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Cartoon industry more than mere child’s play
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I was waiting for a bus on Fuzhou Rd a couple of weeks ago. Steps away, in a bookstore window, a collection of traditional Chinese graphic novels sat on display.
I rushed inside the shop and found such classic titles as “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Railway Guerrillas.” I bought two sets of “Romance of Flowers in the Mirror” — often described as China’s answer to “Gulliver’s Travels.”
Such books, typically bound with string and printed on paper one-fourth the size of standard A4 sheets, were once a major form of popular culture in China. For adults and children alike, they offered an easy and vivid window into a world of knowledge and literature.
What’s more, because of their comparative popularity, many of China’s most skilled writers and artists turned their hands toward producing graphic novels in decades gone by. The Beijing People’s Fine Arts Publishing House and its Shanghai counterpart were both two major sources of such works.
I can still remember my own eager eyes focusing on such books each time I walked through a book store with my parents. They bought me complete sets of classic comics, including “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” “Journey to the West” and even a graphic edition of “David Copperfield.”
For some series, it took me several years to assemble a complete collection of volumes. Without specific distribution dates, I haunted local book shops waiting for the next installment to hit the shelves.
By the time I entered middle school though, Chinese graphic novels were in the process of being eclipsed by Japanese manga in terms of popularity.
The last one I bought was volume three of “Fourth Room on the Second Floor,” a spy story about special agents, conspiracies and a mole in the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. I was a grade-eight student then.
After that, these books faded away from my sight.
Japanese manga books and their derivatives were all the rage at the time.
Of course, Japanese writers and cartoonists take their craft very seriously and I was deeply impressed by the stories and complex philosophical ideas behind Japanese animation works like “Ghost in the Shell” and the “Appleseed” series.
Aside from Japanese output, American super heroes and Disney almost hold up the other half of the sky in the cartoon and animation market.
But what about China’s own cartoons? Several animated television channels have hit Chinese airwaves over recent years, but the local stuff they show seems crude and shoddy compared with the polished works coming from overseas. Many also contain plots lifted directly from foreign bestsellers.
Animation is a key part of a country’s soft power.
‘Hero is back’
The situation has changed somewhat recently. There has been a resurgence of interest in Chinese comic books, while the animated film “Monkey King: Hero is Back” was one of this summer’s big blockbuster films. Looking ahead, an updated version of “Mr Black” — based on an animated television show from the 1980s — is said to be on the horizon.
I’ve also heard that local authorities and artists are working on a new comic book version of “Sihang Warehouse and the Eight Hundred Heroes,” a well-known story set in Shanghai during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
I first encountered this story in an early edition of Children’s Pictorial when I was four of five.At the same time though, many in Shanghai are looking forward to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland. For the time being though, Disney merchandise continues to fly off the shelves at Shanghai’s recently opened Disney retail outlet.
But where is the merchandise for our own cartoon images? Where is China’s own dreamland? We have made some gratifying steps toward rejuvenating our own animation industry. Let’s hope more progress is not too far away.
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