The Chinese animation blockbuster and Lotus Lantern (1999)

This article focuses on the Chinese animated film Lotus Lantern (1999), which gains importance in the history of Chinese animation by exploring the possibilities of the domestic animation blockbuster. This article thus provides a view of cinema animation as an important subcategory of Chinese popular culture. The findings of this study can be divided into three parts. First, Lotus Lantern was created under particular historical circumstances; the film undertook two historic missions: one is to resist the pressure from Hollywood competitors and the other is to revitalize Chinese-language animated films. Second, Lotus Lantern inherits and updates the Chinese iconography through the refiguration of classic cartoon figure Sun Wukong, which indicates a more market-oriented and audience-oriented trend in animation creation. Finally, this film borrows Hollywood iconography and techniques for the purpose of replicating Hollywood’s blockbuster practice and creating China’s own animated blockbuster.