By Yuzhe Li Amid the innovation-oriented climate of the Great Leap Forward, cutout animation (jianzhipian 剪纸片) emerged as a new animation category at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.[1] Beginning with Pigsy Eats Watermelon (Zhubajie chigua 猪八戒吃瓜, 1958), cutout animation quickly established itself as a distinct and recognizable form within Chinese animation. Rather than remaining historically … Continue reading Spatial Realism and Its Refusal: Depth as Political Form in Mao-Era Cutout Animation →

By Wang Yang and Guo Baoyi Over the past decade (2011-2024), the term “independent animation” 独立动画 has been widely applied in animation production, academic research, media reports, and festivals/exhibitions in China. However, due to an overlapped context of aesthetic and production perspectives, the definition(s) of “independence” 独立 towards independent animation is(are) still unclear and polysemous, … Continue reading Reexamining the Independence of Independent Animation in China: Literature Review and Knowledge Gap from a Production Perspective →

By Jie Li Thanks to Daisy Yan Du’s invitation to lecture for the Association for Chinese Animation Studies Distinguished Lecture Series, I had the opportunity to extend an underdeveloped topic in my recent book Cinematic Guerrillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China (Columbia University Press, 2023). The cover image (figure 1) is a 1966 … Continue reading Animated Slideshows and Creative Ecologies in Socialist China →