Development of Chinese ethnic minorities animation films from the perspective of globalisation

Abstract

Globalisation has caused inevitable social and cultural changes around the world. New social reality creates new challenges for society, and one of the ways to attract the attention of a large global audience is to produce high-quality animations. This study sought to determine what effect Chinese animation films about ethnic minorities have on international viewers. In order to achieve this goal, ten Chinese animations about ethnic minorities were selected and asked to be watched and evaluated by two groups of respondents from all over the world: Group 1 (ethnocultural experts, n = 24 and graduates of cultural specialties (undergraduates and masters), n = 102) and Group 2 (preschool, primary, and secondary school teachers, n = 112). Participants’ interest and engagement in watching the animations were assessed by the number of likes, comments, and willingness to share them. In sum, it was noted that only four of all the proposed animation films elicited a reaction from the majority of respondents, indicating low engagement and interest in the selected samples. Pedagogical, social, and developmental perspectives of promoting critical media literacy in international viewers through viewing the selected animations were rated on a four-point scale, 4 being very influential, 3—somewhat influential, 2—slightly influential, and 1—not influential at all. On this basis, the pedagogical perspective was evaluated by most respondents as slightly influential, social perspective as very influential (teachers) and slightly influential (experts), developmental perspective as slightly influential (teachers) and somewhat influential (experts), and cultural perspective as slightly influential. These findings imply no broad prospects for critical media literacy development after watching the selected Chinese animations about ethnic nationalities among international viewers. Against this background, this paper proposes a strategy to promote national values through animations. The implementation strategy consists of four steps: creating attractive animation, introducing fashion for cultural values, improving quality and adding special video effects, and borrowing best practices from other industries. The research results can be useful for animation developers, travel agencies, politicians, and the legislative and executive branches.