Frank Gladstone helping to illustrate the facial capture set up at the Shanghai Film Studio. Photo courtesy of Frank Gladstone.

Shanghai, perhaps because of its more entrepreneurial history, its worldly, mercantile flavor, has generally a more aggressive outlook toward progress, driven, of course, by very ambitious studio leadership. What they have done in so short a time is remarkable, yet they too want to learn all they can, realizing, like their peers in Beijing, that they are really still in the midst of the training curve.

And they are quick to respond. We arrived a bit off the cuff, as the studio only learned we were coming the day before (which was actually the week-end). By the time we had toured the facility and were ushered into a room to look at the tape of DreamWorks animation I had brought along, the entire digital studio had been brought in and were waiting for us! It was a pleasure to talk with them.

The Shanghai skyline. Photo courtesy of Frank Gladstone.

Developing A Voice
So, how is animation in China? Well, I certainly cannot claim to know exactly the state of the industry there. I only saw two digital studios and did not have an opportunity to visit any other sites, either traditional or CG based. Even while the Beijing and Shanghai studios continue to grow and expand, other studios are in the works as well.

Nevertheless I did make it a point to stress that while having digital technology was important, it alone was not a "magic-box" that would somehow give China an edge in animation. In fact, I took pains to say that soon technology will be available everywhere (if it is not already) and that China must not only look to its expertise in mastering machines and software, but also find other ways to make their animation stand out from the rest, either in its economy, its mastery or, most importantly, in its ability to put across a story.

China has a long and beautiful narrative tradition and it has a soulful, creative and resourceful population. With the coming of the WTO and favored nation trading status with the United States, China will have even more of an opportunity to act as a contract entity, producing product initiated in other countries. That is all well and good (and something we all must recognize as our business becomes ever more globalized), but, if China really wants to make its mark in animation, I hope they will find a way to be more than contract labor, initiating their own projects designed to bring to the world some of the inventiveness and artistic tradition that is so much a part of the Chinese culture.

China is on the brink of a great transformation. For many hundreds of years it has been, for all intents and purposes, a feudal, isolated society. Now, at speeds that can make your head swim, it is beginning to emerge as a truly modern county, connected to the rest of the world. Not everything is in place yet but everywhere I looked the dichotomy between new and old was incredibly striking. (The image of a three-wheeled rickshaw driver talking on his cell phone comes to mind, almost as a metaphor.) There is much to do and much that will inevitably change, but the one sure thing is that the possibilities are tremendous.