Research Theme:
Character design and culture.
Research Topic:
Culturally-significant character design in positioning Chinese animation.
Hypothesis:
Mainland Chinese animations can achieve great popularity with culturally-significant character design.
Research Problem:
The challenge of creating culturally-significant character design in positioning Chinese animation. OR
The lack of culturally-significant character design in positioning Chinese animation.
Research Rationale:
It is an undeniable fact that character design is one of the most important elements in creating a great animation. But, how important is it? According to Marshall (2007), character design is important because “telling the story of a character visually is the starting premise of effective animation”. Physical appearance, shapes, colours are some of the aspects in character design which help character designers to translate concepts in their minds into visual output on the cinema screen. Aside from that other elements such as the style chosen for the character, be it traditional or modern style, has a great influence towards the identity as well.
Without a strong sense of identity, a character won’t have a lasting memory in the audience’s mind. For instance, imagine Mulan without her Chinese traditional costume and sword, or Kampung Boy without his sarong. The viewers would find the characters not being as long-lasting in their memory as compared to when they first perceived them in their strong cultural characteristics. Therefore, the researcher hypothesizes that animated characters designed with traditional culture elements would attract more audiences as compared to the characters that are not culturally-significant.
In essence, the researcher believes that understanding character design in the making of Chinese animation would be a worthy topic to research because this can help the Chinese animation field to rise to greater heights.
Problem Statement:
(Ideal) According to Luo (2017), China is vigorously developing its film and television animation industry in recent years. “Although overseas animation products currently dominate the Chinese animation market, animation production in China has developed very rapidly in recent years'' (Li, 2011, p.190). This is evident through a report which states that “in 2015, ‘Monkey King: Hero Is Back’ gained the box office of nearly RMB1 billion and became the highest-grossing animated film in the history of Chinese film. In 2016, Big Fish & Begonia recorded more than RMB500 million at the box office, and the Sino-foreign co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3 exceeded RMB1 billion” (Research and Markets, 2017, para. 2). With that being said, animated character design, being part of animation, has gradually become an important subject too (Gao & Zhang, 2010). Character design is important because “telling the story of a character visually is the starting premise of effective animation” (Marshall, 2007).
(Reality) However, “facing the new trend in the development of global economic, foreign film and television animations have taken a great impact on Chinese market, which makes the images of the Chinese original animations look extremely uncompetitive” (Gao & Zhang, 2010, p.235). “Although foreign companies have provided certain opportunities for China's domestic animation design to face the world, it also has brought weaker and weaker use of Chinese elements in animation design, which makes the current China’s domestic animation design development in trouble.” (Zhou, 2017, p.127).
In another article on China Daily, Song Lei, director of the consulting and planning department at the National Animation Creative Research and Development Center, also emphasizes on the importance of having a shared style for Chinese animation companies (Han, 2019). By having a shared style, a country’s animation production can be recognized immediately (Han, 2019). For instance, Japanese animation is known for its characters’ big eyes, while the United States’s animation is recognized for their strong art style (Han, 2019). “In recent decades, China's animation industry has been chasing the pace of the national market, although there’s an increase in the number of domestic animations, they are not widely recognized by the audience” (Y. Liu & J. Liu, 2017, p.671). This is because “it is difficult to attract the audience as a lot of cartoon characters are imitations of foreign products for the lack of domestic animation with Chinese characteristics” (Y. Liu & J. Liu, 2017, p.672).
We have recognized that if there is no traditional culture in Chinese animation creation, whether it be grand, and then well-made, is only an imitation of other country’s animation (Gao & Zhang, 2010, p.237). Only when the essence of traditional culture is grasped, the animated character can have a distinctive art trait (Gao & Zhang, 2010). This is because “without identity, a character cannot be recognized or differentiated.” In essence, “culture is the foundation and guarantee of the animation industry, if the animation industry does not have its own cultural characteristics, then the animation industry will lose its direction” (Y. Liu & J. Liu, 2017, p.672).
(Consequences) In this case, integrating Chinese cultural elements in character design would be an ideal solution to solve this issue (Gao & Zhang, 2010). By establishing culturally-significant animated characters, not only can Chinese animated characters have a recognizable identity, it can also bring Chinese animation to greater highs in the animation field.
Therefore, the researcher aims to identify the essential elements which make a Chinese animated character culturally-significant. Aside from that, the researcher would also like to understand the influence of culturally-significant characters towards viewers’ animation preference to understand the importance of having culturally-significant characters in positioning Chinese animations.
Research Objectives:
Research Questions:
Reference
Luo, J. (2017). Research on the Characteristics of Chinese Animation. Retrieved from https://webofproceedings.org/proceedings_series/ESSP/ICLLA%202017/ICLLA_082538.pdf
Li, L.L. (2011). Understanding Chinese animation industry: The nexus of media, geography and policy. Creative Industries Journal, 3 (3), 189-205. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269607180_Understanding_Chinese_animation_industry_The_nexus_of_media_geography_and_policy/citations
Research and Markets. (2017, April). Global and China Animation Industry Report 2017: Output Value of Animation Industry will Keep Expanding, with an Expected RMB150 Billion in 2017 and more than RMB230 Billion in 2021 - Research and Markets. Business Wire (English). Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.taylors.edu.my/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=da47f2fe-2d44-4fd3-98bc-d417c7ed15e2%40sdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=bwh&AN=bizwire.c80103990
Gao, X., & Zhang, L. (2010). Discussing on the Traditional Chinese Elements and Animation Design. Retrieved from https://file.scirp.org/pdf/20-1.69.pdf
Marshall, C. (2007). Character Design: An Analysis Guided by Semiotics. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.my/books/about/Character_Design.html?id=AGwGngEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Zhou, Y. (2017). Application of Chinese National Culture Elements in Animation Design. Doi: 10.12783/dtetr/mcee2017/15742
Yang, H. (2019, June 13). ANIMATION INDUSTRY EYES GLOBAL MARKET. ChinaDaily.com. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/global/2019-06/13/content_37480193.htm
Liu, Y., & Liu, J. (2017, July). (Atlantis Press). Research on the cartoon culture and national image construction. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 119, 671-675. https://doi.org/10.2991/essaeme-17.2017.135
Research on the Characteristics of Chinese Animation : https://webofproceedings.org/proceedings_series/ESSP/ICLLA%202017/ICLLA_082538.pdf
Application of Chinese National Culture Elements in Animation Design:file:///C:/Users/Asus/Downloads/15742-25983-1-PB%20(2).pdf
Research on the cartoon culture and national image construction file:///C:/Users/Asus/Downloads/25880779.pdf
UNUSED
Market Analysis about Successful Animation Characters and The Important Elements Point of Create Animated Characters : file:///C:/Users/Asus/Downloads/25849211.pdf
Inheritance and Innovation: A Study of the Animation Character Design Education Based on the Chinese Mythology:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fe36/9107530d8fe5034cb2166ca6fdf3906963f9.pdf
file:///C:/Users/Asus/Downloads/25849211%20(2).pdf
solving the problem of blending traditional culture and China-style animation character is very meaningful for accommodating the environment of integration of world art as soon as possible, carrying forward the national spirit, mining the animation design talents, improving the level of Chinese animated image design and creating world-class cartoon stars.
Character design with traditional cultural elements in positioning Chinese animation. OR
Animation for comparison: Thru the Moebius Strip