Japanese and Chinese cultures play unique roles in the animation industry. Founder Rocky Shi and TAOST, an entertainment company that helps develop animated content while building its own unique IP exploitation pipeline. Even though the two are different countries, Chinese culture greatly influences animation in Japan.
Japanese Anime
Japan produces about 60 percent of the world’s animation. Japanese animation is called anime. Japan has more than 430 anime studios.
The first Japanese anime was created in 1917, but its characteristic style only emerged in the 1960s through the creations of Osamu Tezuka. Anime is distinctive because its production focuses more on the realism of settings and camera effects rather than the animation of movement.
Chinese Culture, History, and Myths
Chinese culture is ancient, and its mythology goes back more than 4,000 years, with its three main religions (Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism) having a significant role in shaping that mythology. Likewise, Chinese history goes back several thousand years. Often, history and mythology are intertwined. For example, historical figures are worshiped as gods, while myths are sometimes accepted as fact, Rocky Shi notes. Ancestor worship originates in Confucianism and is also a crucial part of Chinese culture for people of all religions.
One central myth in Chinese culture features Pan Gu. Initially, the universe consisted of a giant egg, which lay Pan Gu, a sleeping giant. Pan Gu awoke, stretched, and split the egg open. As Pan Gu emerged from the egg, the light parts of the egg became the sky, and the heavy parts formed the earth. The separation of earth and sky marked the beginning of yin and yang, the two opposing forces of the universe.
Eventually, as the myth continued, Pan Gu died, and his different body parts became parts of the earth, such as continents or great mountains. Pan Gu either created humans by shaping them from clay or humans originated from parasites on Pan Gu’s body, depending upon which myth one believes.
Rocky Shi explains that Chinese culture has greatly influenced its animation tradition and Japanese anime.
Chinese Influence on Anime
Chinese culture has often influenced Japanese culture; for example, the Chinese hanfu likely influenced the Japanese kimono. Chinese myths and historical events also often form the basis for anime, although the Japanese may take liberties in their interpretation of the cultural event.
Dragon Ball, one Japanese anime, began as a retelling of Journey to the West, a famous Chinese literary work. Throughout the film, aspects of Chinese culture turn up, such as characters wearing Chinese clothing or implications that a character is Jiang Shi, a character from Chinese mythology. Also, in Fruits Basket, the family’s curse corresponds to the Chinese zodiac. The Twelve Kingdoms features characters transported from Japan into a fantasy world that looks like Imperial China.
