Resumen de Animation: A New Method of Educational Communication in China
Animation has always been considered a minor art and it has been neglected by the media experts – although it has a very ancient history and is so successful on the world market. From 2006 to the present, the Chinese Government has considered animation a key sector for the birth of a new national identity and for cultural development in China. In 2004 China used to produce less than 30 titles with about 20,000 minutes of animation products for TV and cinema. Thanks to the Chinese Government’s support, in few years China has become the world’s leading producer of animation. All the animation products from the production to the distribution are under control of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television agency (SARFT). Animation is considered not only a business but also a new method of communication. The Chinese Government supports businesses but ask that the animation products made in their studios have to provide for an educational feature in order to teach and educate the next generation of young people in the context of soft power. In this paper, we try to outline the actual situation of animation in China, focusing on the new methods of production and distribution of animation in the country. We conduct the analysis from a comparative point of view, in order to better study and analyse the traditional way of creating animation and the new methods. The second part of the paper deals with the artists and the new methods of distribution used in China in the last 10 years. The aim of this paper is to give an overall view of the state of animation in China and above all to understand this new way of communication, such as animation, which can influence the new Chinese generation as well as foreigners
