China Animation Museum

The China Animation Museum is dedicated to the history of Chinese animated film, much of which was produced at the Changchun Film Studio from the late 1940s onward. The collection covers the full development arc from the first Chinese animated shorts in the 1920s through the acclaimed features of the 1950s and 1960s, the Cultural Revolution period, and the post-1978 renaissance.

The highlight is the material related to the golden age of Chinese animation (1950s–1960s), when the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Changchun Film Studio produced works that competed creatively with the best international animation of the era. The range of styles attempted — ink-wash animation, paper cutting, puppet film, watercolour — reflects the experimental ambition of that period. For anyone interested in how art and politics interact, the animation museum provides a case study as clear as any in Chinese cultural history.

things to do museum
A story
The Changchun Film Studio produced most of China's animated films during the Maoist period — including "The Monkey King" (1961-1964), an animated feature considered a masterpiece of Chinese animation that was seen by hundreds of millions of people and is still familiar to everyone who grew up in China before the 1980s. The film was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution because the Monkey King was interpreted as a symbol of defiance against authority.

Other places in Things to Do