Early History

In around 180 A.D. the first zoetrope was invented by Duing Huan, an artisan in the Eastern Han. While the modern cartoon industry began in France in 1888 invented by Emile Reynaud, Chinese animation started in the 1920s, and were inspired by French, German, Russian and mostly American productions. One of the first records of foreign animation did not land in Shanghai until 1918. This piece of animation from the US was titled as "Out of the Inkwell".

In 1922 Wan Laiming produced the first animation in a cartoon advertisement for the Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter. Shanghai Tobacco Company also produced a cartoon called New Year. These are the earliest known cartoon shorts.

In 1926, four Wan brothers, Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan worked under the Great Wall Film Company in China, not the Great Wall Movie Enterprises Ltd. Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan were then recognized as China's animation pioneers when they produced the first animation short Uproar in the Studio running 10 to 12 minutes long in black and white. The brothers believed that Chinese animation should be instructive, logical and thought-provoking besides being entertaining to its audience. They wanted to emphasize the development of an animation style that was uniquely Chinese. It was a common trend at the time to combine live action film footages with 2D animation. By 1932 one of the Wan brothers, Wan Dihuan, would voluntarily leave the Great Wall Film company for his own photography studio. Some of the first wave of influential American animations that reached Shanghai was Popeye，and a show known as Betty Boop.

By 1935 the Wan brothers would launch the first animation with sound titled The Camel's Dance. By 1941 China's first animated feature film of notable length, "Princess Iron Fan"， was released under very difficult conditions during Sino-Japanese War and World War II". While there was overlapping progress made in the Asian regions with Japanese enemies at the time, they were not geographically or artistically influential to Chinese cartoon directly. During the Japanese invasion period, the brothers produced more than 20 animated propaganda shorts focusing on various patriotic topics from resistance against Japanese troops, opium and imperialism.

Steady Development (1946-1949)

On October 1, 1946 a northeast motion picture studio was established in the Nenjiang Province, later incorporated into the Heilongjiang Province. In 1947 production such as Emperor's Dream used puppets in an exaggerated way to expose corruption of politics. The idea of using political contents in puppet films was becoming acceptable. Documentary type cartoons like Go after an Easy Prey (1948) is an example. In 1948 the Northeast studio would change name to Shanghai picture studio group.

Founding of Shanghai Arts and Film Studio (1950~1965)

In February 1950 the northeast group would combine with other divisions to become the predecessor of Shanghai Animation Film Studio. The Wan brothers, Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Suzhou and many other big name artists would all be concentrated in this studio for the first time. In Shanghai Thank You, Kitty was created. By 1956 the Wan brothers had created the first colored animation of notable length titled Why is the Crow Black-Coated, which became the first Chinese animation recognized internationally.

In April 1957 the central government began sponsoring the studio, making it the nation's first and official animation factory. From the technology standpoint，China's animation was still relatively on pace with the rest of the world. In 1958 the Wan brothers created a new animation film technique based on the folk art cut-paper animation, which was demonstrated in Pigsy Eats Watermelon. At the same time another technique called origami animation was also developed by Yu Zheguang in 1960, in the film A Clever Duckling. Also in 1960 the first set of animation film exhibitions were held in 6 major cities including Shanghai and Beijing, followed by exhibitions in Hong Kong in 1962αnd Macau in 1963.

The Wan brothers would receive the most recognition for their film Havoc in Heaven，since it was well known among ordinary citizens. The development spanned 4 years from 1961 to 1964. It ran for nearly 2 hours pushing the technology to the limit with some of the most vivid colors ever put to the screen.

Reform Period (1978~1989)

The Chinese animation industry would begin to reproduce animations in a new direction. Shanghai Animation Film Studio had launched 219 animation films in the 1980s. In 1979 Nezha was one of the first notable animations shown during the rebirth period. Other films include Snow Kid (1980), Lao Mountain Taoist (1981), The Deer's Bell (1982) and Legend of Sealed Book (1983). Among the works Three Monks (1980) was one of the few animations that managed to earn awards with clear national style and modern sense.

Contemporary Development

Chinese animations now have major festival to back them up. The First China International Cartoon Festival held in Hangzhou is so far the largest of its kind in China. One of the most important components of this festival was the Original Cartoon and Animation Exposition, which attracted more than 100 cartoon producers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Japan， South Korea, America, Britain and Germany. Although the exhibits were mainly audio and video products, people still detected health prospects for the Chinese cartoon industry. In recent years, China has established many enterprises engaged in cartoon production. In Hangzhou alone, there are more than 50 such enterprises, most of which deal with film and TV products, as well as online gaming development. One of them, Zhongnan Cartoon Company, receives good response from both domestic and overseas markets.