“Pili” culture: old artistic puppet traditions alive.
The socio-cultural perception of the puppet tradition in the Taiwanese animation.
(by Vincenzo De Masi and Amy Piao Jingwei)
In 2011 China has become the first world producer of animation with about 220,000 minutes produced by the Chinese studios of animation breaking the record held by Japan.
But few people know that the 90% of the production of the American animation is produced in Asia and in the Chinese studios.[1]
To reach this record the Chinese government has promoted and sponsored the animation cinema and it has created new schools and universities. 2006 was an important year because the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) started this new kind of project, and so there was the birth of about 6000 animation studios, about 500 animation departments and over 1,300 universities offering professional training for cartoonists. “About 64,000 students majoring in animation have graduated from universities and 466,000 were studying in colleges“ said Zhao Shi, deputy director of SARFT.
It’s quite interesting the way the government is trying to find a national identity through the animation.
In this period China is experimenting new forms of animation drawing inspiration for the anime from its neighbor Japan and for the narration and the techniques of production from Europe and the USA.
In this historical period, Taiwan has always tried to draw inspiration in its animation production from the Chinese traditional art so it was able to create original animated products which, at the same time, use traditional techniques such as the palm puppetry and mixing them with the new animation technologies offered by the computer graphic. The Taiwan puppet show originates from Southern Fujian Province in Mainland China. The modern puppetry has been developed from the traditional palm manipulated form and tailored to fit the studio shooting for TV and cinema. One of the most successful products is the series with over 1,600 episodes called Pili, produced by Pili International Multimedia Inc. The Pili show even extends its influence to the international video arena with first Pili movie ‘The Legend of Sacred Stone’ in 2000.
In a preliminary stage of this paper we will explore the history of the Chinese schools of animation specialized in the puppet animation. In order to underline the peculiar characteristics of movie production we will conduct our analysis from a comparative point of view, taking into consideration the historical point of view. In fact during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government has promoted the production of the puppet animation, such as ‘Little Eighth Route Army Soldier’ (Xiao Balu), produced by the Shanghai Puppet Theatre. We will highlight not only the differences but also the touching points between the old school of puppet animation and the new one.
In a second stage we will examine the state of the schools of puppet animation in China and in the Taiwan, dwelling above all on the international success reached by the puppet animation Pili which are considered the best example of mixture between the traditional puppet animation and computer animation in the framework of an original animation production.
We will also try to understand how the puppet animation schools have created this new kind of hybridization. Our choice to focus on the Chinese animation model will draw from some preliminary observations.
This so ancient art was even considered died or it was present only in any shows of little importance, but thanks to the animation schools of puppet animation of the Republic of China, today we can witness a new rebirth of this special kind of art.
[1] Asian Animation: Artistic And Commercial Perspectives edited by John A. Lent, Vol. 14, No.1, Spring/summer 2003, Asian Cinema Studies Society.
