{"title":"Animation of Experiment: The Science Education Film and Useful Animation in China","authors":"Muyang Zhuang","doi":"10.1177/17468477231182914","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) produced numerous science education films. Many utilized animated effects, such as illustrations, maps and cartoons, to promote the reception of scientific knowledge and ideological messages by audiences. Current scholarship on Chinese animation history stresses films made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, neglecting animation created by filmmakers in science education film studios. In this article, the author argues that the history of useful animation in science education films provides a different approach to understanding Chinese animation as the animation of experiment. Animation functioned as scenes of experiment that enabled science education films to deliver messages of knowledge; they also inspired amateur experiment with animated filmmaking and experimental animation practices in the post-socialist era. This article analyses animation for science education films, amateur animation practices and experimental works inspired by, or that benefited from, science education filmmaking. It will enrich the scholarship on Chinese animation and shed new light on the history of Chinese animation and film culture in the PRC.","PeriodicalId":43271,"journal":{"name":"Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":"152 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477231182914","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) produced numerous science education films. Many utilized animated effects, such as illustrations, maps and cartoons, to promote the reception of scientific knowledge and ideological messages by audiences. Current scholarship on Chinese animation history stresses films made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, neglecting animation created by filmmakers in science education film studios. In this article, the author argues that the history of useful animation in science education films provides a different approach to understanding Chinese animation as the animation of experiment. Animation functioned as scenes of experiment that enabled science education films to deliver messages of knowledge; they also inspired amateur experiment with animated filmmaking and experimental animation practices in the post-socialist era. This article analyses animation for science education films, amateur animation practices and experimental works inspired by, or that benefited from, science education filmmaking. It will enrich the scholarship on Chinese animation and shed new light on the history of Chinese animation and film culture in the PRC.
期刊介绍:
Especially since the digital shift, animation is increasingly pervasive and implemented in many ways in many disciplines. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal provides the first cohesive, international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice. The journal"s scope is very comprehensive, yet its focus is clear and simple. The journal addresses all animation made using all known (and yet to be developed) techniques - from 16th century optical devices to contemporary digital media - revealing its implications on other forms of time-based media expression past, present and future.