The Reconstructed History of the Foundation of the Chinese School of Animation: A Textual Criticism on the ‘Crow Incident’

Abstract

The screening of colour cel animation Why Is the Crow Black at the 1956 Venice Film Festival was seen as a pivotal moment in Chinese animation history. It is recorded that Why Is the Crow Black was misidentified as a Soviet animation by international judges, which made this film an epic failure. Frustrated Chinese animators, led by Te Wei, reflected on the imitation of the Soviet styles and commenced the exploration of a Chinese style. This ultimately led to the foundation of the Chinese School of Animation, marked by the release of Te Wei’s film The Conceited General in 1956. However, many of the widely believed ‘facts’ in this narrative are false. There is no evidence of an actual award, nor of the mis-identification of Why Is the Crow Black. A series of false assumptions have converged to form an entirely mistaken narrative of causality that the Crow’s reception transformed the production of the General. This narrative has become ingrained in Chinese animation historiography, and the doubters remain marginal. This article argues that the ‘Crow Incident’ was a 1980s fabrication, arising from transcultural misunderstandings, translation errors, and perhaps even deliberately misleading assertions. The alleged Crow Incident has been used to explain and justify the urgency and necessity of exploring the Chinese minzu style in the 1950s, yet it devalues the subjectivity, initiative and self-awareness of Chinese animators.