Chinese animation: An historical and contemporary analysis

The world of animation is usually scrutinized through cartoons emanating from the United States, Japan, and, perhaps, France. That is partly as it should be, but missing from the lineup is China. In quantity (more than 220,000 minutes annually) and quality (particularly from 1955 to 1988), China has been a top-level animation producer. However, because of a number of factors, Chinese animation is not well known beyond the contours of the country. Reasons might be the long, closed-society period, the same time when some of the world’s most artistically exquisite animation was produced in China; the use of a less than universal language (although the Japanese animation industry overcame this problem); the concentration on overseas production for U.S. and European studios, done for the most part anonymously, and until recently, the absence of effective promotion globally of indigenous content.