Author: SUMAN LI

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Tarasiewicz，Joanna. “Does Dubbing Still Make Sense in Animation?” April 04, 2023

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Wu, Valerie. “Visualizing The World: Chinese Storytelling In Animation” December 6, 2021

Visualizing the World: Chinese Storytelling in Animation

The “Kung Fu Panda 3” movie, a Sino-American collaboration in 2016, has achieved good results, and it has the potential to build stronger cross-cultural ties between China and the United States. Rocen Digital’s brand manager Zhang sees the film as a Chinese wrapper for American characters and American storylines. For example, Po, the panda protagonist in the film, uses exaggerated body language and has a distinctly non-Chinese personality. Practitioners in the Chinese cartoon industry are eager to create cartoons with Chinese characteristics. The desperate hunt to craft a Chinese identity for local animations is problematic in itself, says Xue Yanping, a teacher of animation at Beijing’s Communication University of China. He believes that the values we hold will naturally bring our own concepts and aesthetics to the works. Xu (2009) believes that the success of the American comic industry is inseparable from the intriguing content and entertaining effect of its works. Most of the cartoon images are exaggerated: big head, big eyes, big hands and big feet. It has become a widely used animation mode widely used by other countries in the world. By referring to the excellent characteristics of animations in the United States and other countries, it is very important to develop animations with Chinese special and Chinese cultural characteristics.

Directed by
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Alessandro Carloni

In China, apart from seeing popular cartoon characters on TV, it is reflected in every aspect of our lives. “SpongeBob SquarePants” tops the ratings of China Central Television’s Children’s Channel. Tom and Jerry is also a cartoon that attracts Chinese children to watch. They have extended a lot of products beyond TV. For example, people will see these funny cartoon characters on stationery, clothes, or games. The cat and mouse mobile game, launched exclusively in China by NetEase Games in May 2019, is popular, with more than 100 million users in China. The gameplay revolves around a one-on-four setup, with the larger number playing Jerry and his friends, while the single number controls Tom and tries to catch the mouse.

American cartoons in China have been dubbed in Chinese, so that Chinese children can better understand the content of the animation. Animation dubbing replaces the existing original version of the dialog with newly recorded sound to adapt the audio track of the animation to a different culture or country. It is an essential audio component in visual content because it can help the video resonate better with the audience . (Joanna Tarasiewicz) This allows children to have a closer and localized connection with cartoon characters from foreign countries. International Television Asia (ITA) has acquired the rights in China to some of the world’s most popular cartoons and cartoon characters, and Echelon Entertainment, which owns a significant catalog of American animated cartoons, has teamed up with ITA to introduce these classic American icons to children in China. Because there is violence in some cartoon animations, and for the development of China’s domestic animation industry, Radio and Television has banned the broadcast of some foreign animations.

Chinese animation started in the 1920s, inspired by French, German, Russian and mostly American productions. One of the first examples of foreign animation did not land in Shanghai until 1918. This piece of animation from the US was titled (Jump From the Inkwell out), known today as Out of the Inkwell. Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan were then recognized as China’s animation pioneers when they produced the first animation short Uproar in the Studio running 10 to 12 minutes long in black and white. They wanted to develop unique Chinese animation style. In addition, they believe that Chinese animation should be instructive, logical and thought-provoking in addition to entertaining the audience.

After the 1980s, many new-born Chinese children grew up watching cartoons, especially those born after 2000. The widespread dissemination of the cartoon industry has allowed Chinese children to learn about many American cartoon characters. In my childhood, I watched a lot of cartoons. This includes Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Bears, SpongeBob SquarePants, Tom and Jerry, Happy Superman, Mr. Bean and more. They brought me a lot of joy, and I got to know the cartoon characters among them. When I watched them on the screen, the language they spoke was Chinese. Later I learned that some of the cartoon characters were born from countries all over the world, and they were presented on the TV screens of Chinese children after being packaged with copyright and dubbing. Among them, SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward, Tom, and Jerry, which impressed me deeply, were born in the United States. When these cartoon characters appear in China, will their characteristics be different from those presented in the United States? The change of language makes the images of these cartoon characters more vivid and interesting.

Uploaded: Jan 27, 2019
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