6. Chinese Cartoon

6. 中国动画

Early History

早期发展

In around 180 A.D. the first zoetrope was invented by Duing Huan, an artisan in the Eastern Han. While the modern cartoon industry began in France in 1888 invented by Emile Reynaud, Chinese animation¹ started in the 1920s, and were inspired by French, German, Russian and mostly American productions. One of the first records of foreign animation did not land in Shanghai until 1918. This piece of animation from the US was titled as "Out of the Inkwell".

大约公元180年，丁缓（汉朝工艺家）发明了第一个西洋镜（活动幻影）。现代动画产业始于1888年的法国，埃米尔 .雷诺创作了第一件作品。在法国、德国、俄罗斯和美国的动画作品的鼓舞下，中国的动画始于20世纪20年代。直到1918年，上海出现了第一部动画作品一一来自美国的《从墨水瓶里跳出来》。

Exploration Periods (1920-1945 )

探索阶段

In 1922 Wan² Laiming produced the first animation in a cartoon advertisement for the Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter. Shanghai Tobacco Company also produced a cartoon called New Year. These are the earliest known cartoon shorts.

1922年万籁鸣，万氏兄弟制作了中国的第一组卡通广告《舒振东华文打字机》。上海烟草公司也制作了卡通片《新年》。这就是所知最早的卡通短片。

In 1926, four Wan brothers, Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan worked under the Great Wall Film Company in China, not the Great Wall Movie Enterprises Ltd. Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan were then recognized as China's animation pioneers when they produced the first animation short Uproar³ in the Studio running 10 to 12 minutes long in black and white. The brothers believed that Chinese animation should be instructive, logical and thought-provoking besides being entertaining to its audience. They wanted to emphasize the development of an animation style that was uniquely Chinese. It was a common trend at the time to combine live action film footages with 2D animation. By 1932 one of the Wan brothers, Wan Dihuan, would voluntarily leave the Great Wall Film company for his own photography studio. Some of the first wave of influential⁴ American animations⁵ that reached Shanghai was Popeye，and a show known as Betty Boop.

1926年，万氏四兄弟，即万籁鸣、万古瞻、万超尘和万涤寰，在中国长城电影公司旗下工作，并非长城电影娱乐有限公司。万籁鸣、万古瞻兄弟制作了第一部长达10-12分钟的黑自动画短片《大闹画室》，因此当时他们被称为中国动画事业的先驱。兄弟俩认为，中国动画除了能够娱乐观众以外，还应当具有启发性、逻辑性和发人深省。他们要重点创造中国独有的动画风格。把活动的电影胶片和二维动画电影片段结合起来是当时的发展趋势。1932年，万氏兄弟之一，万涤寰离开长城电影公司开设了自己的摄影工作室。一些有影响的美国首批动画在上海播映，有《大力水手》和《勃比小姐》。

By 1935 the Wan brothers would launch the first animation with sound titled The Camel's Dance. By 1941 China's first animated⁶ feature film of notable length, "Princess Iron Fan"， was released under very difficult conditions during Sino-Japanese War and World War II". While there was overlapping⁷ progress made in the Asian regions with Japanese enemies at the time, they were not geographically⁸ or artistically⁹ influential to Chinese cartoon directly. During the Japanese invasion period, the brothers produced more than 20 animated propaganda shorts focusing on various patriotic¹⁰ topics from resistance against Japanese troops, opium¹¹ and imperialism¹².

1935年，万氏兄弟创作的《骆驼献舞》宣告有声动画片的诞生，并对中国美术片的发展产生重大影响。 1941年，他们创作出中国第一部超长动画一一《铁扇公主~，在非常困难的抗日战争和第二次世界大战的条件下上映。尽管当时亚洲地区进行着抗日战争，但是中国动画事业无论在地理上还是在艺术性上都没有受到影响，取得了不断的进步。在此期间，万氏兄弟们还是创作出了超过 20部的动画宣传短片，围绕爱国主义主题、涉及反抗日本侵略、抵制鸦片和反抗帝国主义各个方面。

Steady Development (1946-1949)

稳定发展阶段

On October 1, 1946 a northeast motion picture studio was established in the Nenjiang Province, later incorporated into the Heilongjiang Province. In 1947 production such as Emperor's Dream used puppets in an exaggerated way to expose corruption¹³ of politics. The idea of using political contents in puppet films was becoming acceptable. Documentary type cartoons like Go after an Easy Prey¹⁴ (1948) is an example. In 1948 the Northeast studio would change name to Shanghai picture studio group.

1946年10月1日，在当时的嫩江省(后并人今黑龙江省)，成立了东北电影制片厂。1947年创作出了动画片《皇帝梦》。动画片用木偶以夸张的手法讽刺了当时政治的腐败。在木偶片中引人政治内容被认可。纪录片形式的漫画，像《瓮中捉鳖》(1948)就是一个例子。 1948年，东北电影制片厂美术片组并人上海电影制片厂。

Founding of Shanghai Arts and Film Studio (1950~1965)

上海美术电影制片厂的成立

In February 1950 the northeast group would combine with other divisions to become the predecessor¹⁵ of Shanghai Animation Film Studio. The Wan brothers, Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Suzhou and many other big name artists would all be concentrated in this studio for the first time. In Shanghai Thank You, Kitty was created. By 1956 the Wan brothers had created the first colored animation of notable length titled Why is the Crow Black-Coated, which became the first Chinese animation recognized internationally.

1950年2月，东北组联合其他的一些部门，成立了专业生产美术片的上海美术电影制片厂的前身(简称美影)。万氏儿弟、中央美术学院、苏州艺术学院等许多大艺术家都首次云集在了这里。《谢谢你，小花猫》诞生了。 1956年，万氏兄弟摄制了彩色动画片，名为《乌鸦为什么是黑的》，标志着中国动画片被世界所接受。

In April 1957 the central government began sponsoring the studio, making it the nation's first and official animation factory. From the technology standpoint，China's animation was still relatively¹⁶ on pace with the rest of the world. In 1958 the Wan brothers created a new animation film technique based on the folk art cut-paper animation, which was demonstrated in Pigsy Eats Watermelon. At the same time another technique called origami animation was also developed by Yu Zheguang in 1960, in the film A Clever Duckling. Also in 1960 the first set of animation film exhibitions were held in 6 major cities including Shanghai and Beijing, followed by exhibitions in Hong Kong in 1962αnd Macau in 1963.

1957年4月开始，中央政府开始创办国内第一家官方美术制片厂。从技术角度看，我国的动画发展速度于世界各地相对持平。1958年万氏兄弟在民间剪纸艺术的基础上，运用动画原理和电影手段，试制成功首部剪纸片《猪八戒吃西瓜》。与此同时，在儿童折纸和手工劳作基础上加以改造、演化，虞哲光于1960年首创了折纸片《聪明的小鸭子》。1960年第一回动画影展分别于上海、北京等 6个大城市举办。1962年在香港，1963年在澳门也随后开展。

The Wan brothers would receive the most recognition for their film Havoc¹⁷ in Heaven，since it was well known among ordinary citizens. The development spanned 4 years from 1961 to 1964. It ran for nearly 2 hours pushing the technology to the limit with some of the most vivid colors ever put to the screen.

万氏兄弟获得最大认可的影片是众人皆知的历经四年完成的鸿篇巨制《大闹天宫》。全片持续两个小时，把电影技术和精美色彩的运用推向了极致。

Reform Period (1978~1989)

改革阶段

The Chinese animation industry would begin to reproduce animations in a new direction. Shanghai Animation Film Studio had launched 219 animation films in the 1980s. In 1979 Nezha was one of the first notable animations shown during the rebirth period. Other films include Snow Kid (1980), Lao Mountain Taoist (1981), The Deer's Bell (1982) and Legend of Sealed Book (1983). Among the works Three Monks¹⁸ (1980) was one of the few animations that managed to earn awards with clear national style and modern sense.

中国动画产业在新的方向进行创新。20世纪80年代，上海电影制片厂推出 219部动画电影。 1979年制作的《哪吨闹海》是新时期第一部宽银幕杰出的代表作。此外，杰出的动画片还有《雪孩子》(1980)、《唠山道士》(1981 )、《鹿铃》 (1982)、《天书奇谭》(1983)其中《三个和尚》(1980)是饮誉中外的创新之作，既有鲜明的民族风格，又有现代意识。

Contemporary Development

当代新发展

Chinese animations now have major festival to back them up. The First China International Cartoon Festival held in Hangzhou is so far the largest of its kind in China. One of the most important components¹⁹ of this festival was the Original Cartoon and Animation Exposition, which attracted more than 100 cartoon producers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Japan， South Korea, America, Britain and Germany. Although the exhibits were mainly audio and video products, people still detected health prospects²⁰ for the Chinese cartoon industry. In recent years, China has established many enterprises engaged in cartoon production. In Hangzhou alone, there are more than 50 such enterprises, most of which deal with film and TV products, as well as online gaming development. One of them, Zhongnan Cartoon Company, receives good response from both domestic and overseas markets.

现在中国动画业有了自己的节日。首届中国国际动画节在杭州举行，这是迄今为止中国规模最大的动画庆典。展览会上最重要的组成部分，是原创动画和动画博览会。吸引了 100多名来自中国大陆、香港和台湾，以及日本、韩国、美国、英国和德国的卡通制作人。虽然展品主要是音像制品，人们还是对中国动画产业的前景很乐观。近年来，中国已建立了不少企业从事漫画生产。仅在杭州就有50多个动画制作商，其中大部分负责影视产品以及网络游戏的发展。中南卡通公司是其中之一，收到了国内外市场良好的反响。