Month: January 2022

A Deer of New Colours (A Deer of Nine Colours Review and News)

To sort of officially christen this blog with a review, I wanted to begin by taking a look at a film that has had new life breathed within it by collaborating with a famous mobile game, where its main protagonist will be featured in the game as a playable character! This sort of new life is perfect for the new year, especially as Chinese New Year will be upon us in a few days. 恭喜发财,红包快拿来! (Wishing you prosperity and wealth; quickly bring the red envelopes!)

This specific film is A Deer of Nine Colours (Jiu Se Lu), also known as The Nine-Coloured Deer.

(Truthfully, I could christen this blog with numerous reviews of numerous shows: my childhood ones, including more of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio films, considering my knowledge gained of them from my undergraduate thesis; The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/The Founder of Diabolism (Mo Dao Zu Shi), due to it just having gotten an official English translation and being one of the first series to revitalize the donghua industry; Nezha 2019 because of its fame… But hey, I had to pick something, and this particular piece of news is quite exciting!)

A Deer of Nine Colours is another one of the films made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, released in 1981, when China had just begun opening back up to the world after it became communist due to turbulence from war. The film itself is rather short, having a run time of only around half an hour, and is not quite as elaborately animated as some of SAFS’ previous work, and yet it nonetheless carries many traits that mark it as SAFS film.

One of the main things is that it once again adapts a myth, a habit that my undergraduate thesis allowed me to explore in deeper detail. Before I get into that, however, I would like to review the film itself!

The specific myth it adapts comes from a Buddhist Jataka tale, turned into a cave painting in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China. To learn more about that, there is a documentary about it on YouTube here.

As for the film itself, the plot is incredibly faithful to the myth it is adapting, although it does expand on it a little by providing a few more details. A mystical deer is shown to help animals and humans alike, with its generosity towards the latter species earning it concern from its bird friend. When the emperor hears about the magical nine-coloured deer from some Persian merchants it had helped when they got lost, his empress demands the deer’s nine-coloured skin for herself. 

The deer itself is blissfully unaware of this, believing in the conscience of humans and their capability for gratitude. This backfires on it, however, when it rescues a merchant who sells medicine for snake bites from drowning. This merchant vows not to reveal the deer, yet immediately decides to sell the deer out as soon as he learns about the award. In the end, he leads the king’s men toward the deer and lures it out by pretending to drown once more, but when the men try to shoot, the deer is protected by its magic. It condemns the merchant, who suffers before he actually drowns, pecked into the water by the deer’s bird friend.

As stated, it is a rather simple film.

The deer is beautiful and often animated with an otherwordly grace, but this film is not nearly as detailed or smooth as the SAFS’ more famous work, such as Uproar in Heaven (Danao tiangong) from 1961-1964 and Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (Nezha naohai) from 1979. The latter two I analyzed in detail in my undergraduate thesis on Chinese animation for my honours specialization in Film Studies.

Having brought them up again, I’d like to go back to the myth-adapting habit of the SAFS since it’s relevant now!

As you can probably tell, those earlier films were also adapted from myths. This has to do with the complex concept of national style, which was something of a guideline that SAFS tried to follow, because many of the studio bigwigs (from Te Wei to Wan Laiming and his brothers) believed in animation as a higher art form that could convey Chinese culture and art to the world. Even then, I interrogated this concept in my thesis, as it’s rather hard to pin down and animation is not nearly as national as some people like to believe—in fact, it is quite international!

Uproar in Heaven and Nezha both showed that given their own origins, but on the topic of A Deer of Nine Colours, the transnationalism can immediately be seen in the fact the myth is a Buddhist Jataka tale, and Buddhism spread in China from India.

The merchants presented in the beginning of the film also appear to be foreign (perhaps Persian), showing different cultures mingling. Similarly, quite a few of the characters, including the emperor and his guards, have darker skin. The merchant does as well, and there is an interesting sequence where his skin darkens twice more when he decides to sell the deer out. At first I was somewhat dismayed given Asian beauty standards have often valued lighter skin (at first due to paleness indicating being rich enough not to work in the sun, and then from admiration of western cultures after westernization), but the third shade the man’s skin becomes is so dark and grey it looks almost inhuman, like he has already become a corpse. Right after his skin darkens to such a shade, he is also bothered by a swarm of bugs that he tries to stop by slapping himself. His eyes are even an unnatural yellow in some shots after that, and when he finally dies, his eyes are extremely scarlet and almost seem to be bleeding. All of this furthers that corpse-like metaphor, suggesting he is condemning himself to death.

The deer notes after he drowns that evil will not meet a good end. As you can probably tell, the moral of the story is pretty clear and even a bit too obvious. But it is exactly what the original myth said, and it carries a lot of weight. 

Because of that, I personally find the film not particularly innovative or new, especially given its seemingly lower budget (this would also be around the time SAFS would start struggling, as China opening up meant that animators left for studios from other countries and more studios would pop up in China, which stopped SAFS from having the government’s sole support). Even then, I do appreciate it for its artistic significance and clear intent to create something meaningful.

It would appear that those at SAFS themselves also continue to value this film, considering the news!

I just think it’s really exciting that SAFS would collaborate with a mobile game such as Arknights of all things, transforming the deer into—believe it or not—a pretty anime-esque girl! I’m even disappointed this collaboration didn’t happen while I was still writing my thesis, because at least then I could have talked about it in perhaps my conclusion, where I had to write about SAFS’ modernization (and the growth of the donghua industry as a whole). It would have been cool to include it, as a sign of SAFS’ evolution—and China’s (mobile) game industry too!

I mean, most people already know about the behemoths Genshin Impact, as well as its sister series Honkai Impact and others such as AFK Arena, Love Nikki, Onmyoji, Tears of Themis, and more! Arknights is part of that growing industry, just as A Deer of Nine Colours is a part of the growing donghua industry. 

I was seriously mind-blown when I found out, immediately tweeting about it and posting it to my Tumblr, since I like sharing any new Chinese media news with my followers. SAFS has remained a lot quieter since the 1990s, after the Chinese animation industry had to compete with more international (and domestic) studios, and the films they’ve made since things turned digital have not been quite as well-animated or even artistic as their most iconic work from the 20th century. Despite that, their importance to Chinese animation cannot be overstated, and they’re often celebrated to this day: for example, this Arknights collab, this e-commerce commercial where their characters were reimagined for a new audience (if you can’t access it, here’s a tiny clip from it here!), and this Beijing Olympics ad.

That’s why I’m still pretty taken aback but pleasantly so to see that Arknights has made the nine-coloured deer a collectible character! You can find the PV for the game collab here! As some of the commenters have remarked, it’s pretty wild that they turned this character into an “anime waifu” ahaha. 

Finally, if you’d like to watch the original film, you can find that here!

Happy Chinese New Year 2022! May all of you have a wonderful year of the tiger~

Despiteg

A New Beginning

So it’s officially 2022! Happy New Year, everyone!

I thought I’d start this blog this year as a way to further discuss my passions while having fun with the whole thing, since I already scream about them so much online where I can. Part of the reason I am so passionate about it is because this specific interest of mine is so incredibly niche, which has made finding content for it rather hard. That being said, the fandom(s) and industry (or rather, industries) have grown exponentially since it started picking up in 2018!

By the time this goes up, however, it’ll probably be past January 1 due to delays, but it was meant to be uploaded in the New Year ahaha. In fact, it may very well be the end of January by the time I finally get this blog up (I will try to update an entry every Saturday and/or Sunday though)!

As for this specific niche interest I’m talking about, it is Chinese media.

It started with donghua when I first discovered Mo Dao Zu Shi in 2018, the animated adaptation of the novel of the same name, as I’ve always been an animation fan. I still remember witnessing a trailer of Wei Wuxian, perched on a tree branch, his lips pressed to a flute as his eyes flashed red, while a murder of crows swarmed above him. It left such a lasting impression on me, lighting this spark of blazing excitement—because in many ways, I couldn’t believe it—that China had managed to produce something like this!

Like many Asians, I grew up with a number of Japanese anime, but I did also have some beloved Chinese childhood cartoons that I would watch over and over again, such as Journey to the West—Legends of the Monkey King (Xi You Ji), Black Cat Detective (Hei Mao Jing Zhang), The Legend of Nezha (Nezha Chuanqi), and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf (Xi Yang Yang yu Hui Tai Lang). They continue to hold up even now—with some even improving over time—and they’ll always hold a special place in my heart, but the Chinese animation industry did feel admittedly stagnant throughout the 2000s to early 2010s.

Now though, as the donghua industry has expanded so much and the donghua The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/The Founder of Diabolism (Mo Dao Zu Shi) has officially come to an end in 2021 with its third and final season, while its novel form even received an official English translation in printed form, it seems as good a time as any to start sharing my thoughts on these series in a more organized fashion. I’ve always participated in the fandom, even forming lists of recommendations for anyone who would like to get into donghuacdramas, and/or cpop, but I thought it would be fun to try a more direct, consistent approach—while also keeping it all light and fun!

This first blog entry will thus mostly consist of my musings on Chinese animation (and media as a whole) as a Canadian-born-Chinese. So yes, while I am technically Chinese, I do not always feel Chinese. I hardly have enough experience or knowledge of Chinese traditions, culture, and tropes to make myself an expert, but I would argue my background does provide me a unique point of view, and I’ve worked hard to serve as a beginner’s reference for entry-level fans with absolutely no familiarity with Chinese culture.

I always grew up seeing myself as Canadian first and foremost, having been taught mainly western festivities and holidays at school, with a good amount of Canadian nationalism instilled within me. I have my own thoughts regarding nationalism and how often patriotism can be taken to too far of an extreme in how people engage with other cultures, but that doesn’t mean I condemn being proud of your country and heritage. These are complex concepts, and I actually explored them in my undergraduate thesis on the history of Chinese animation, which has always been closely tied with artists trying to show nationalism in art, even as the industry has always been very transnational. Writing that thesis challenged my own views of cultural pride, especially in media, and now it informs what I consume, just as my undergraduate experience in Film Studies now also informs my media consumption experience.

But cultural pride and exploration are actually reasons why I’ve gotten so into Chinese media and culture in the last few years! I never really felt connected to my family’s country of origin, considering I grew up in the west, and many immigrant children will tell you that they often feel in between worlds—never enough for either culture. But that being said, it was also hard just because I am, at the end of the day, Chinese. As Canadian as I felt growing up, I am nevertheless Chinese. Like my mom always says, “At the end of the day, you still have a Chinese face.”

And I think it’s hard to deny by now in 2022 that sinophobia is on the rise. I have seen many try to deny it throughout the years, but numerous factors—including but not limited to the pandemic—has made it obvious just how deeply normalized sinophobia has become.

I grew up being told that my family’s country was dirty, that our people were brainwashed, that our language is cacophonous, that the things we created were not worth checking out. I grew up ashamed of my own heritage. There was no chance for nationalism—even defending Chinese culture as not “gross” would get me labelled as a wumao online. People are finally starting to see how unfair some of this is, and I’ve personally enjoyed getting to reconnect more with my own roots and discover a rich world of things previously unknown to me.

For example, I never even celebrated Chinese New Year quite properly, as most of my family was in China. This meant that I didn’t enjoy that many red pockets or even too many decorations, and we had larger than usual—but still modest—dinners for our smaller family (a family that continued to shrink as time wore on). I also did not grow up with other Chinese holidays, like the Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Festival, etc, which meant I didn’t participate much in their associated traditions either, at least while growing up. 

It was only when I learned more about my paternal grandfather’s story that I grew more interested in Chinese history, considering the topsy-turvy life he led, fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War, fighting for the communists during the Civil War, and then being locked up by the communists during the Cultural Revolution. And slowly, with more historical context, I was able to form a more nuanced understanding of China and my own Chinese identity—which is, no matter what, nonetheless part of my identity at the end of the day.

And I hope all of you will join me on this journey! ♥

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