Animation Thinks charts a fragmentary history of Chinese animation from the 1920s to the present. Focusing on animation's encounters with other art forms, including photography, painting, calligraphy, and porcelain, Panpan Yang examines contemporary Chinese animation trans-spatially, tracing how the meaning of Chinese animated works subtly shifts when moving between spaces such as the film industry and the contemporary art world. Ultimately, Yang argues that Chinese animation thinks time and space to a degree unimaginable in other media, offering an understanding of space that is neither completely graphic nor entirely photographic and an understanding of time as heterogeneous, disruptive, and surprising.
Panpan Yang is Assistant Professor in the arts and visual cultures of modern China at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
"A compelling, erudite, and enjoyable theorization of Chinese animation from a rigorous and creative thinker. Panpan Yang's remarkable ability to introduce new issues while putting prior English- and Chinese-language scholarship in dialogue is sure to catalyze new and exciting conversations not only within animation studies, but also across art history, cinema and media studies, and East Asian studies."—Karen Redrobe, author of Undead: (Inter)(in)animation, Feminisms, and the Art of War"This book marks a brilliant addition to the burgeoning field of Chinese animation studies. Offering a number of original and ambitious theoretical explorations, Yang deftly shows how animation became a contact zone where ideas and techniques flowed between China and the rest of the world, as well as between film and other media. Animation Thinks is sure to be a foundational work in this rapidly emerging field of study."—Jason McGrath, author of Chinese Film: Realism and Convention from the Silent Era to the Digital Age"Yang's superb new book offers a history of Chinese animation from the 1920s to the present through the prism of its energized, even passionate encounters with other art forms: from photography and painting to calligraphy and porcelain. Arguing that animation has powers to 'think' not vouchsafed to other mediums, Yang shows how space and time intersect vividly within the animated image. This evocative and meticulously researched study will be vital reading for anyone interested in art history, cinema, and media studies—and in how Chinese animation has the capacity to impact all these domains."—Margaret Hillenbrand, Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Visual Culture, University of Oxford
6 x 9Illus: 39 b/w figures, 1 chart
9780520430082$29.95|£25.00Paper
Sep 2026