According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing China and Japan)?

According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing China and Japan)?

According to Lents (2000) article “Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation” animation plays in an important part in Asian society, Animation plays a huge role both economically and culturally. However, while animation is generally popular in the Asian countries mentioned in Lents (2000) article there are major differences in how each country has dealt and currently deals with the rise of animation.

Common Ground:

According to Lent (2000) although each different country has their own history and rise to popularity in relation to animation, the one factor they all seem to have in common is that they all seem to have hailed from western animation. Because of this most early Asian animation were influenced heavily by western animation especially Disney animation. This is especially seen in the early Chinese created character of the smiling monkey which was seen as a copy of the Disney character Mickey Mouse and also in Indian animation “The Pea brothers” which also heavily drew on Disney animation style (Lent, 2000). However, drawing on western style especially those of Disney was generally looked favourably upon as Lent (2000) states “pioneer animators such as James Wang of Taiwan, Payut Ngaokrachang of Thailand, Tezuka of Japan, and Shin Dong Hun of Korea proudly accepted the title "the Disney" of their respective countries, handed out by journalists and adoring fans”.

Animation in China:

The Han brothers are originally believed to have brought animation to China in 1923. Along with influences from western animation and Disney they also drew inspiration from Chinese shadow puppet theatre and Beijing Opera elements which continued to be used in Chinese animation. Lent (2000) detailed that although China imitated American works they only used the elements of foreign animation that fit their culture and never fully adopted foreign animation. Lent (2000) compares this element of Chinese animation with other countries. Stating that China achieved this better than other Asian countries except maybe Japan. Chinese animation continued to evolve including more and more indigenous stories as well as designing unique animation techniques such as paper-cut, ink and wash (shuimo dong huapian), and folded paper.

Animation in India:

Animation in India was first seen during world war one. D.G. Phalke known as "father of Indian cinema" produced animated shorts when he could not acquire the funds to produce live action shows. Like China and Japan, Indian animation drew on western themes and animation techniques. However, Indian animation was not met upon as favourably as other Asian counterparts as seen in a quote by Bendazzi (as cited in Lent, 2000) that Indian Animation always

“Betrays the ethnic heritage of local animators and almost always borrows from Western productions. The few films referring to the extremely rich figurative, pictorial and colourist tradition of the country can be counted on the fingers of one hand and to quote a young Indian animator and journalist (Kireet Khurana) - "Animation in India is still waiting for a prince."

This links into Lents comments on how Chinese and Japanese animation only takes elements of foreign animation that are relevant to their culture as an example of what may happen if you borrow to much from a foreign source. Although Indian animation was looked down upon it still had some animators who still incorporated Indian themes those who “kept in touch with their own soil”. (Jayanti Sen as cited in Lent, 2000).

Animation in Japan:

Japanese animation is not discussed much in Lents article it is however mentioned in contrast to other Asian countries. Lent (2000) suggests that Japanese animation has kept to indigenous influences in their works even more so than China. Japanese animation or anime as it is more commonly known as is very popular not only in Japan and Asian countries but also globally. The popular television network Cartoon Network is an example of this. Cartoon Network views both western and Japanese animation and airs in many different countries e.g. United States, Singapore, Australia and even here in New Zealand. However, the popularity of Anime has not always been looked upon positively. In the Philippines residents complained about Japanese robot anime fearing that it was "intended to facilitate acceptance of Japanese war technology" (Constantino as cited in Lent, 2000). There were also complaints about the violence and sexual content of anime that led to bans of it being shown before midnight in Singapore. The most extreme case of anime rejection was in Korea and Taiwan where for decades anime was banned for fear of cultural imperialism.

References:

Lent, A. J. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1100/jlfr11c.htm