台灣動畫創造力

Entering the 21^st century, animation coming along with the magical power of digitalization and visual effects began to appear widely and attract people’s attention. Those who keep an eye on Taiwanese animation will be curious about the question and discuss: When did Taiwanese animation began to develop? What kind of creativity does it possess?

According to current documents such as “Discovery of the Animation Movie”, early in 1950s and 1960s in Taiwan, there were some animation makers and AD producers producing short animation films in the roughest way. The most representative example was during 1954 – 1955, when the Guei Brothers produced a ten-minute black-and-white cartoon called “Wu Song Beating A Tiger”. However, unfortunately, we cannot find any relevant pictures or images so far.

Hence, the creativity of Taiwanese animation considered in this article will start from the 1970s. These are regarded as the foundational years of Taiwan’s animation industry. There was not only the Kuangchi Program Service who made contribution by introducing animation stand and training professionals (such as Che-hsiu Chao and Chih-chung Tsai), but also “Ying-Ren Cartoon Company” and “Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd.”(also known as CucKoos Nest) were established in 1970 and 1978 separately to develop in turns Japanese and American animation outsourcing techniques, which became the foundation of the Taiwanese animation industry. Moreover, the Government Information Office and other units, under the actual demand of advertisement effects, supported “China Youth Cartoon Company” to produce “Mending the Roof Before the Rain” (1977), “Happiness Is On Your Hand” (1978) and other social-education cartoons. Overall speaking, animation makers in Taiwan in 1970s has not only acquired the base and techniques of Cel animation through outsourcing for America and Japan, but also learned know-how of story-telling through making advertising films and social-educational animations.

However, speaking of the creativity of Taiwanese animation in 1970s, what should be emphasized is the character design in Chih-chung Tsai’s cartoon and the eyesight in animation producing and management of You-li Deng at “Chinese Cartoon Production Co., Ltd.”. Chih-chung Tsai started from art designing at the Kuangchi Program Service and opened up a close connection with Taiwanese animation circle. At first it was during the 1970s, he produced quite a few cartoons’ title-designs and advertising films; later on, he and Jin-tu Hsieh founded “Far Eastern Animation Production Co., Ltd.” to produce a series of animation feature-length films called “Old Master Q” in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the animation feature film called “Zen Taipei Ah-Kuan” took Chih-chung Tsai’s cartoon figures as its character design. Entering the 21^st ce0ntury, Chih-chung Tsai’s classic cartoons “Lao Tsi” and “Chunag Tsi” were gradually turned into electronic books of animation. This successful example does not lack significant factors, and Chih-chung Tsai’s character design is full of his personal style, which is absolutely performance with creativity. Yet, “The Rabbit and The Turtle” (color, 15 minutes, 1969) made by Che-hsiu Chao is obviously more American style. Besides, You-li Deng at “Chinese Cartoon Production Co., Ltd.” produced during 1972 to 1979 “New Journey to the West” (black and white, 10 minutes, 1972), “Change and Formation of Chinese Characters” (1973), “God’s Parade” (1975), “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” (1979), etc.—he can be said to make efforts at turning Chinese culture into animation films. In terms of 1970s, You-li Deng’s ambition for the domestic animation industry is relatively much higher.

Since the 1980s, the domestic animation industry represented by “Wang Film Productions” grew day after day. Apart from the original business with Hana Barbara, it gradually took over TV cartoons outsourcing from Disney and Warner Brothers, so “Wang Film Productions” became the major place of global animation outsourcing. As for Taiwan’s domestic animation feature-length films, in an overview, there was once a good time during the early 1980s. The best example was the “Old Master Q” made by “Far Eastern Animation Production Co., Ltd. ” in 1980 and sponsored by Sau-yee Wu from Hong Kong. The “Old Master Q” adopted by Ze Wang’s comics not only was a great hit in the theatre, but was also awarded the Best Animation of 1981’s Golden Horse Award. Afterwards, they produced a sequel series when it was still hot, aiming to expand the animation market. Besides, “Wang Film Productions” also invited movie director Wei-cheng Yu and local cosmic artist Niu Ge to collaborate to produce “Uncle Niu and Littlr Girl Niu Bustling the Diamond City”, which stirred a fever of adopting domestic comic books for animation. Unfortunately, after a period of bad box-office performance, demand for the domestic animation feature-length films stagnated.

From the other side, the Gold Harvest Award founded since 1978 encouraged a bunch of animation film makers who took animated films by 8mm and 16mm cameras from the early 1980s. These animation film makers, different from the earlier generation who received traditional Japanese and American cartoon training, learnt spontaneously from departments of mass media and art design on campus. In comparison, these animation film makers in 1980s have a better performance of more diverse materials and did not confine themselves to the Cel animation mode. Very representative examples are: stop motion animation “Mind” (1982) by C. Jay Shih and Chung-fu Gao, object animation “Floating Life” (1983) by Renli Wang, cut-out animation “Calamity” (1984) by Chung-fu Gao, crayon animation “Childhood Impression” (1985) by Cheng-yi Chang, hand-drawn animation “Dancing with the Shadow”(1986) by C. Jay Shih, direct animation “National Theme” (1988) by Hui-chung Hsieh, ink-water animation “Consciousness World” (1989) by Chung-fu Gao, etc. Generally speaking, there may be some parts that not reach maturity in terms of techniques in the works mentioned above, but they have made brave breakthroughs as experiments for the application of creating materials. In terms of expressing the reflection of creation concepts, they also surpass both the rigid narrative form of Taiwan’s educational cartoons in 1970s and the singularity of drawing materials from traditional Chinese culture. Probably due to the greater environment and climate at the time, it was a pity that these film makers of animation shorts in 1980s could not connect with the Taiwanese animation industrial circle to create animation feature length films that had both art and commercial value. This kind of situation lasted until the end of 1980s when the Broadcasting Development Fund, the predecessor of the Public Television Service Foundation, started to entrust animation production, and talents of domestic animation production had gained another performing stage.

Entering the 1990s, following the lifting of martial law in the end of 1980s and the permission of cross-Strait relative-visit, many animation companies lead by “Wang Film Productions” entered mainland China for expansion. Although “Wang Film Productions” never forget its ambition about self-made animation and invited movie director Chin-chuan Hu to plan an animation feature film called “Zhang Yu Boiling Ocean” in 1986. “Zhang Yu Boiling Ocean” experienced many obstacles and eventually turned out to be in vain. This seriously affected Wang Film Productions’ will to make animation feature films. Throughout the whole 1990s, the creativity of Taiwanese animation almost completely depended on the government’s subsidy system. Besides that the animation shorts competition, the Golden Harvest Award, continued to encourage artists like Jun-hong Lin, who made “A Day of Sisyphus” (1990) and Jack Shih, who produced “Tale of the Nihill Island” (1992), the system of subsidy in advance, such as the subsidy by The Motion Picture Development Foundation R.O.C, supported many films representative of Taiwan’s animation creativity. Among the films, there were not only animation shorts, such as “Taipei! Taipei!” (1993), but also animation feature-length films, such as “Zen Taipei Ah-Kuan”, “Anniew’s Magic Raccoon” (1997), “Grandma and Her Ghosts” (1998), and “Youth Kavalan”. C. Jay Shih’s “Taipei! Taipei!” (1993) use compound materials in narrating the historical change of Taipei city, just like a small version of Taiwan’s history. The “Zen Taipei Ah-Kuan”, with famous writer Yuan Li as the playwrighter and Chih-chung Tsai as the character-designer, include contemporary youth problems and secondary culture into the drama. “Anniew’s Magic Raccoon” directed by Wei-cheng Yu tried hard to combine Hayao Miyazaki’s style and Taiwan’s local custom in the story background and character appearance. “Grandma and Her Ghosts” directed by Hsiao-li Wang infused a lot of Taiwan folk religion’s factors into the story display and art design. “Youth Kavalan” by Wang Film Productions directly took a Taiwan aboriginal as the major character and brought the audience to return to the original and unpolluted Yilan Plain. These animation feature films subsidized in the 1990s all showed animation producers’ attempt and effort to develop Taiwanese cultural identity.

During the 1990s, the computer digitalization trend spread in Taiwan’s animation circle, and the use of computers was no longer at the discovery stage of the early 1990s. Developing at the end of 1990s, software and hardware of personal computers became more mature and popular, on top of the convenience of internet and the establishment of animation department at colleges; therefore, private animation artists and smaller animation studios emerged like bamboo shoots after rain, which brought energy to Taiwan’s animation circle. Among them, many representative school artists showed their talent in the 21^st century, such as Hsiao-yun Shih, who made ink-water animation “Female”, Li-wei Chiu, who made 3D PC animation “Stars at the Window” , Hsian-yuan Chiu, who made digital 2D animation “Jie”, Kang-wei Chen, who made digital 2D animation “The Man of the Hour”, Lung-wei Chen, who made digital stop motion animation “Exit”, Pei-wen Hsieh, who made paint-on-glass animation “Mindscape”, and Shi-ming Huang, who made 3D computer animation “Meteor”. Compared with animation film makerrs in the 1980s, these animation new talents in the late 1990s were more sophisticated in handling animation skills, and their ambition to connect with the international circle was more urgent. Some of the works mentioned have been enlisted and played at different international animation festivals. However, there are quite a few studios relying on the internet to attract people’s attention which cannot be neglected, such as the “Spring House Entertainment Inc.” which produced internet animation “A-kuei”, and the kokoro, which produced internet animation “Star Picking”. If we say that the academic school takes an elite’s creation road, undoubtedly “A-kuei” and “Star Picking” take a demotic road. “A-kuei” touched the local internet audience’s heart by humor and common life experience; “Star Picking” was adapted from famous writer Eric Wu, and its elegant and romantic love story once attracted numerous people to click and read it on the internet.

Recently, the Taiwanese government realized the economic effect of animation industry and is willing to make animation industry into a star industry. After proposing the “2000 Millions; Double Star” project in 2002, several digital schools were established one by one, the government subsidized international animation festivals and stipulated various regulations to stimulate the animation industry. Up to now, there are two animation feature films that received governmental assistance and have indicating meaning which are the “The Butterfly Lovers” produced by You-li Deng and the “Fire Ball” by Wang Film Productions. These two films used digital hand-drawn animation combining with 3D computer animation background and special effect, and try to create a fever for Chinese animation films.

However, in reviewing Taiwan’s creativity in animation, it is noticed that, due to the consideration about the box-office, big companies in investing in animation feature films production often confine themselves; animation shorts have more freedom. Beginning from the 1970s while learning industrial technology and management, ending in today’s digital production technology era, Taiwanese animation has developed for over 30 years. The government’s subsidy obviously encouraged many good animation pieces, but it is still very low payment for the works. Making the financial environment healthier, increasing enterprises’ will to invest in animation films, making a good use of animation shorts directors’ experiment and creativity, and combining with the commercial system -- all of these will bring a flowering of Taiwanese animation’s creativity.