Jan 4, 2014

How BingTangHuLuer is Building China's Indie Animation Community

Yesterday, I discussed "Boonie Bears," a Chinese attempt to emulate Western-style computer animation. But at the risk of overgeneralizing contemporary Chinese animation based on the most derivative and commercial works, I wanted to offer another perspective.

In addition to a rapidly growing and well-funded commercial animation sector, China also has a large and growing community of artists who value creative expression and desire to develop a more artistic animation community. A recent project that illustrates the push toward independent filmmaking is the two-minute short "Ruuuun!" by the collective BingTangHuLuer, founded in 2012. is.

See also: China Produces First 3D CGI Feature Film: Boony Bears"

"Ruuuun! s producers operate under the pseudonym Mr. Tee. He tells me that the name of their group, BingTangHuLuer, is a phonetic transcription of a traditional Chinese food called "sugar-coated hozu. 'We make sugar-coated houzuquat by piecing together houzuquat and other fruits,' he said.

"In the same way we bring together a lot of people to make one animation.

According to Cha, making personal animated films in China is difficult for a number of reasons, including the lack of an independent animation scene in his country, the absence of government or institutional support for personal filmmaking, and intense labor demands on artists in the industry. In China, "it's common to work overtime and experience situations that make you feel gloomy. Even when young graduates want to make their own films, they usually don't have the time to make a short film."

To compensate for the lack of time artists have to devote to their personal projects, BingTangHuLuer produces collaborative animation projects that involve dozens of artists in the production of each film. more than 100 artists contributed to the final product. Mr. Tea cites previous collaborations such as "Academy Leader Variations" and "PSST! He cites the "Pass It On" series.

BingTangHuLuer uses the Internet both to recruit new artists and to distribute finished works. AnimeTaste.net is a Chinese-language animation website that features a variety of contemporary and classic animation from around the world, including They discuss animation, both contemporary and classic, from around the world. I first became aware of this group after Mr. Cha inquired about permission to translate an article for Cartoon Brew, and I gave my permission.

As we enter the New Year, not to mention Cartoon Brew's 10th anniversary, we plan to expand our coverage of the burgeoning global animation scene. Whether it is China, Nigeria, or Uruguay, the animation community is growing at a phenomenal rate, and Cartoon Brew intends to cover global trends and developments just as thoroughly as we cover animation in our own country.