By Yu Zhang Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion marks a decisive moment in the institutionalization of Chinese animation studies. Emerging from the 2021 inaugural conference of the Association for Chinese Animation Studies (ACAS), the volume does more than collect essays: it declares the consolidation of a field. Published by Harvard University Asia Center, it signals that … Continue reading Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion, edited by Daisy Yan Du (lead editor), John A. Crespi, and Yiman Wang. Harvard University Asia Center, 2025. 464 pp. Harvard Contemporary China Series 21. →

By Cassandra Guan In Anime’s Knowledge Cultures, Jinying Li makes a compelling intervention into the fields of anime studies, digital media studies, and East Asian cultural studies. The book explores the rise of a transnational “knowledge class,” whose ethos appears in the more or less interchangeable figures of the geek, the otaku, and the zhai, through the … Continue reading Anime’s Knowledge Cultures: Geek, Otaku, Zhai, by Jinying Li. University of Minnesota Press, 2024. 344 pp. →

By Tze-yue G. Hu Both books are authored by Olga Bobrowska, a Polish animated film scholar, professor and festival director. Published consecutively in 2023 and 2024, the publications reflect her passion and interest in animation studies and how we may bring perspectives of “cultural studies, political science and sociology” into a somewhat marginal “niche” subdivision … Continue reading Chinese Animated Film and Ideology, 1940s-1970s Fighting Puppets, by Olga Bobrowska. CRC Press, 2023. 184pp. Chinese Animated Film and Ideology: Tradition, Innovation and Interculturality, by Olga Bobrowska. CRC Press, 2024. 179pp. →

By Isabel Galwey The subject of Hong Kong animation has increasingly attracted scholarly attention. Mainstays of Hong Kong animation like McDull have been researched and analyzed in depth; recent Hong Kong-produced feature animations including Sherlock Holmes and the Great Escape (2019) and no.7 Cherry Lane (2019) have received international acclaim; and this year’s Maureen Furniss … Continue reading Frame after Frame, by Winnie Fu. Hong Kong Film Archive, 2006. →

By Mengxue Wei Pan Jian’s book, Trajectory: The Development of Animation Industry and the Evolution of Animation Art in China (Guiji: Zhongguo dongman chanye fazhan yu donghua yishu yanjin), primarily focuses on the development of the Chinese animation industry from 2004 to 2021. Written in the form of a chronicle, it extensively analyzes the Chinese … Continue reading Trajectory: The Development of Animation Industry and the Evolution of Animation Art in China, by Pan Jian. Science Press, 2023. 253 pp. →

By Jifeng Huang The History of Chinese Animation, edited by Sun Lijun, makes a considerable contribution to English language scholars who are interested in Chinese animation. In the first volume of this book, Chinese animation in the embryo stage (before 1930), the early stage (1931–1948), and the socialist era (1949–1977) are linearly instructed. The second … Continue reading The History of Chinese Animation (volume 2), edited by Sun Lijun. Routledge, 2022. 220pp. →

By Hui YAN Chen Shaopeng’s recent publication The New Generation in Chinese Animation is based on his PhD dissertation, which Isabel Galway kindly reviewed in 2018. His book follows the general layout of the dissertation. The first chapter, the introduction, provides the historical background of NGCCA, the acronym for “New Generation of Chinese Cinematic Animation” … Continue reading The New Generation in Chinese Animation, by Shaopeng Chen. Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. 304 pp. →

By Thomas William Whyke and Joaquin Lopez-Mugica  Sun Lijun’s edited book The History of Chinese Animation, volume I, is a readable and analytical lengthy study of the artistry, commercial and technical aspects of Chinese animation. It constitutes one of the standout contributions to the English language scholarly field on the subject matter. The long-standing development of … Continue reading The History of Chinese Animation (volume 1), edited by Sun Lijun. Routledge, 2022. 326pp. →

By Sean Macdonald    “Humanity is far from understanding itself. The turning point of civilization’s recklessly unrestrained exploration of the abyss of consciousness has been slow to arrive. Actually, we already know that Hell is our ideal way home (31).”[i]                                                              Hu Xiaojiang, The Father on the Moon Before I read this book, I was … Continue reading The Father on the Moon (Yueqiu shang de fuqin), by Hu Xiaojiang. Guangzhou: Huacheng, 2021. →

By Jason Cody Douglass Armed with a Type-38 rifle to protect herself from bandits, 16-year-old camerawoman Duan Xiaoxuan ventured into the countryside outside of Changchun with half a dozen fellow animators to complete research and preproduction for Thank You, Kitty (1950). Duan had already worked at the Northeast Film Studio for two years at that … Continue reading Chinese Animation and Socialism: From Animators’ Perspectives, edited by Daisy Yan Du. Brill, 2022. 287 pp. →