Artifice, Fantasy, and Exaggeration: The Boundless Limitations of Puppets

Abstract

Artifice, Fantasy, and Exaggeration:The Boundless Limitations of Puppets Sean Macdonald (bio) Without a doubt, Jin Xi (1919–1997) is one of the masters of puppet animation in China. Jin Xi's "On the Distinguishing Characteristics of Puppet Films" is among the first explicit theoretical discussions of animation in Chinese. Jin Xi's theory shines a light on puppet animation production in China in the 1950s through a detailed discussion of themes and techniques in an international context, especially contemporary Czech and Russian (Soviet) puppet animation. In her 2011 study of the Quay Brothers, Suzanne Buchan bemoaned the scarcity of theory that focuses on puppet animation. Jin Xi's article adds an important theoretical statement to a growing body of work on international puppet animation.1 Puppet animation in China has been all but forgotten as part of animation's predigital past. Although cel-animated films such as Danao Tiangong (Uproar in Heaven; Wan Laiming, 1961, 1964) are deservedly celebrated as artistic and technical triumphs, Jin Xi's work is rarely discussed in or outside of China.2 A possible reason for the relative obscurity of Jin Xi in particular, and puppet animation in general, is an implicit selection process by which the Shanghai Animation Film Studio promoted cel animation over other forms. While films such as Danao Tiangong and Nezha naohai (Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, 1979) have received anniversary DVD packages, most puppet animation has been released only on VCD, including Jin Xi's masterpiece, the feature Kongque gongzhu (Princess Peacock, 1963). [End Page 114] By the time Jin Xi published "On the Distinguishing Characteristics of Puppet Films," he had already written and directed four films, including the first film in China to combine live-action actors and stop-motion puppets, Xiao Mei de meng (Xiao Mei's Dream, 1954), and Shen bi (The Magic Brush, 1956). Lauded at home as representative of minzu fenge (national style), The Magic Brush had just shared first prize for best children's film (category B, children aged 8–12) in the International Children's Film section of the 1956 Venice International Film Festival.3 This was also the first time an animated film from China won an international award.4 The year Jin Xi's article was published, 1957, was also the founding year of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS). "On the Distinguishing Characteristics of Puppet Films" is the first article on animation by Jin Xi, whose writings constitute some of the earliest theory about this medium in Chinese. Jin Xi was born in the northern city of Tianjin in 1919. He studied in the Department of Western Painting at the Tianjin Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, which explains his references to Western oil-painting techniques in "On the Distinguishing Characteristics of Puppet Animation." Jin Xi joined the Eighth Route Army in 1937 and the Communist Party in 1938. During the Sino-Japanese War, he served various functions as propagandist and fine-arts journalist. In 1949, he joined other animators from the Northeast Film Studio (the first Communist-controlled film studio in China) to form the animation unit of the Shanghai Film Studio, which became the SAFS.5 When the first All China Congress of Literature and Art Workers was held on July 2, 1949, Jin Xi's speech on the artist Cao Zhenfeng was published in an account of the conference in the official government newspaper, the People's Daily.6 Like Jin Xi, many of the early animators at SAFS had a background in fine arts, which probably influenced their choice of neologism for animation, meishu pian (美术片), literally, "a fine-arts film."7 [End Page 115] Jin Xi's writing is distinguished from other film and animation writing during this period by its comprehensiveness. He not only discusses the literary aspects of puppet filmmaking—the way plots are derived and thematic aspects of the films—but also demonstrates interest in the technical aspects, from the camerawork down to the construction and movement of the puppets. China's revolutionary period (1949–1976) is often remembered as a time of little red books and propaganda, but from 1949 until the early 1960s and the debacle of the Cultural Revolution, the...