Chinese animation and its evolution and cultural background¹

A animação chinesa, sua evolução e antecedentes culturais

Abstract:

Philosophy is a system that analyzes the most basic beliefs, concepts and calmness of temper and judgement befitting a philosopher. Chinese animated features have made great inroads in worldwide markets in recent years, despite the fact that China’s animation sector is just a teenager compared to its decades-old counterpart in Japan’s philosophy. While some animation studios are creating content specifically for international audiences, the Chinese animation industry is primarily concerned with the domestic market because it believes that high-quality Chinese animation has the potential to travel. Artists, philosophers and those in the creative industries, directly tied to this, have an incentive and challenge to discover those stories that can succeed in Chinese and international markets. Therefore, this article analyzes and contrasts the characteristics of Chinese film animation philosophies. The social and cultural context, market economic development and technological advancement that have shaped the philosophical design of Chinese animation are examined. The philosophical approaches that are assessed in this study are Donghua and Manhua, and Daoist philosophy that exemplified from Zhuangzi.

Keywords:
Calmness of temper; Chinese animation; Cultural context; Daoist philosophy; Zhuangzi

Resumo:

A filosofia é um sistema que analisa as crenças, os conceitos mais básicos e a calma de temperamento e julgamento próprios de um filósofo. Os filmes de animação chineses fizeram grandes incursões nos mercados mundiais, nos últimos anos, apesar do fato de o setor de animação da China ser apenas um adolescente em comparação com o seu homólogo de décadas, na filosofia japonesa. Embora alguns estúdios de animação criem conteúdos especificamente para o público internacional, a indústria de animação chinesa está principalmente preocupada com o mercado interno, porque acredita que a animação chinesa de alta qualidade tem potencial para se expandir. Artistas, filósofos e aqueles que trabalham nas indústrias criativas diretamente ligadas a isto têm um incentivo e um desafio para descobrir as histórias que podem ter sucesso nos mercados chinês e internacional. Neste artigo, analisam-se e se contrastam as características das filosofias de animação cinematográfica chinesas. Examinam-se tanto o contexto social quanto o cultural, o desenvolvimento econômico do mercado e o avanço tecnológico que moldaram o design filosófico da animação chinesa. As abordagens filosóficas avaliadas neste estudo são Donghua e Manhua, além da filosofia taoísta, exemplificada em Zhuangzi.

Palavras-chave:
Calma de temperamento; Animação chinesa; Contexto cultural; Filosofia taoísta; Zhuangzi

Introduction

The term “animation” refers to both the art form and the medium that involves movement. It is the stuff that makes things tick. In order to give the impression of vitality, animators must learn to translate body language into their chosen media. Complex motions can be recorded and animated, using a broad variety of mediums from hand drawn graphics to computer animation, and from stop motion to cells. They become stories and experiences that show individual and collective imagination as they progress through a series of frames in time, evolving from organic metaphors endowed with symbolic meaning. It gives form to the things people have only imagined or remembered.

The history of Chinese philosophy is extensive and illuminating. China is home to three primary schools of thought when it comes to philosophy: Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. These philosophical concepts frequently make use of esthetic landscape sentiments to explain the feelings that are intended to produce an environment of being at one with nature. The “anthropomorphic notion,” for instance, is a fundamental concept to the aesthetics of nature in Confucian gardens. This concept extends human emotions into the wild.

There is no denying that the Chinese culture that was used in the creation of the cartoon was successful, which is why it is popular with the audience in China. The cultural characteristics that are reflected in the film are a new building of Western society on Chinese culture and interpretation. Whether the understanding of the surface or deep cognition, there is no denying that the Chinese culture was successful (Lai, 2014).

Western audiences may be confused when they first read this sentence. This does not come as a surprise to one because the characteristics of Chinese philosophy include ambiguity and symbolic language. Over the past few years, the concept of Chinese animations has grown to become more open-ended, rather than becoming fixed in any one particular form. The cartoon adaption of the manhua Cyber Weapon Z, from 1995, included one of the earliest examples of a revolutionary change. Despite the fact that the characters in this style are virtually indistinguishable from those in any other standard anime, the style is still considered to be Chinese animation. While water ink, puppetry and computer-generated imagery (CG) are all evident in the art, productions are not limited to these methods. However, it’s worth noting that productions are not constrained to a single technological platform.

In Chinese philosophy, the things that we can sense do not have a permanent existence. There is a quote from the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that goes as follows: “There is nothing people can hang onto in this world. People can only truly possess what is real if people are willing to let go of everything else” (Yoon, 2017, p. 634).

Animation scenes are the animation designers’ work after they have gone through the art processing necessary to bring their vision to life, and they are the stage on which the animated characters perform and the backdrop against which the audience’s emotional response to these characters unfolds. Kung Fu Panda’s architecture is strongly Chinese. The key setting of the film, the emerald palace, is hidden in the mountains like a fairy kingdom, just like traditional Chinese temples, which often sit atop picturesque peaks to symbolize the Taoist value of internal tranquility. With its golden yellow glazed tiles, large bright red columns and distinctive windows, the exterior of the Jade Palace reflects the style of classical Chinese architecture, and the interior of the palace is decorated in five stages that also evoke ancient China’s grandeur. Similarly, the Peace Valley picture would transport Western viewers into China’s natural setting by featuring iconic structures like temples, memorial arches and palaces designed in the style of traditional Chinese architecture.

If philosophers consider animation at all, they often do so with a “naive” perspective. They are neither typical practitioners, nor typical of those with any relevant experience in the field. Such innocence can be a form of blindness, but it also has the potential to broaden one’s horizons and reveal previously unseen angles of view. For this reason, naivete might serve as a doorway to a new question or field. One might argue that naivete was the only viable approach when animation first became a field of study, so the philosophers’ naivete is not unusual, and it is just that it may be a naivete that emerged somewhat late in the game. However, it is debatable if naive accurately describes the mindset and methods at work in a developing profession. In contrast to sophistication, naivete is not a necessary state of being and, in an untapped industry, it can be difficult to distinguish between the naive and the sophisticated. If people can make this distinction, it must be because they are looking back and contrasting it with what is called affluence in the modern view.

With cosmopolitanism and globalization entering daily life, this article would discuss the following questions: Who are people? What should people look like? Is there a philosophy of Chinese animation? Is it an inappropriate complex?

After these questions are raised, we will conduct the literature review of this paper, study the entire output value of Chinese animation industry in the past decade, analyze the typical cases during the period, and next analyze the Chinese culture and philosophy from the root.

1 Literature review

This special issue contextualizes animated and cinematic works within China’s modern and contemporary political and cultural landscape in order to reevaluate their complex relationship. The ongoing dialectics between action and inaction, life and death, and the animate and the inanimate are further complicated in Chinese cinema and visual culture. Beyond the photographic and indexical, animation is used in this special issue to explore the history and culture of Chinese cinema. People seek to shed light on this blind spot and reframe and concentrate understanding of cinema in Chinese contexts through research into the pervasive, yet elusive, presence of the animation in the history, aesthetics and politics of Chinese theaters. People also intend to examine some undeveloped areas of theorizing and historicizing Chinese movies, reviving fresh concerns about what they are, where they originate from and how they operate (Guo; Li, 2017, p. 115).

According to Cholodenko (2022, p. 21), “[…] any interaction with film is an experience with animation,” and approach to Chinese theaters has to really engage with animation. The animation sector contributes significantly to the overall market value. Even though it is a sector that is quickly expanding in China, it is still in its early stages of development and discovery at the moment, and there is a large gap between it and the more mature industrial models employed in other nations. Because of the flawed industrial model, China’s animation industry has not been able to construct a model of sustainable development. As a consequence of this, China’s animation industry has not been able to acquire advantages in the global competition. Domestic animation works only attract a small audience, and that audience tends to be comprised of people of younger ages. This is the case due to the fact that works from the United States and Japan currently dominate the animation industry in China, which itself is dominated by works from both nations. The current situation of China’s animation industry is presented, in rising periods by years, in Figure 1, which can be found below.

Figure 1 -
Value of the Entire Output Produced by China’s Animation Industry over the Past Decade (RMB billion)

When compared to the models used in other countries’ animation industries, the Chinese animation industry faces a number of challenges. A lack of market operations, industrial operation knowledge, well-known intellectual property names and large enterprise scale are all factors contributing to these difficulties. To begin with, at the upstream phase of animation production, Chinese animation is characterized by a high initial investment, a lengthy production cycle and an uncertain financial return. For comparison’s sake, the development time for the films Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015), Big Fish & Begonia (2016), Ne Zha (2019) and Legend of Deification (2020) was 8, 5 and 4 years, respectively. Along with the growth of the animation industry, two separate business models have evolved (Garmann Johnsen, 2011, p. 1165). Companies that excel artistically focus too heavily on the creative aspects of animation at the expense of its economic value, which in turn weakens the company’s finances and slows its growth, whereas companies that excel in operations tend to be artistically illiterate. Therefore, creative businesses prioritize the creative aspects of animation while neglecting the business aspects. As a result, if the business side is prioritized over the creative side, the quality of the work would suffer. Because of the various potential focal points, it can be difficult for animated works to strike a satisfactory middle ground between artistic and commercial considerations. Obviously, there is an impact between the philosophical perspective and the financial state of the animation industry.

The drawback that affects the Chinese animation the most is the lacking of marketing and proper advertisements. Through the strength of their domestic animation industries, nations like the United States of America, Japan and Korea are able to generate significant economic benefits for their nations while also promoting their cultural goods and ideas. Their degree of success can be attributed in part to the highly skilled production processes they employ and to some extent to the accuracy and individuality of the marketing and promotion strategies they use. The Chinese animation industry has achieved significant headway thanks to the assistance of government programs. Yet, when compared with the industrialized nations’ animation industries, there are obvious gaps that are shown, not only in the production processes, but also in the marketing promotion.

A person’s cultural identification is inextricably tied to their national or ethnic background, and this is because of the chronological (or historical) aspect of cultural phenomena. The “[…] shared psychological feature that finds expression in the rules and practices of that nation’s dominant culture” is something that can be found in every single country (Stalin, “On Marxism and the National Question”). When did a country’s “common mindset” emerge? The form is a reaction to the dominant philosophical school. Furthermore, the prevalent worldview and values constitute the raw materials of this “common mentality” (Dainian, 1988, p. 69). Figure 2 describes the cultural differences in Chinese animation and Japanese anime show.

Figure 2 -
The generalized production process of the animation industry.

In Figure 2, the general production process is to divide a complete computer 2D animation into three stages. In the early stage, the screenwriter needs to design the script and scene, and shape the director’s shot script. In the middle stage, the director draws, repairs and designs the background of the original character painting, and then uses computer drawing. In the later stage, the work is scanned, colored, synthesized and voiced on the computer, ultimately forming a complete 2D animation product.

In a knowledgeable way, philosophers have never shown a great deal of interest in the subject of animation. In point of fact, one would have a difficult time locating any instances of philosophers who are actively working at the forefront of the field and who have directly addressed the subject of animation. Although he leans significantly on philosophical concepts and sources, someone like Thomas Lamare, who came from a field outside of philosophy but is undoubtedly one of the most influential animation theorists, was educated outside of his discipline. When animation is directly addressed by philosophers, it is typically done so either within the context of discussions of film or visual aesthetics (frequently only as a part of some larger discussion - such as, Cavell, 1979, or Deleuze, 1986), or else, in terms of the philosophical content for which particular animated works are taken as the vehicle (this seems especially true of the volumes in the Philosophy and Popular Culture series that address animation, that is, Irwin and Conard (2001), and Steiff and Tamplin (2010). Often, animation itself appears as a field onto which already existing philosophical approaches and concerns can be projected and inscribed. To some extent, this is true, despite Alan Cholodenko’s seminal The Illusion of Life (1991) having a groundbreaking position in the field; as a result, the distinction between animation and philosophy seems to collapse. Cholodenko’s book was a groundbreaking work in the field (perhaps less mercifully, animation seems to be almost incorporated into philosophy, not so much as the true focus of this inquiry, but as a medium for an inquiry that continues to arise independently). In addition, all of these tendencies can be understood as aspects of the philosophical engagement with animation rather generally, regardless of whether the engagement is being performed by philosophers or by other people (Zeng; Zhang, 2015).

2 Period evaluation

The philosophy for Chinese animation is broadly discussed in this study. There is a deep and lasting bond between animation and China’s culture. Also, the historical facts really emphasize on the philosophical perspective of animation films. The history is divided into some of the periods which are significantly named early period, exploration periods, golden ages, reform period, digital period.

Early history of anime was in the years of 1926 to 1946. The current era of Chinese animation began in the early 1900s, influenced by Western works from France, Germany, Russia and the United States. One of the earliest examples of international animation, Out of Inkwell, arrived in Shanghai in 1918. As a result, they were heralded as forerunners in the field of animation in China. To the brothers, it was important that Chinese animation not only entertain its viewers, but also teach them something new, make them think and follow a logical progression of events. Because it adhered to Chinese aesthetic heritage, early Chinese animation was a huge hit. As a result, the first Chinese cartoons were considered artistic films as well. There are four distinct styles of artistic filmmaking: shadow play-animation, water and ink animation, puppet animation and paper-cut animation (Archived, 2009, p. 32).

It was not until the Wan brothers’ return to China in 1950 that the northeastern artists’ group merged with another faction. In 1957, a studio dedicated to animated films was founded with support from the city of Shanghai. The government encouraged the film studio to use traditional Chinese filmmaking methods in its productions. Origami animation and water ink animation were both developed around this time (Xue, 2016; Frandy, 2021, p. 53).

The years 1960-1965 and 1978-1980 are often cited as the two high points in the evolution of Chinese animation. There was a ten-year dry spell in Chinese animation during the Cultural Revolution (1965-1978) (Lent; Ying, 2013, p. 19; Maccoull, 1976, p. 400). A hundred flowers should bloom, and a hundred schools of thought should compete; this was Mao Zedong’s policy proposal in 1956. With the added protections of policy for the flourishing of science and the arts, Chinese animation started its first golden period of growth in 1960. At this time, numerous well-received animated works were created. Havoc in Heaven is one of the most successful animated films of that time. The film was a huge success in the 1960s since it was based on a classic Chinese folktale that was already widely known to the average Chinese person. From 1966 until 1976, the Chinese government actively suppressed its own people during the Cultural Revolution. That was a time when the whole animation industry was dedicated to changing the world.

The year 1990 marked a watershed moment in China’s animation industry. In spite of the continued dominance of Japanese and American animation, Chinese production of animation surged to about 220,000 minutes per year between 1955 and 1988. The 1980s saw the rise of color television in the United States. Meanwhile, Japan has become the go-to of the region for animated content. Since 1990, Chinese animation has progressed at a snail’s pace. Rebuilding moved painfully slowly in the late 1990s due to a lack of resources and other issues in the animation market. Because it was not based on individual investment but on national investment, traditional Chinese animation lost the desire of its creators and was stifled by a lack of peer rivalry. Because of the commercialization and invention of Japanese and American animations, traditional Chinese animations were pushed out of the market. Even so, many creators, especially in comics, were influenced by American and Japanese animation styles and began using them in their own work.

3 Cultural context of animation

Apart for a small subset of philosophers interested in film or visual aesthetics, animation has never been a topic of serious philosophical inquiry. To be sure, animators and animation theorists have showed an interest in philosophy, particularly in regards to time, movement and process, all of which may have relevance to animation. However, it is one thing to use philosophy as a resource when working in a field, and quite another to try to think philosophically about that field. A philosophical exploration of animation is presented, with a focus on animation as a “making move”. This philosophical approach is undoubtedly simple, from philosophy to animation, and not the other way around.

The concepts of film and television creation between China and the West influence and blend with each other, creating a world of animation together. The most classic should be Mulan, which was adapted from Chinese literature by Disney in the United States to become a film and television animation. Its creation concept integrates Western perspectives and expresses Chinese kungfu, love, Confucianism, Taoism and feudal system in cartoons.

To view the world through someone else’s cultural lens is to miss the mark entirely. It is not easy to accept the possibility that the behavior that one takes for granted in one’s own culture may have a completely different meaning in another culture. By delving into the associations between behavior and belief, people can gain insight into how people of diverse cultural backgrounds interpret the same behaviors. Subtle but significant shifts in the social meaning of an activity can be shown when the same action is associated with varied degrees of value among cultural groups. Taking this into account, it is possible that adopting a cross-cultural perspective into studies of values and behavior would prove helpful in assisting people in gaining a more complete understanding of the societal importance of activities (Roccas; Sagiv, 2010, p. 30; Matsuyama, 2021, p. 119).

One of the film named Kung Fu Panda also reflects Chinese Buddhist and Taoist traditions. The central figure of the film, a representation of Buddha, leaves a lasting impact thanks to his wit and depth of philosophical discourse. Master’s word encapsulates the Buddhist doctrine of determinism and cause metempsychosis practiced in China. “There is no coincidence.” The portrayal of Taoist culture in this film, such as Abao’s admiration for Master Raccoon’s mastery of water and Master Turtle’s emphasis on the importance of faith, all reflects Chinese cultural traditions.

There is a significant amount of work that has been devoted to documenting the history of Chinese culture. The strengthening of the social and economic foundation upon which culture is constructed is closely related to the advancement of cultural practices. There is a one-to-one connection between the development of advanced civilization and the expansion of philosophical concepts and questions. It is helpful to have a solid understanding of the basic philosophical foundations of China in order to get a handle on the culture of that country.

Culture considers a variety of topics, including but not limited to philosophy, science, literature, art, education and social standards. One could argue that philosophy is fundamental to human existence and occupies a central and pivotal place in the cultural landscape. Philosophy influences and is influenced by numerous domains, including but not limited to the natural sciences, the humanities, the arts and the academic world.

4 Philosophy in Chinese animation

Apart for a small subset of philosophers interested in film or visual aesthetics, animation has never been a topic of serious philosophical inquiry. Nonetheless, animators and animation theorists have showed an interest in philosophy, particularly in regards to time, movement and process, all of which may be applicable to animation. Animation is studied from an explicitly philosophical perspective, focusing on animation as a “manufacturing movement”, an admittedly naive perspective on animation that comes from philosophy, not the other way around.

In any event, the philosopher’s naivete with regard to animation is not unique to the philosophical engagement with animation alone - philosophers almost always come into other fields from the outside, as strangers. This is because animation is not a field that philosophers have traditionally engaged with. According to Pierre Hadot (1995, p. 57), the love of wisdom itself made the philosopher an “alien in the world” for ancient thinkers. This is something that ancient thinkers believed. In this regard, one could argue that the naivety displayed by the philosopher in approaching a field, such as animation, is not simply a naivety that comes from the philosopher’s character as an outsider to just the field that is in question. This is because one could argue that the naivety displayed by the philosopher in approaching a field, such as animation, is an issue that is at issue. Rather, it is a naivete that comes from the nature of philosophy, which, when really studied as philosophy, always comes from the outside and is therefore based on something strange, even if familiar, in whatever field it may concern. This naivete stems from the fact that philosophy always comes from the outside and is therefore based on wondering about what is otherwise familiar. The naivety that seeks to handle the matter at hand in a manner that is both sensitive to its nature, as something that is genuinely worthy of inquiry, and in a manner that remains focused on what is fundamental and basic with regard to the matter at hand, is an example of this type of ignorance.

The naivety at issue here is comparable to a kid’s innocence. It is the kind of naivety that gives rise to both a sense of wonder and a desire to know more about the world (even if, in the child’s case, that desire may often lack direction). Furthermore, it is very uncommon to see caricatures of philosophers themselves in which they are depicted as “childish”. This is something that is exemplified in tales of philosophical folly or a claimed lack of worldliness. In a discussion of animation, as it stands in relation to issues of life and non-life (issues that would also be touched on in the discussion that would follow), Suzanne Buchan (2013, p. 167) invokes the naivety of childhood as also being an element in animation. This is done in order to discuss animation as it stands in relation to issues of life and non-life.

5 Philosophical aspects

An understanding of Chinese animation philosophy:

In the usual view, artistic conception is the combination of feeling and scene, or “integration of scene”. Artistic conception is the most metaphysical type in the “image”. In traditional painting works, it is the artistic realm reflected in the high integration of feeling and scene through the description of the image of time and space. In the Chinese traditional culture, the ideological root of the artistic conception comes from the philosophy.

Virtual and reality are important theoretical categories of Chinese painting, which include the unity of hidden, hidden dew, shade and black and white. Virtual reality means infinite. This traditional painting theory is fully reflected in a large number of traditional animation.

The philosophical elements add to the animations when they reveal the characters’ true nature. Live-action films and live-action television performances cannot be compared to the animated characters’ performances. It is the animation makers’ performance employing virtual animation graphics to perform motions, expressions and noises. [Creators of animation] The “people” in the performance are the animated character performances that the audience witnessed on the screen (Tang, 2020, p. 79; Parker, 2021, p. 179). This is the consequence of the change. The performance of animated characters might be challenging. The reason for this is because animators use software to generate the characters’ virtual versions they use in their work. Even though they are based on actual events, numerous changes and new elements have been incorporated into them. For this reason, animation performances need to delve deeper into the characters’ peculiarities, as well as making the characters bloodier. The animators are responsible for both the recreation of the characters and the remembrance of the screenplay in order to achieve the animated characters’ performance. This is accomplished by adhering to the objective and natural laws. “Some animations are generated by real people’s performances, so that their animated figures imitate human performances.” “Some animations are produced by real people’s performances.” As a result, animated figures make use of anthropomorphic effects to demonstrate human thought processes and emotional states. The ability to be flexible is predicated on the existence of objective facts, the compatibility of actions and personality, and the communication of verbal expressions and feelings (Zhu; Suarez; Lu, 2008, p. 1).

Anti-Japanese sentiment is not the only reason why Manhua (a philosophical approach with Chinese influences) has been so popular in the past. Some scholars, like Jeremy Taylor, have focused on the manhua produced by Japanese occupiers and Chinese sympathizers during World War II in China. Taylor’s work provides new insight into the wartime China’s cultural history by focusing on the dual usage of manhua as propaganda by the two opposing parties (Taylor, 2015, p. 406; Song; Zhang, 2008, p. 18). Several events in modern Chinese history, such as the war that referred to anti-Japanese consideration and the founding of the People´s Republic of China, are inextricably intertwined with the manhua history and cannot be ignored.

It is probable that studies on Manhua cannot be neatly filed under art history, cultural studies or literature. Even while most manhua imagery is quite straightforward, delving into the history of this once-prolific art form or cultural product would lead to a plethora of questions and facts that are intertwined with many different eras and events in modern China. When considering the intricate web that manhua studies must weave around the politics, war, revolution, culture, and trade in contemporary China, it is clear that a single appraisal cannot hope to do credit to the subject at hand. In an effort to reevaluate Chinese cartoons in the academic community, it does provide new study on connected themes from the domains of history and visual culture studies. A glimmer of optimism stems from the fact that these issues have recently become the subject of study.

Daoism, usually called Taoism, is an indigenous Chinese religious and philosophical system that dates back more than two thousand years and has had a significant impact on Chinese culture. A Daoist outlook on life can be understood in the broadest sense by looking at the accepting and yielding, happy and carefree elements of the Chinese character. Daoist ideas may be found everywhere in Chinese culture, even in many aspects that are not normally associated with Daoism (Moeller, 2015, p. 99; Lan, 2004, p. 436). When it comes to Chinese religion, the Daoist tradition - which frequently acts as a link between the Confucian legacy and the folk tradition - has historically been more popular and spontaneous. This is because Daoism is often seen as a link between the Confucian tradition and the folk tradition.

6 Emotional engagement and calmness

Structured models are used to examine the relationship between college students’ levels of emotional engagement with their success in online courses (Figure 3) and their grades.

Emotional positivity, emotional negativity, self-efficacy and success motivation are the four independent variables depicted in Figure 3. Basic academic emotion includes both positive and negative feelings, whereas students’ internal drive includes both a sense of self-efficacy and a desire to succeed. Academic performance is the factor being studied. Scaled questionnaires are used to examine their effects on academic performance in the context of daily, self-directed online learning.

Figure 3 -
Correlation buildup between emotional engagement and calmness of temper.

This survey has a 100% recycling rate. The relationships between various feelings and academic performance were analyzed using SPSS statistical data. The academic achievement can be possible if cognitive, behavioral and emotional factors align with each. The philosophical aspects, related to these emotional facts and animated films, are adapting these.

The following table (Table 1) displays the relationships between negative emotions and success. Most pupils’ negative feelings correlate negatively with their performance. That means as students’ negative feelings subside, their performance in online courses would rise. (2) When looking at the top valued emotion in each OL grade, students with low grades have a higher prevalence of “anger,” whereas students with higher grades have a higher prevalence of “depression”. Depression is clearly the most prevalent feeling among students and calls for increased support services. Students with lower and middling grades tend to experience greater “anxiety”, while those with higher grades tend to show more even-keeled negative emotions. As a result, there is a strong link between unfavorable feelings and poor performance in school. In order to maintain the kids’ physical and emotional well-being, it is crucial that they experience less unpleasant emotion.

Table 1 -
The standard deviation of pupils’ unpleasant feelings who get the same grade in daily self-regulated OL.

Grade daily self-regulated OL	NHA Emotions			NLA Emotions				Average of NHA Emotions	Average of NLA Emotions
	Anxiety	Shame	Anger	Boredom	Hopelessness	Depression	Fatigue
Bad	3.68	2.95	3.85	2.00	2.30	3.80	2.56	3.49	2.67
Middle	3.36	3.05	3.23	2.57	2.88	3.65	3.19	3.21	3.07
Good	2.89	2.37	3.36	2.23	2.41	3.39	2.44	2.87	2.62
Excellent	2.91	2.48	3.52	1.91	2.64	3.76	2.45	2.97	2.69

• Source: Wang & He (2020, p. 256); Schaefer (2017)

7 Chinese animation and socialism

As one of the concrete forms of ideology, animation art has distinct class nature flowing in its blood, and class attribute is its natural and essential one. Therefore, the creation of film and television animation is bound to be constrained by certain social and economic forms and political system, and the values of animation works must reflect the social group’s will to which they belong, and serve the mainstream and core a certain society’s values, which is determined by its essential attributes.

The history of animation in China is both rich and complicated. The country has a long history of the art form. The Wan brothers are typically portrayed as the central figures in stories that focus on the company’s early years. 1. The Wan brothers began to establish themselves as the most productive animators in Republican China (1912-49) in the early 1920s. They did this by producing a significant number of animated shorts. This period of time covers Republican China. The first animated feature film to be produced in China and Asia, Princess Iron Fan (Tieshan gongzhu), was developed in 1941 in Shanghai, which was at the time partially occupied by the Japanese. The title of the film literally translates to “Iron Fan Princess”. This film had a huge influence on the early development of animation in Japan, especially in Japan’s anime genre. 2. Without a doubt, the Wan brothers were the most productive and visible animators of all the staff at the time, although they were not the only animators at the time. In addition, Shanghai was not the only city in Republican China to house animation production studios; other cities in the country, including Beijing and Tianjin, did them too. In the early 1940s, a group of Chinese and Japanese animators, working at the Manchukuo Film Association, produced animated pictures in Changchun. These films were created by a collective of Chinese and Japanese animators (Du, 2019, p. 112; D’Ambrosio, 2017, p. 259). During the time that Japan controlled Peking, Liang Jin and his fellow employees, at the North China Film Company (which was a part of the Manchukuo Film Association), created animated shorts like The Kite. During this struggle, Chongqing served as the capital, and filmmaker Qian Jiajun spent much of his time there filming animated shorts (Du, 2021a). The Shanghai Animation Film Studio ( SAFS) was the first and only (state owned) animation studio in China during the socialist era (1949-1976) (Du, 2021b, p. 1). Before this, there was a lack of coordination among the various studios and individuals working on animated films in Republican China. Within the framework of a socialist planned economy, the studio produced hundreds of animated films that were considered among the best ever made. Today, these movies represent the pinnacle of Chinese animation history. The golden age of Chinese animation was during the era known as “socialist China”.

It may be challenging to offer a clear definition of the word “socialist era” due to the lack of distinct boundaries between the socialist and post-socialist eras. A great deal of academic effort has gone into arguing for the limitations of this period. Following political splits in history, some individuals have chosen 1976 or 1978 as the end of socialism and the beginning of post-socialism in China because Mao Zedong died in 1976 and the opening up and reform programs were enacted in that year. This is due to the fact that opening up and reform programs were started in 1978, after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976. Experts agree that the “June Fourth Movement” was a turning point in the arts and culture that made 1989 a pivotal year. For instance, according to Jason McGrath, the pivotal years for this discussion are between 1989 and 1992. Socialist animation, which relied on a central planning economy, collectivism and state censorship, did not suddenly die off in 1976 but persisted into the early 1980s. This style of animation relied heavily on central planning, collectivism and centralized authority.

Animation culture is also a team of global modern culture. For the development and innovation of animation, first of all, people must use an international spirit of globalization, which is based on the nation of animation, in line with international standards and based on the world, because only the nation is the world. Therefore, the future development of the animation industry should have a strategic vision, but also have a certain plan, with the planning can be implemented, to promote the sustainable development of the domestic animation industry.

Conclusion

The philosophical basis of the current study is to explore the history of the Chinese animation film and also the enhancement of it along with times. In competition with Japanese animation, the industry is not as prosperous, but there are certainly some important criteria. The animated features really made some fanbase to understand the emotions and philosophies by the creative minds. This article considers the characteristics of the Chinese anime, and the storyline can be matched with one of the theorem or philosophy. This development can certainly be experienced as technology advances, and philosophies, such as Taoism, can be evaluated and compared to the cultural context of the current study. It is amazing to learn about the long road of Chinese animation to international success. China’s economy has seen frequent ups and downs since the Cultural Revolution, with the majority of the downs being the result of Communist Party policies and restrictions. As the world becomes increasingly digital, young artists finally have a chance to make works and the independence to do so without the oversight of either governments or studios. The Chinese independent sector is still struggling, despite the increased creative freedom for its members. This article summarizes the philosophical understanding of the Chinese animation industry and animated film in terms of philosophy of life as well as Chinese culture.

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  This work was supported by Research Center of Film, Television and Theatre of Zhejiang Province, Communication University of Zhejiang (No. XJYS22ZX05).

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  05 Feb 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  20 May 2023
• Accepted
  21 June 2023
• Published
  10 Jan 2024