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Cartoonists Turn to Traditional Arts for Inspiration

Anew cartoon series produced by China Central Television (CCTV) borrows traditional Chinese storytelling techniques 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 forms to broadcast media. Paper-cutting and shadow puppetry are traditional Chinese folk arts that have histories of more than 1,000 years.

The series began airing on October 16 on CCTV-3, said Zhang Liang, a director of cartoons with the TV station.

In the past, artists folded and cut amusing and intricate figures from a piece of paper to depict landscapes, flowers, birds, animals and human figures. Shadow puppet masters used two-dimensional painted leather figures to cast rear-lighted shadows onto a white cloth. The masters would manipulate the puppets that were characters in their stories.

All the new computerized programmes are based on classic works from comic dialogue masters such as Hou Baolin and comic skit players such as 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 during the 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).