History of Chinese animation

[1] In the first century BC, the Han-era Chinese engineer Ding Huan (丁緩) invented a device "on which many strange birds and mysterious animals were attached" that were said to have "moved quite naturally", a machine that British historian Joseph Needham has speculated may have been "a variety of zoetrope".

[2][3] However, it is unclear whether Ding's device actually involved any illusion of animation or simply featured static or mechanized figures actually moving through space.

[5] Some of the first wave of influential American animations that reached Shanghai were Popeye (大力水手), and a show known as (勃比小姐)[7] that may be an off translation to what is known today as Betty Boop.

While there were overlapping progress made in the Asian regions with Japanese anime at the time, they were not geographically or artistically influential to China directly.

In April 1957 the central government would begin sponsoring the studio making it the nation's first and official animation factory.

[5] At the same time another technique called origami animation was also developed by Yu Zheguang (虞哲光) in 1960, in the film A Clever Duckling.

[16] By now Mao Zedong was promoting the animation industry only under the circumstances that it was a useful propaganda tool for his Hundred Flowers Campaign.

He would send a dangerous message to the animation industry, since his regime allowed complete freedom of expression, yet persecuted those who had views different from his political party.

The revolution was widely known for the red guard destruction crusades that would destroy artifacts, antiques, paintings, books and anything of conflicting value.

Animations such as Little Trumpeter in 1973, a story about a young boy named "Xiaoyong" who became a heroic red guard soldier.

[18] Or Little Sentinel of East China Sea a story about a young girl named "Jiedaling" who followed 3 chemical warfare workers in disguise, and called upon the People's Liberation Army to wipe out the enemy.

Their export of anime television series would reach Hong Kong, Europe and the Middle East in mass quantities via analog broadcasts directly to home.

Other films include Snow Kid (1980), Lao Mountain Taoist (1981), The Deer's Bell (1982) and Legend of Sealed Book (1983).

Among the works Three Monks (1980) and Feeling from Mountain and Water (1988) Maakisundarchoot Kemazae in 1987 were among the few animations that managed to earn awards.

While China's broadcast was catching up on Doraemon on CCTV, foreign animations like Pokémon have already been popularized worldwide spawning $15 billion in sales.

Numerous artists even ended up adopting into American and Japanese animation styles, with more noticeable changes in manhua work.

Software such as Adobe Flash and venues such as YouTube allowed for independent animators to produce Webtoons by themselves as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.

CGI special effects increased to the point where many new Chinese animation movies and series had begun to be adopted by mid-2000s with some example of DragonBlade: The Legend of Lang and Century Sonny.