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Shanghai Animation Film Studio

Shanghai Animation Film Studio (simplified Chinese: 上海美术电影制片厂; traditional Chinese: 上海美術電影製片廠; pinyin: Shàng Hǎi Měi Shù Diàn Yǐng Zhì Piān Chǎng) also known as SAFS (simplified Chinese: 美影厂; traditional Chinese: 美影廠; pinyin: Měi Yǐng Chǎng) is a Chinese animation studio based in Shanghai, China. As part of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation, Shanghai Animation Film Studio was officially established in April, 1957, by the lead of pioneer animators and artists including Te Wei, and Wan Brothers. It has produced around 500 films with over 40,000 minutes of original animation data source, covering 80% of China's domestic animation production.

History

Establishment (1949-1957)

In 1949, at the time of the People of Republic China has established, the Ministry of Culture sent a group of young animators, including Te Wei (1915-2010), the caricaturist, and Jing Shi (1919-1997), the painter, to Changchun Film Studio, as known as Northeast Film Studio before 1946, to start an animation team. As Te Wei described, the pioneers had lack of knowledge and technique regarding animation, so at the time Te Wei led the team to study animation productions done by Soviet Union.

In 1950, transferred to Shanghai, where advanced animating equipments and human resource were available, the animation team was expanded by the join of new young artists from Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Suzhou and other leading institutions. Meanwhile, as the political situation got stabilized in China, the Wan Brothers, Wan Chaochen and Wan Laiming, the earliest Chinese animators, returned to Shanghai to join the group. In 1957, Shanghai Animation Film Studio was officially set up as an independent department under the Ministry of Culture. Te Wei as the director and the head of the studio, led over 200 workers at the time to create educational and entertaining animated films for children. While learning animation technique from overseas, the pioneers started to explore new methods to reflect Chinese cultural characteristics, including using puppet, paper-cutting, traditional Chinese art elements such as Beijing Opera masking. The Magical Pen (1955)and The Conceited General (1956), two of the most representative films at the time, brought up attention world widely and won a series of domestic and international awards.

The founding of Shanghai Animation Film studio was also promoted by the "Hundred Flowers Campaign" in 1956, that the government of Communist Party encouraged the development and innovation of technology and art in China.

The Golden Age (1957-1966)

After the success of he Magical Pen (1955)and The Conceited General (1956), the studio got additional supports from the government which encourage them to study Western animations and develop their own models and methods that are truly Chinese. The period of 1957 to 1966 was described as the golden age of Chinese animation films especially because of the high productivity and quality of Shanghai Animation Film Studio. Along with the creative techniques and outstanding Chinese artistry, a number of animated films have reached the top level internationally.

Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, pointed that "Animation films are rather outstanding with their special and unique style in the Chinese Film Industry"At the period of "Golden Age", the studio developed various innovative techniques expressing national style. In 1958, Wan Guchan, with young animator Hu Jinqing, and his crew developed a new animating technique, Jianzhi, based on Chinese traditional paper-cuts and produced the first Jianzhi style animation, Piggy (Zhubajie) Eats the Watermelon (Zhubajie Chi Xi Gua)(1958). Te Wei, inspired by the famous ink wash artist Qi Baishi, directed first ink-wash and brush-painting style animated film - Where is mama(Xiao Ke Dou Zhao Mama) (1960), which won high valued awards at movie festivals including the Locarno International Film Festival in 1961, the 4th Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1962 and 17th Cannes Film Festival in 1964. In 1963, Te Wei and Qian Jajun produced the second ink-wash and brush-painting animation, Buffalo Boy and the Flute (1963). At the same period, Yu Zhenguang (1906-1991) directed first folded-paper animation, A Clever Duckling(1963), featuring a folk craft technique, Zhezhi(as known as Japanese Origami).

The most well-known animation produced at Shanghai Animation Film Studio is Havoc in Heaven (Da Nao Tian Gong)(1961,1964), directed by Wan Laiming as his second cel animation. He adopted many features from Chinese stage art for environmental design, character design, movement reference (especially in Beijing Opera's military style)and the beautiful rich color palette. The movie was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in 1965 and won wide praises from international audience.

At the period of "the golden age", Shanghai Animation Film studio produced good amount of remarkable animated films in various forms including The adventures of The Little Fisherman(1959), The Spirit of Ginseng(1961), Red Army Bridge(1964), More or Less(1964) and so on. These films has brought Chinese animation to the world stage at the time.

Nevertheless, the anti-rightist Campaign, started in 1964, and the following Cultural Revolution in 1966 gave the animation film industry a hard strike, and took away the glory of the studio.

Cultural Revolution (1966-1975)

Chinese animation was brought to a larger audience when the Cultural Revolution was initiated in 1966 through the establishment of "Peoples cinemas", which in its most primitive forms of poorer villages could be nothing but a white sheet and a projector. One of the most recognized Chinese Animations "Havoc in Heaven", which is about a legendary monkey named Wukong who wants to destroy the old world, has a strong Cultural Revolution theme. The film builds on an old Buddhist legend together with the political message of the "Four Olds campaign" "破四旧立四新" and Mao Zedong's motto "Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent". Unlike some artforms, the government did not cut Shanghai Animation Film Studio's funding. Animations was one of the art forms used to further the emancipatory ideology of the working class. Most animations made during this era made use of propaganda to educate illiterate groups of the masses about contemporary political affairs, including Support Vietnamese to Fight Against America, Expose the Peace Negotiation Conspiracy of America, and After School. Just like in La Nouvelle Vague France during the same time allot of experimentation was made with theatre and moving pictures.

Present (1975-Present)

In 1992, one of the first western companies to come in contact with the studio was "Prrfect Animation" in San Francisco, United States. They attempted to bring efficiency, dependability and quality control into the program. In 2001, the studio became part of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation.

In March 2013, the studio sued Apple Inc. for selling over 110 of their films in iTunes without authorization.

Key People

Wan Brothers (Wan Laiming, 1990-1997, Wan Guchen, 1990-1995, Wan Chaochen, 1906-1992, Wan Dihuan, 1907 - ?), the founders and pioneers of the Chinese animation industry. Made the first Asian animation feature-length film, Princess with the Iron Fan(1939).

Te Wei (22 August 1915 – 4 February 2010), caricaturist, animator, director, the first head of Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Jing Shi (1919-1997), painter, animator.

Qian Jiajun (1916 - 2011), animator, director, one of the founders of ink-wash animation.

Qian Yunda (1928-?), animator, director. character designer.

Jin Jin (1915-1989), children's writers.

Featured Films

1955 The Magic Paint-brush

1956 The Conceited General

1958 Piggy (Zhubajie) Eats the Watermelon (Zhubajie Chi Xi Gua)

1960 Where is mama(Xiao Ke Dou Zhao Mama)

1961,1964 Havoc in Heaven (Da Nao Tian Gong)

1963 Buffalo Boy and the Flute

1963 A Clever Duckling

1964 Red Army Bridge

International Cooperation

1989 Reynard The Fox with Manfred Durniok Filmproduktion (German), and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (German)

1998 Around the World in Eighty Days with Manfred Durniok Film (German)

1997 The Toothbrush Family with Southern Star Entertainment (Australia), and Film Australia

2000 A Miss Mallard Mystery with Cookie Jar Entertainment (Canada)

Current issue

A concern of SAFS today is brain drain. After 1965, American producers were forced to seek out cheap artist labours in less developed countries in order to cut their budget, due to the rising labour cost of domestic animation artists. Japan was their first choice. This boosted the development of animation production in Japan and Asia. As the Japanese industry matures, the cost rises. Japanese artists are no longer the first choice of American producers. The emergence of gifted young animation artists with minimum wage in China after the Chinese economic reform became their new option. High income with welfare promises has successfully attracted many young talents to work for American Companies.

See also

• History of Chinese Animation
• Chinese Animation