Animated Cartoon: Audio-visual Fairy Tale In Globalization Context

Modern China has been witnessing substantial social changes. Comparing against the West, modern Chinese society becomes largely variegated and, to a certain degree, enters into the era of culture industry. In the globalization context, home cultural studies thrive well accordingly. With reference to Western cultural theories, this thesis selects animated cartoon as subject and makes a survey of contemporary cartoons.The thesis comprises two parts. Part one is guided by the theories on culture industry, placing animated cartoon in the overall cultural fields and studying its traits and attributes. First, with the development of technology and media in the culture industrial era, animated cartoon gradually evolves into an independent artistic genre and innately acquires the characteristics of the time, which is evident in their alert responses to the audio-visual tendencies brought about by technological reason and media and their compliance with the consumption logic of the cultural production in the cultural industry. Second, the whole culture in the cultural industrial era is post-modern, and animated cartoon is no exception, since, it manifests post-modern features, namely, deconstructive methods and carnival spirit. Third, animated cartoon is internally highly hypothetical. It shares the same vein with classic fairy tales and amplifies their functions. In addition, animated cartoons, with their technological factors and audio-visual elements, serves for the needs of the cultural industrial era. On the whole, animated cartoon is audio- visual fairy tale in this era.Part two is titled as 'Chinese animated cartoon in the Globalization Context'. The thesis, putting animated cartoon against the globalization background and also employing conclusions from some other cultural criticism, analyzes the deep reason for the declining of modern Chineseanimated cartoon. Since the 'New Epoch', Chinese animated cartoon school, which used to claim to be unique and national in style, gradually loses its singularities, while foreign animated cartoons, especially those from America and Japan, have occupied Chinese cartoon market.In part two, first of all, basing on the textual study, the thesis illustrates the basic traits of American and Japanese animated cartoons: aesthetic complex and sense of tragedy of Japanese animated cartoon and typical American humour and liberty, which are both originated from their own national culture. It's also our national culture that has facilitated the successful promotion of early Chinese animated cartoon school. Secondly, imaginative presentation of the essence of national culture as concluded above constitutes the key to the success of animated cartoon. The internal reason for the declining of Chinese animated cartoons lies in both the loss of the memories of the national cultural history and the inability in finding the imaginative expressions for the lingering recollections. Thirdly, globalization context is mixed up with various factors. A kind of cultural hegemonist relation exists between Western culture (and the relating strong culture) and Oriental culture (and the relating weak culture), and the former infiltrates the latter in form of cultural colonization, which includes animated cartoon as one means. Blind conformity to the American and Japanese style and inadequacy in self-recognition lead to the expression deficiency of Chinese animated cartoons. Hence the thesis points out the appropriate approach to the development of Chinese animated cartoon is self-improving, learning from others and eventually realizing the equal dialogue among cartoon culture. We are expecting the revival of Chinese cartoon animation.