A new cartoon series produced by China Central Television (CCTV)
borrows traditional Chinese storytelling such as paper-cutting and
shadow puppets, but uses computer software to animate the
stories.
The 12-episode, 120-minute cartoon series, uses digital Flash
media, to bring the old art form to the broadcast media.
Paper-cutting and shadow puppetry are traditional Chinese folk arts
that have a history of more than 1,000 years.
The series will be aired from October16 to 28 on CCTV's third
channel, said Zhang Liang, a director of cartoons with the TV
station.
In the past, artists would fold and cut amusing and intricate
figures from a piece of paper to depict landscapes, flowers, birds,
animals and human figures.
Shadow puppet masters would use two dimensional painted leather
figures to cast shadows a white cloth. The masters would manipulate
the puppets which were characters in their stories.
All the new computerized programs are based on classic works
from comic dialogue masters such as Hou Baolin, and comic skit
players like Zhao Benshan and Chen Peisi.
"Indigenous traditional culture has not been well explored by
Chinese cartoon makers," said Xu Pengfei, director of the cartoon
art committee of the China Artists Association.
China's first cartoons were produced in 1926. Its cartoon
industry boomed between 1950s and 1970s, but audiences dwindled in
the late 1970s, when an increasing number of foreign cartoons began
to be broadcast in China.
In the past few years, China's cartoon industry has been seeking
a revival with the support of government funding and tax breaks. In
2005, China's cartoon industry was worth 60 billion yuan (US$7.5
billion).
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(Chinanews October 16, 2006)
