Animation During the Cultural Revolution

The dark years of Chinese animation.

The Red Army Bridge (1964)

Welcome back! In this issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, we’re looking at what happened to Chinese animation during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).

In 1987, the state-owned Shanghai Animation Film Studio — the main hub of Chinese animation in those days — published a brochure to celebrate its 30th anniversary. It describes the “unforgettable prosperous years” of the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and the exciting “new times” of the late ‘70s and ‘80s. But something’s missing from the studio’s history: the 10-year stretch of the Cultural Revolution.

The brochure leaves it vague, noting that “animation films in China suffered great destruction during the decade of upheaval (1966–1976).”¹ The films it made in that period go more or less unmentioned. But animators and their work didn’t vanish overnight in China. They kept fighting, despite oppression at a scale unrivaled in animation history.

To understand China and its animation, it’s crucial to understand the Cultural Revolution years. What artists experienced then changed them, and their work. Nothing was the same. That’s what we’re discovering today.