By Mengxue Wei When discussing 21st-century Chinese animation, it is impossible to overlook the animated film Monkey King: Hero Is Back (2015). The film’s journey was nothing short of legendary, grossing a total of 956 million RMB at the box office and convincingly proving the commercial viability of Chinese animation. Before the release of Monkey King: Hero Is … Continue reading The Representation and Development of Fan Culture in Chinese Animation →

By Daisy Yan Du I wrote this short article in response to Prof. Karen Redrobe’s essay “Failed Animation, Limited Theory: Feminist Reflections in a Transnational Context,” published on the ACAS website on March 14, 2024. Her essay was based on an invited lecture she delivered in February 2024 for the ACAS Distinguished Lecture Series at … Continue reading Toward a Locational Theory of Chinese Animation →

Download PDF By Karen Redrobe I write with some informal responses to three questions posed by Daisy Yan Du as part of her invitation to give a lecture in the Association for Chinese Animation Studies’ series: “Why did Animating Film Theory [published in 2014] not cover China or Chinese animation? A gap for future scholars? … Continue reading Failed Animation, Limited Theory: Feminist Reflections in a Transnational Context →

Download PDF By Kelly Reiling In June of 1950, the magazine Manhua yuekan 漫画月刊 published its first issue in Shanghai. During the magazine’s lifespan, which lasted until 1960, Manhua yuekan and its cartoonists underwent periods of artistic suppression and expression, enacted by the newly-established Chinese government through a series of political campaigns. The consequences of … Continue reading The Propagandist’s Palette: The Art of Manhua Magazine (1950-1960) →

Download PDF By Dong Yang The aura of contemporary art is a free association. –Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics In one of his later essays “Spinoza and the Three ‘Ethics,’” composed around 1990 and collected in the book Essays Critical and Clinical, Gilles Deleuze offers a mature and profound reading of Spinoza’s Ethics as a composite … Continue reading The Artisanal Sensorial, or Lei Lei’s Geometrical Regime of Animated Images →

Download PDF By Chen Hailu; translated by Yixing Li  From 1961 to 1988, Chinese animators at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced four traditional ink-painting animated films, winning numerous accolades at home and abroad. No new ink-painting animation had been produced since 1989. It was not until 2003 that ink-painting animation resurfaced in China with … Continue reading CGI Ink-Painting Animation in Contemporary China, 1989-2019 →