AHC/PC/WI: Have Anime Originate In China

Instead of Japan being the birthplace of anime how can China take that role? Is it plausible even within the instability or does China needs to find a better equilibrium for that to happen? How would Chinese-style anime be different from OTL Japanese anime?
 
Anime is the long term result of Japanese animators and cartoonists basing their artwork off of Walt Disney. So have the Chinese do that and it's anime. However, by the same token, it takes a proper infrastructure for film animation and cartooning. China was in a shaky position in that era. Japan was a modern world power.
 
The term 'anime' itself is derived from the Japanese loanword for animation, so it's likely Chinese animation called something else. For China to have an equivalent, it would require a lot of developments in limited animation (i.e. reuse of stock frames, reduced frame rate, etc.), as well as influences brought over from the United States (i.e. comics, Disney cartoons). Unfortunately, the environment just isn't there for it. Between a long period of civil war, anti-Western feelings and rabid censorship to preserve either tradition (in Taiwan) or revolutionary ideology (in China), comic artists for mature themes are few and far between, AFAIK.

Have a China more open and accepting of Western animation and comic styles would help a great deal, just as long as it doesn't get infected by Saturday Morning Cartoon syndrome.
 
One thing I found really interesting in China was that there were a lot of very old-looking cheap comic books being sold at markets, but most of them seem to be adventure stories set in WWII or the Civil War aimed largely at young boys, rather than the more mature themes in a lot of Japanese animation.
 
A communist governement launches a "culural revolution" in Japan, Japanese animators flee to a China where the nationalists won?
 
The interesting thing is Russia had a pretty interesting animation industry during the communist era. One of their most famous cartoons was a really violent Tom and Jerry (Worker and Parasite might have been based off it).
 
Not sure if it's just Sinocentric wishing thinking but I heard that Japanese animation got a boost in the 1920s when a Japanese guy in Manchuria saw some early work being done there and expanded on it when he got back to Japan. Of course, what we know as "anime" was strongly influenced by Disney.

One way to have 'anime' have more of a Chinese slant is if China never goes communist. The Chinese are likely to maintain better relations with other Asian countries and this could influence the animation scene.

Linguistics: The term "anime" is of course derived from "animation." however there exists also the Japanese word "douga," which is from the Chinese "donghua" 動畫, or "moving picture."
 
I'm unsure. Are you asking for a globally popular animation style/industry to emerge in China? Or literally Anime? They're two rather different questions.

Asking the latter would be like asking for Rock and Roll to emerge in Iran or Reggae to emerge in Yugoslavia. The cultural conditions just aren't there, and a Chinese Anime wouldn't really be Anime. Of course, cultural products can spread, and I'm sure there were Yugoslav Reggae acts, but derivation from another culture isn't really the same as having its creation be somewhere else.
 
I'm unsure. Are you asking for a globally popular animation style/industry to emerge in China? Or literally Anime? They're two rather different questions.

Asking the latter would be like asking for Rock and Roll to emerge in Iran or Reggae to emerge in Yugoslavia. The cultural conditions just aren't there, and a Chinese Anime wouldn't really be Anime. Of course, cultural products can spread, and I'm sure there were Yugoslav Reggae acts, but derivation from another culture isn't really the same as having its creation be somewhere else.

How are the cultural conditions between China and Japan are different? Aside from Communism though we're going to have to butterfly that for purposes of this thread.
 
How are the cultural conditions between China and Japan are different? Aside from Communism though we're going to have to butterfly that for purposes of this thread.

How are Chinese and Japanese cultures different? I don't really know where to starts. A thousand years of separate historical development? The cuisine is different, the languages are different, the literary traditions are different, the geopolitical outlook, the introspection, the political structures, the visual arts, musical traditions, religion. There's a world of difference between Japanese and Chinese culture.
 
How are Chinese and Japanese cultures different? I don't really know where to starts. A thousand years of separate historical development? The cuisine is different, the languages are different, the literary traditions are different, the geopolitical outlook, the introspection, the political structures, the visual arts, musical traditions, religion. There's a world of difference between Japanese and Chinese culture.

I always thought they were similar mainly because China was a big influence on Japan.
 
I always thought they were similar mainly because China was a big influence on Japan.

Yeah in several cultural aspects, that the Japanese had either adopted or at some later point got replaced or rejected by the time of the 1900's. If your talking about an animation industry similar to what is in Japan, but not exactly anime, your best bet would be to keep the Republic of China alive without Yuan Shikai screwing things up.
 
How are Chinese and Japanese cultures different? I don't really know where to starts. A thousand years of separate historical development? The cuisine is different, the languages are different, the literary traditions are different, the geopolitical outlook, the introspection, the political structures, the visual arts, musical traditions, religion. There's a world of difference between Japanese and Chinese culture.
Japanese culture is mediaeval Tang culture. Japan follows shintoism, which is a localized version of buddhism, of which was extremely prominent in China during the Tang. Japan was very much isolationist until the black ships, very much like China. Japan's written language is based of Tang era Chinese, and still is remotely readable for a Chinese person. Tang clothing is basically identical to Japanese traditional clothing, the kimono is Tang female clothing. Japan's political system is based of Tang china's "3 departments and 6 magistrates system", preserving much of such names until the 19th century, which saw an increase in departments. Japanese architecture is very much Tang architecture, older reigons of Kyoto are an intentional carbon copy of Tang's capital Changan...etc etc. i wouldnt say there is a world of difference. supposedly Japanese culture can be found in remote reigons of Southern china and the Guanzhong area around Changan and Luoyang
 
Japanese culture is mediaeval Tang culture. Japan follows shintoism, which is a localized version of buddhism, of which was extremely prominent in China during the Tang. Japan was very much isolationist until the black ships, very much like China. Japan's written language is based of Tang era Chinese, and still is remotely readable for a Chinese person. Tang clothing is basically identical to Japanese traditional clothing, the kimono is Tang female clothing. Japan's political system is based of Tang china's "3 departments and 6 magistrates system", preserving much of such names until the 19th century, which saw an increase in departments. Japanese architecture is very much Tang architecture, older reigons of Kyoto are an intentional carbon copy of Tang's capital Changan...etc etc. i wouldnt say there is a world of difference. supposedly Japanese culture can be found in remote reigons of Southern china and the Guanzhong area around Changan and Luoyang

This is wrong in some areas and right in some others but when it *is* right it's not right for the right reasons.
 
Japanese culture is mediaeval Tang culture. Japan follows shintoism, which is a localized version of buddhism, of which was extremely prominent in China during the Tang. Japan was very much isolationist until the black ships, very much like China. Japan's written language is based of Tang era Chinese, and still is remotely readable for a Chinese person. Tang clothing is basically identical to Japanese traditional clothing, the kimono is Tang female clothing. Japan's political system is based of Tang china's "3 departments and 6 magistrates system", preserving much of such names until the 19th century, which saw an increase in departments. Japanese architecture is very much Tang architecture, older reigons of Kyoto are an intentional carbon copy of Tang's capital Changan...etc etc. i wouldnt say there is a world of difference. supposedly Japanese culture can be found in remote reigons of Southern china and the Guanzhong area around Changan and Luoyang
Exactly. China and Japan are more similar than a superficial understanding would reveal.
 
I think it would be more likely for non-Japanese Anime to originate in Korea, given the relative stability in comparison with China. However, that means a different Japanese technique of control and likely earlier PoD, perhaps too early to keep Disney.

Or you can do it post-WWII, because that's when anime really developed in Japan, and somehow avoid the Korean War and split. Possibly Korea would be in a stable situation to become the leader in Eastern animation, or at least be a competent competitor with Japan.
 
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