The inheritance of Chinese culture
Named after a phrase for landscape painting, Feeling from Mountain and Water became the last water-ink animation. The film tells the simple tale of an impoverished elderly scholar and a young girl, who cares for him briefly in return for zither lessons. There is no dialogue, yet the emotional impact of the film is undeniable.
Yao Zhongli, a senior producer with Shanghai Animation Film Studio, regretted the fading popularity of water-ink animation. "They are totally handmade, which is time consuming and costly," he said. "The development of water-ink animation could not keep up with the market, as more cartoons are needed with limited investment."
Today people sometimes use computers to produce water-ink animation. Although the effect is not the same as the handmade versions, it saves time and money. Such animation is mostly used in advertisements and promotion videos.
One example of an effective combination was Kung Fu Pand. John Stevenson said he was amazed by Cowherd's Flute, and believed that Kung Fu Panda should reflect the unique future of Chinese cartoons as it tells a Chinese story, even though it is a Hollywood animation.
Stevenson used the effect of ink-wash animation while producing Kung Fu Panda, adding an ink-wash style background to the film with computers to make the scenes look more natural.
In China, there are teams and artists dedicated to further exploring the medium of ink-wash animation. An expert from one studio, which devotes itself to perfectly integrating water-ink animation with computer technology, said that the Chinese-style should not be unchanging, and neither should water-ink pictures. Tadpoles Searching for Mother is a miracle which can not be copied, but different ideas must continue to develop over time.
