the very popular stoi*y of Monkey’s (Sun Wukong) defeat of Heaven.^ Although derived from

painting-in-process.

enced by Beijing Opera’s militai'y style of performance. There are very ‘animated’ battle scenes between Monkey and an assortment of heavenly hosts of the Jade Emperor. As a young conquering potent male who creates ‘havoc’ with the aged male ‘old boy’ networks in Heaven, Monkey proved to be

water buffalo with

a

of the countryside south of the Yangtze River. Indeed, the meditative pacing of this film is similar to that of the movement his paintings

of a landscape scroll that one slowly unravels. And as the massive inked body of the water buffalo dissolves into emptiness, we suddenly perceive that white expanse to

forthcoming persecution of

the written novel, the film

was an homage to Li Reran, the contemporary painter famous for

and our eyes begin

to signal the

created a wonderful

they integrated the story of a sensi-

tive relationship

was

what

open

as the river,

to an entirely

new

is

heavily influ-

the paradigm of the heroic rebel for

Mao

Tsetung. Monkey’s gymnastics remind one of the routines of touring Cdiinese acrobats,

rhythms of the percussion section accentuate the stylised movements. Beijing Opera relied on props and the actor’s

while the

lively

David

12

ants.

Mao had

Forum on

Literature

and Art on 2

artists shotild

May

1941,

study society,

should study the various classes society, their mutual relations, and respec-

that in

with llatiyi Jin

insisted in his Talks atthe Yenaii

Writers and

that

Hlirlicli

is

to say,

tive conditions, their

psychology. Only clearly can

we have

when we

grasp

a literature

and

and correct

rich in content

To

physiognomy and all

their this

art that

is

in orientation.’"^

be sure, the hunched over Kuomintang

troops, with gnarled and crooked faces, trip-

ping over each other

in

cowardice and inep-

were in sharp contrast to the healthy full laces of the peasants and communist troops who marched upright and proudly titude,

together.

I^ed

Fiii. J.

Bridge

( /

Army

964) by

QiiUi Yiiinhi.

The

humhed

oi’cr

with ypuvied and faces,

trippiin^ over each

other in cowardice

and

ineptitude,

were

in

full faces of

the peasants

and

conininnist troops

who marched npriyiht

and proudly to\iether.

Photo: Shanyihai f

Aniniation

of

a

sense of the

Laiining utilised the po-

animation to yield rich and

cel

colourful backgrounds in

full

perspective, in

opening up the opera stage into limitless horizons. This was indeed a remarkable film that, once it was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in 1965, won wide acclaim.

effect

sharp

contrast to the

healthy

Wan

environment. tential

KuoiiiiiihW{f troops

avohed

sense of pliysical space to give

Qian Yunda (1929) made Red Army Brid^JC (see Fig. 3), a cut-paper film that was extraordinary in its movement, background and control of so many magnificently stylised characters on the screen at the same time. Qian Yunda had previously studied puppet In 1964,

I'ilni

Studio.

aniniation (1954-1959) with the great C'zech I

animator Jiri Trnka, and this work definitely showcases his ability to tell a powerful story with impeccable and imaginative tecliiiique.

Shown

at

Annecy Aniniation

the

1965, the film

tells

Festival in

the story of the agrarian

revolution that had broken out earlier in nan.

A bridge

is

lu-

destroyed by landowners but

rebuilt by the peasants with the help ot soldiers,

I

finally

becoming

a

trap

Mao’s

for

the

Kiiomintang troops. The most interesting aspect of the film is the great difference in physiognomy, psychology and movement of the Kiunnintang troops from that of the peas-

The

anti-Rightist

tive

Cultural Revolution, the anti-Rightist

campaign began in 1964. It was a clear reaction against, amongst other things, what the Party had considered the uncontrolled excesses that followed the hundred dowers campaign. Two years earlier and quite distinct from the much more destruccampaign nevertheless signalled the end to the mild liberalisation that had begtm in 1957. Te Wei’s Buffalo Boy and the Flute was by the party leaders because it did not ‘redect the class struggle and would numb the consciousness of the public’, and

criticised

in fact

was shelved and not shown

at all for

the next 14 years.'** Havoc

(see Fig. 4)

in

China

Heaven was similarly shelved, perhaps in

now saw Monkey as retheir own kind of authority.

because the leaders belling against

Red Army

Brid\se

judged

appropriate for the class conscious-

was indeed meant to adhere closely to Mao’s dogma and was at first shown quite extensively in China. But as the anti-Rightist campaign flowed into the Cultural Revolution in 1965, even Red Army Brid{^e was eventually withdrawn from circulation because, although the content was as

form used, stylised and unrealistic as it was, was deemed reactionary. Only two animated films were shown throiighotit the years of the Cultural Revolution. The Cock Crows at Midniyjht (1964) by Yiou Lei was a puppet film attacking large ness, the particular

(^Ihiptcr

I

Animation

The

in

C'lnna

13

was based on tlie autobiography of Kao Yupao, a fighter in the Chinese Liberation Army. Two Heroic Sisters of the Grasslafids, also completed in 1964, by Qian Yiinda and Tang Cheng, is the story of two little girls and their dock of sheep that

ditches, feeding pigs

got lost in the northern steppes during

and to make propaganda films. The leaders of the Cultural Revolution were known as the Gang of Four led by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. And it was not until the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976 that China and the Shanghai

landowners.

winter storm.

stoi*y

The

girls

manage

a

to save the

day through their bravery."

The Cultural Revolution In effect, the studio

was

all

but closed

down

and carrying great loads of grain, while their nights were filled with the writing ot selt-criticisms ot their reactionary, anti-revolutionary tendencies.

by one, the animators began to the studio in 1973,

One

be sent back

to

but only to study more

animators could begin to return to some

seems the Shanghai

by the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution from 1965 until 972. Animators like the Wan brothers and Te Wei, who had been previously praised by the leaders tor developing an art form perfectly suited to the Chi-

sense of normalcy. At this point,

nese people, were sent to peasant villages to

Yan Dingxian

and revolutionary consciousness from the uneducated peasants. They were made to spend their days digging

head of the Shanghai Studio from 1985-1989 and his wife, Lin Wenxiao (1935), one ot the

most appropriate

to let a

tew

ot

it

1

learn humility

animators speak themselves of period

fine

this paintul

in their history.

women

(1936), animation director and

directors at the studio,

worked

Fig. 4.

Uproar

(Havoc)

in

Heaven (1961), China, IVan Laiming. [Courtesy Shanghai Animation Film Studio.]

Fig. 5.

Qian

Yunda

in

1980.

[Photo: Shanghai

Animation Film Studio.]

David

14

together

at

when

the studio until 1965,

the

Cuiltural Revolution began.

Yan Dingxian

1992

related this story in a

For eight years, from 1965 couldn’t do animation.

to 1973,

We were

we

labour-

ing, separately, often in different parts

My

of

was feeding the chickens and Lin’s was planting vegetables. We were afraid of being criticised. We worked for one year, separately far from Shanghai and then came back to work, separately again, in the the countryside.

specialty

When we

countryside outside Shanghai.

were

first

only

six

sent out, onr younger son was

months old, onr older one was For two years, others were taking

eight.

care of onr children.

After

could

come

Shanghai from the countryside

to

every

We

month for a day or so to see them. the Gang of Four fell, we both

came back

to the studio in

continued the same film

we were

1975.

We

we had begun

was made director of the film and Lin was key animator. We so very much wanted to work again, it was not difficult to take up before

sent away.

1

left

We were angry but

off

we

couldn’t talk about

for

everyone

ways

inter\'iew:

back

where we had

was normal time. We were al-

at that

when we

afraid

l ianyi Jiu

Hluiicli with

It

it.

returned to the

studio in the early 1970s, and were very careful.

had

When

to listen to

returned as director,

I

everyone or be

We began to relax only in directed her

criticised.

when

980,

and

film

first

1

I

I

Lin

directed

Nchza Conquers the Drayion Kitiyi with Wang Shnehen and Te Wei. The situation had somehow changed and we could

all feel it.'-

Lin Wenxiao added.

We

could even begin to dance again

at

onr studio! I had worked on key animation until 1977. Then got to that time. In

I

co-direct in

an Art

my first film Caller)’.

in 1978,

OneNiqht

This was an animated

parody about the Ciang of Four.

we began

When

we were not afraid. Gang of Four were in

this film,

We

thought the prison and we didn’t believe they could rise again.

After

all

that

had happened

ns during the Cultural Revolution,

to

we

were not afraid. Nothing could have been worse than that!'-^

Vignette:

Te Wei’s

Life

and

Work

Te Wei’s and work was given by Te Wei

he following account of life

of interviews in 1988 and 1992 at the Shanghai International Animation Festivals.*^ I lis story of life during the Cultural Revolution is especially in a series

poignant.

Mama, marked

the turning point in the

production of animation. form, which had

It

showed

that

been imported, had been completely absorbed into onr Chinese culture. In 1962, I began to work on another brnsh-painting film called Bnjfalo Boy and the Flute. It was completed in this art

initially

1963, right before the Cultural Revolution,

develop

but was criticised by the leaders during the

Chinese brush-painting as an animation technique. The first of these films, Where Is

.1964 anti-Rightist Campaign and was not

In the 1960s,

we were beginning

to

shown

at all in

China. They said that

my

(Chapter

Animation

I

in

C'lnna

15

film did not rcHcct the class struggle and

would numb

the consciousness of the pub-

lic.'-'’

They demanded

write sclt-criticism, not

I

my own

only pertaining to films they thought I

was, after

that time.

were not

really didn’t

they were after and why. criticism

telt

I

I

with

stomach

a

at

understand what I

wrote the

self-

They asked me

again and again, and

it

because

could Justifiably write, but

they were not satisfied. write

right,

the

all

the director of the Studio

all, I

film, but

disease. In

to

grew sick, the end they this happened I

!{(>. 6.

wrote it instead of me. All even before the Cultural Revolution. When they were finished with their criticism of me, they sent me to work in a factoiy. I was out of the Studio until 1966, when I was called back due to the Cultural Revolution. When I came back, I was ‘welcomed’ by a multitude of banners spread over the walls of the Studio, all of which were criticising me. My crimes were named, ‘The person who walked on the Capitalist Road’ and ‘Rcactionarv intellectual’.

Mao

had said that

redcct

literature

and the

life

wonder

and

art

class struggle so

must I

did

had not been committing a wrong. At that time, Mao’s words were the standard of all the literature begin to

and the

arts.

the Studio,

I

if in fact

Because

I

I

Number One in Number One per-

was

became the

son for criticism. They isolated me. I was shut up in a small room and had to sleep on the floor, doing nothing other than reading

Mao’s works.

tried to

I

draw, but

my guard

me

through the keyhole and examined all my actions. I had a table with a pane of glass on it. So I used the pen often looked in

they gave

me

at

for writing self-criticism to

on the glass. As soon as heard the guard or anyone coming down the hall, I stopped drawing immedidrawing

practice

Annecy Animation Festival in 1995,

holding the

portraits

I

and erased it with a cloth, quickly putting Mao’s book over the glass. ately

Wlhle outside there was fighting between the two political groups, inside the little

ASIFA

Prize he jvas

awarded for life's

his

worh. Fie

is

accompanied by Georges Schwiz^ebel, Swiss

animator and

friend.

(Photo: David Ehrlich, j

room

/

Tc Wei, HO

years old at the

actually felt very peaceful.

I

Tai-Chi,

but

when

they

1

saw

practiced

that,

they

wouldn’t allow even that because they said I was not permitted to speak and act freely. I sang, but was not allowed to sing loudly. I just tried to recall the old songs and sang

them

softly.

Once

they

no

made me

stay

awake

and they kept forcing me to ‘tell the truth’. I could tell them nothing different from what I had already told them, so they demanded I kneel down. for three days with

When

refused to do so, they hit

I

knees.

sleep,

fell

I

down,

my

teeth

me

in the

struck the

ground and fell out and my mouth bled. Another time, they put a chair on my neck and head and leaned on it until I lost my breath. One person laughed and sat on the

More people came in to watch and they said that this old man was fierce. Then they left, laughing among chair.

I

fought to stand up.

themselves.

drawing

become

I

could not even think of ever

a film. a

I

only wished that

I

could

bird to be able to fly freely out.

16

David Hhrlich with l

iauyi Jiii

(Jhiptcr

One ally

Animation

I

ot the

first

in C'liina

17

films to appear internation-

towards the end of

this period

was

77/e

Fonr

was dancing again in the Shanghai Animation Studio and a tre1976, there

fell in

completed in 1973 by Wang Shnehen and Yan Dingxian and shown at the 1974 Zagreb World Animation Festival. The stoiy ot a young boy who becomes a bugler in the liberation Red Army, the film seems to continue where the Red Arniy Brid^^c left off

Wenxiao and A Da (1934-1987), was in fact based upon caricatures of the (king of Four that A Da had done secretly in a labour camp.

T1 lis time the ditterences

The

IJftIc

in

physiognomy

mendous

release of artistic energy that

been repressed for ten long in

One

years.

had

Nii^ht

an Art Oallery, co-directed in 197(S by Lin

film reduced the fonr to ridiculous fig-

who

and psychological behaviour between the lU'd Army soldiers and the Knomintang troops are even more pronounced. And this

driven off by children

time, the very realistic graphic treatment of

to the C'hinese

character and backgrounds reminds one of

were over. And with the exuberance expressed by this film and the reception given

the ubiquitous propaganda posters through-

out China

at

the time.

The

realism

is all

the

more remarkable at a technical level when we find that no rotoscoping was used. In fact. Little Biniler is one of the more interesting examples of the propaganda films produced at the Shanghai Animation Studio from the time many of the animators returned from the labc’iiir farms in 1973 until the fall of the Gang of Fonr in 1976.

The second golden age of

censored and turned upside the most innocent of paintings, only ures

in

the end.

It

down to

be

signaled

audience that the bad times

by audiences thronghoiit Cdiina, Otie Niyilit in dll Art Oallery began the period that Chinese animators sometimes call their Second it

Golden Age. It

seems appropriate here

in a special

to single

personal vignette.

I

le

is

out

A Da

acknow-

ledged as the greatest animator of this period,

and his personal history seiwes as a bridge between the painful years of the Cultural Revolution and the Second Golden Age.

animation As Lin Wenxiao

related,

when

the

Gang of

Vignette:

A Da, China’s Animated Open Door to the West met A Da (Xu Jingda) at Zagreb Animated Film Festival first

1982.

I

had arrived

at

the festival

the in

a bit

and was eating breakfast alone in the large hotel dining room. A few minutes later, a group of four Chinese entered and shyly made their way to a table on the far early

of the room. They seemed quite insushooting me sidelong glances from time

side lar,

to

time but quickly turning away

when

I

them. This was one of the first times that Chinese animators had come to an

smiled

at

international festival since the 1960s, and felt a bit

I

shy myself about approaching them.

Finally, after six pieces

procrastinatingmy way through

of cold

toast,

I

rose and slowly

walked over to their table. They continued eating, without looking up, though their conversation stopped. In my most practised Beijing accent, I smiled and said, ‘ni hau’.

David Hhrliih with

IS

a

I'ianyi Jin

well-to-do western-influenced home.

I

le

proved to be an incorrigible student of maths and science, drawing unflattering pictures of his teachers, and his parents finally gave up on turning him into another

him to study painting and animation at the Soochow Art Institute. banker, permitting

A Da ultimately graduated

from the Beijing Film Academy in 1953 and returned to Shanghai to begin work as an artist and animator at the Shanghai Animation Studio under Te Wei.

Wlien the Cultural Revolution began in 1965, the animators were forbidden to make films, spending their time every day reading Mao’s Little Red Booh. In 1969, many of the most reactionary (western-influenced) artists, of which A Da, the banker’s son educated 8. .4

Dll

lit

49

years old in I

’erniont,

1

983.

[Photo: Dai 'id Ehrlidi.J

Suddenly all four Chinese broke out into giggles and stood up from their table to shake my hand. After the initial introductions and chat from my Chinese class about how they enjoyed breakfast and the city of Zagreb, my Chinese vocabnlaiy found its natural limits, and I rose to go to the festival centre. As I reached the street, I turned to see one of the Chinese following me. Me gave me the biggest smile 1 had ever seen and announced in 1

absolutely clear English, 1

learned English

is

A

Da.

Peter Pan School in

at

was child, but please don’t other Chinese. China still a little funny.’

Shanghai tell

when

‘My name

I

As the festival progressed, A Da and spent more and more time together, speaking English when we were alone, and my very simple Chinese when we were with his colleagues. We became good friends at Zagreb, and that 1

friendship

nurturing us

continued,

both

at

Peter Pan,

may

have been the clearest example, were sent to a 7

May

‘school’ in the countryside to ‘re-

educate’ themselves from the peasant work-

For three years, A Da fed hundreds of pigs and dug septic canals. Forbidden even to do sketches, A Da nevertheless hid under his mosquito net at night to draw from his memory and imagination unflattering caricatures of the Gang of Four whom he held responsible for the chaos in China.

ers.

When

the

Gang of Four

fell in

celebrated the occasion with catures that

were featured

1976,

a series

A Da

of cari-

in a successful

and courageous Shanghai exhibition as well as in a number of newspapers. These were in fact the very kind of caricatures that he had been developing for three years under the mosquito netting and that then found their way into the first film he co-directed, with Lin Wenxiao, after the Cultural Revo-

One Ni^ht in an Art Gallety. Casting the Gang of Four as ridiculous characters, A Da was able to lighten the suffering of millions of Chinese, showing them that lution,

through the years.

A

Da’s father graduated from the University

of Michigan and returned to

become

a

A

banker.

attended the Shanghai

to

A Da was

born

sister

in

in

Da’s mother,

College until her marriage to 1932.

China

1928 Lili,

school of Smith

A Da’s father in

1934 and grew up in

things could indeed

now change.

work as art director on Motikeys Fish .the Moon (see Fig. 9) in 1980, the next film on which A Da worked, under director For

his

(Jlmptcr

Animation

1

Zhou Keqin I

a special

years in

C'lnna

in

19

was asked to create dance for the monkeys. The three the coimti-yside were not lost on (1941),

this artist, tor

lie

he adapted

a

peasant harvest

dance he had once watched while feeding the pigs. It is this dance of the monkeys, and the spontaneous freedom the monkeys express after ‘harvesting’ the I

moon,

be the best example ot the animation.

The

that

may

new Chinese

most applauded in China and throughout the world was The Three Monks, directed by A Da in 1980. It is one of the film

examples of the integration of traditional Chinese painting and philosophy with western values of characterisation and finest

experimentation.

The

three

monks,

like

Disney’s seven dwarfs, are perfectly individualised, each with his

and solving Da’s experiments in breaking through the traditional film frame, and in a balletic .synchronisation of the very playful animation with the music, were illustrative of his background in western graphics and film and represented the working out, on a formal level, of the cutting through of his own personal restrictions. The original proverb that is the basis of the film’s narrative tells us that when there is only one monk, he alone carries the water (in two pails); when there are two monks, they carry the water ing, eating

I

own way of walklife’s problems. A

together in one

pail;

when

monks, no-one has water

there are three

to drink.

The

title

of A Da’s film curiously leaves out the end of the third clause, encouraging the audience prematurely to fill in the missing

words

way they have all remembered goes. The film that follows the

in the

the saying

however, ends in an entirely ditferent manner, with the three monks learning that

title,

they must also

work

together to survive.

A Da’s special cry that the split in

was China It

caused by the Cultural Revolution, the

split

one family member against another, would result only in destruction and that turned

should never be repeated.

And

the film her-

alded

A

Da’s entry into the public’s eye

C'hina and, eventually, the world

in

at large, as

him picked up awards at the Berlin, Odense and Chnanima film festivals and was shown widely on television stations around the

the globe.

A

Da’s next film, Bnttetily

Spritii^

(1983),

was

Chinese animated film made not for children but for adults. It was a love stoi*y based upon an old Chinese talc with a tragic ending, another first for an animated film made in China. lis next film. The IVafiderinyis of Sail Mao, completed in 1984, comprised the first three segments ofa scries based upon a comic strip by Zhang Leping that A Da had the

first

I

loved to read as

small boy.

featured the

It

orphan boy trying to survive in world torn apart by pewerty and the war

life

a

a

of a small

with Japan.

Because of the great international success of his films, because of his great openness, and because of his command of the international language of English learned

Da became

at

Peter Pan,

A

most significant manifestation of the outward thrust of the Shanghai Animation Studio to the world. He scr\-ed on the juiy of the 1983 Annecy Animation Festival in France, at which time we collaborated on an animation workshop for French children in which the children made an animated film using Chinese pictograms. And in 1984, he toured the United States, screening animated films made by other Shanghai directors as well as by himself and completing two more children’s workshops with me in Vermont schools. In 1985, he was the first Chinese

the

ever

elected

to

the

22-member

executive board of ASIFA, the International

Animation Film Association. At the 1986 Zagreb Animation

Festival,

A

Da’s 1984 film, 36 Characters, inspired by the

pictogram films he had made with children,

world premiere with the prize for best educational film. And it was in Zagreb in 1986 also that A Da, now more secure about Shanghai animation’s cnti-y into celebrated

its

the international arena, agreed to lobby his

,

20

Daviil Hlniich with 'Hauyi fin

unit

chiefs

the

for

Shanghai animators tion

in

of six the ASIFA compila-

participation

LeaderVariatiofis,

produce. This was to be the

first

I

was

to

time that

Chinese animators had collaborated with the west, and as the film was to be quite experimental in concept, it provided Chinese animators,

who

usually

made only

animated films for children, an opportunity to reach a bit further.

A Da organised

the Chinese animators’ participation and

did two charming segments himself

A Da

Tragically,

never lived to see the

=

completed film win the animation prize at Cannes in 1987. In the winter of 1987, on the train to Beijing to begin the

new

ani-

mation department at the Beijing Film Institute, A Da complained of a severe headache and when he arrived in Beijing, he was taken to the hospital. Wlien the doctor was told his name, he exclaimed, ‘Oh, you’re A Da, the director of the fa-

Monks Carr)’ Water!' A Da, who had been working tirelessly for years in

mous

Three

creating ground-breaking films, teaching

new generation of animators, and ing Shanghai animation and into the world,

but

I

j

;

.

I

a

in bring-

its artists

answered with