Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how globalization and digitalization are having an extraordinary impact on a redefinition of Chinese visual culture and on young people's practices. It is concerned with historical catachresis and cultural metaphor in the production and theorizing of Chinese animation in relation to the socialist, artistic discourses of the national/ethnic style. The book identifies and describes the intersection of the state discourse and cultural industry in the animation filmmaking of Mainland China between 1976 and 1989. It provides a historical review of web-based Flash animation in China, as well as a look at the ways Flash practice and consumption relate to the economic, social, and political trends. The book discusses the untold story of Chinese independent animation and reveals the cultural specificities that undergird the rise of the alternative landscape of Chinese animation.