What is Lost Moving from “Shanzhai” to Global: On the Video Game Genshin Impact (2020)

Research Center, Short Essays

By Yasheng She What does it take to transcend a national border to be globally recognized, and what are the responsibilities of being on the global stage? I will attempt to answer these two questions in my analysis of three incidents surrounding the open-world roleplaying game Genshin Impact (2020). While video game is distinct from … Continue reading What is Lost Moving from “Shanzhai” to Global: On the Video Game Genshin Impact (2020) →

The Propagandist’s Palette: The Art of Manhua Magazine (1950-1960)

Articles, Research Center

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 these campaigns … Continue reading The Propagandist’s Palette: The Art of Manhua Magazine (1950-1960) →

The Artisanal Sensorial, or Lei Lei’s Geometrical Regime of Animated Images

Articles, Research Center

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 →

A Brief History of Ink-painting Animation in Hong Kong

Research Center, Short Essays

By Ann Y. Y. Leung The world-renowned style of Chinese ink-painting animation emerged in 1960 with the release of Little Tadpoles Look for Mama, produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. In terms of art style, this animation studio released a similar animated short film, The Herd Boy’s Flute in 1963, and then Deer Bell … Continue reading A Brief History of Ink-painting Animation in Hong Kong →

The Father on the Moon (Yueqiu shang de fuqin), by Hu Xiaojiang. Guangzhou: Huacheng, 2021.

Book Reviews, Research Center

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. →

New Frontier of Digital Media and Entertainment: Exploring Entrepreneurship in the Chinese Digital Game Industry, Ph.D. Dissertation, by Gejun Huang, University of Texas at Austin, 2020. 179 pp.

Dissertation Reviews, Research Center

By Daniel Dooghan Gejun Huang’s dissertation seeks to understand how gaming entrepreneurship works in China. Rather than adopting a top-down approach through the analysis of government policy, Huang goes to the entrepreneurs themselves to learn how—and if—government and industry supports function as intended. The dissertation employs a dataset of 33 interviews with gaming entrepreneurs in … Continue reading New Frontier of Digital Media and Entertainment: Exploring Entrepreneurship in the Chinese Digital Game Industry, Ph.D. Dissertation, by Gejun Huang, University of Texas at Austin, 2020. 179 pp. →

Chinese Animation and Socialism: From Animators’ Perspectives, edited by Daisy Yan Du. Brill, 2022. 287 pp.

Book Reviews, Research Center

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. →

Bell Boy: Cartoonists and Animated Filmmaking in Southern China, 1940–1949

Short Essays

By Muyang Zhuang In December 2020, an exhibition was held by the Guardian Art Center in Beijing to celebrate the 120th birthday of Zhang Guangyu (1900–1965), one of the most important Chinese cartoonists. According to the curator, Zhang Guangyu was the pioneer of not only Chinese cartoons, but also graphic design and animation.[1]The curator divided … Continue reading Bell Boy: Cartoonists and Animated Filmmaking in Southern China, 1940–1949 →

Animation and the Republican Chinese Film Industry

Research Center, Short Essays

By Christopher Rea Animation appears throughout Chinese cinema of the Republican era (1912-1949). Historians have paid close attention to the handful of available fully-animated Republican films. Yet dozens of live-action films also include animated segments, and examining where, when, and why such short animations appear might open up new possible approaches both to animation studies … Continue reading Animation and the Republican Chinese Film Industry →

Journey to the Best: A Journey through Law and Policy for a Flourishing Chinese Animation Industry

Research Center, Short Essays

By Adela Hurtado It was Fall 2016, and I was studying law for a semester in Shanghai at the East China University of Political Science and Law (“ECUPL”) when I first became interested in Chinese animation. I had loved China itself since I was a child after reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” in the … Continue reading Journey to the Best: A Journey through Law and Policy for a Flourishing Chinese Animation Industry →