International Animation Day: The development of Chinese animation

On October 28, 1892, Emile Reynaud made history by publicly screening the first animated film at the Grevin Museum in Paris. In recognition of this groundbreaking event, the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) designated October 28 as the International Animation Day to commemorate the birth of animation.

In 1922, the Wan brothers produced the first animated advertisement in China, "Shu Zhen Dong Chinese Typewriter," marking the beginning of a century-long history of Chinese animation. In the mid-20th century, major animation production bases, such as Shanghai Animation Film Studio, produced many classic domestic animated films under the creative principle of exploring the national style.

In recent years, animated films such as "Monkey King: Hero is Back," "Big Fish & Begonia," "White Snake" and "Ne Zha," while adhering to traditional Chinese aesthetics, have achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success due to their exceptional production quality. In 2023, "Chang'an" and "Boonie Bears: Guardian Code" have grossed over 1 billion yuan (about $140 million) at the box office. By rooting itself in Chinese culture and national art, Chinese animation successfully promotes the fine traditions of Chinese culture and embodies the essence of Chinese aesthetics.

The 14th China International Animation Copyright Fair (ACTIF), which took place from October 24 to 27 in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, serves as a window for the Chinese film and animation industry to engage with the world. Centered around the theme of "Global Animation Trends of the Future," this year's fair attracted over 500 companies and institutions from 60 countries and regions, showcasing more than 1,500 IPs. The event highlighted new content, technologies and business models in the domestic and international film and animation industry.

A dedicated "Animation Technology Equipment Exhibition" was also set up, featuring cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, generative AI and bare-eye 3D interaction. These innovations allowed attendees to immerse themselves in new ways to experience animation in the virtual world, showcasing the emerging trends of convergence between animation and other industries.

With the rapid advancement of technology, the animation industry and its related fields are seizing new opportunities. In February 2024, China Media Group (CMG) launched China's first AI-generated animated series, "Poems of Timeless Acclaim."

Built upon a vast collection of Chinese audio-visual language resources from the CMG, "Poems of Timeless Acclaim" incorporates the latest technologies involving controllable image generation, dynamic character generation and text-to-video synthesis. 

Traditionally, producing a series like this would have taken at least eight months given the same budget. However, with the support of China's independent AIGC technology and CMG's vast audio-visual corpus, the production cycle was significantly reduced to four months. This demonstrates a substantial increase in production efficiency. 

(Cover via CFP)