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Local cartoon keeping kids in mind
By Fei Lai |
April 25, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WITH so many cartoons on Chinese television featuring violence and other adult themes, young audiences are at great risk of receiving the wrong messages. Fei Lai meets one talented animation entrepreneur going against this trend.
The Child is father of the Man" is taken from the famous poem "The Rainbow" by English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
This expression suggests that people's traits are established at the very beginning of their life.
The same idea figures in an old Chinese saying that says "if you watch children at seven years old at play, you can very probably tell their personalities which remain with them forever."
To help children to adopt healthy attitudes and positive traits, "Kuai Le Xin Xin" (happy Xin Xin), an acclaimed TV cartoon with a focus on developing emotional intelligence and targeting children up to six years old, has been launched by a production company based in Shanghai's Changning District.
It is now being aired at 8pm each day on CCTV Channel 14.
"The cartoon tries to inspire and guide kids to have healthy minds and cultivate good personalities such as being confident, tolerant, brave and willing to share," said Liu Hong, the cartoon's director.
"Each episode tries to depict challenges and difficulties in growth, which can prepare them with essential social adaptation capacity for the future."
The cartoon features Xin Xin, a 5 1/2-year-old girl who is witty, outgoing, brave, determined and warm-hearted. She has tomboy qualities and can run faster and eats more than boys. Other characters include Xin Xin's pet turtle and her friend Tiao Tiao, a monkey who can speak, dance, sing and do magic.
Unlike many other TV cartoons, which frequently feature violent elements to attract the audience, "Kuai Le Xin Xin" deals with daily issues in reality.
"Violence can speed up the pace of the program and evokes excitement among the audience," said Zhu Jiaxiong, a preschool education expert from East China Normal University.
"Accompanied with mocking, deceit and conspiracy, they are adding too many adult elements. We forget our main cartoon audience - innocent and pure kids, who need to be educated first rather than entertained first. The preschool education should be simpler."
Zhu regarded "Kuai Le Xin Xin" as "green and healthy" for children and complimented the producer's courage in taking the "risk" to go against the common "violent" practices.
"If we don't pay enough attention to the development of TV cartoons, which most kids watch everyday, we'll probably distort preschool education unobtrusively," Zhu said.
"TV cartoons should be funny, worthy of watching and of educational significance."
Behind "Kuai Le Xin Xin" was three years of effort made by director Liu's team.
In 2008, Liu was awarded as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Young People in Shanghai for her prominent achievements in creating original TV cartoons. The award gave her further confidence to continue the efforts to develop original cartoon works.
After cooperating with several world-class cartoon makers such as DreamWorks and Disney, Liu's team has learned to apply international vision and innovative concepts to their domestic productions.
"I was often asked by peers from these foreign companies why there were few animation companies in China making cartoons for preschoolers. Therefore, I started to become concerned about this group of audience and preschool education," Liu said.
"In most developed countries, censorship of cartoons for preschoolers is very strict. No violence is allowed in TV cartoons. It inspired our team to create something against the current domestic trend."
In Liu's opinion, today's parents, especially those from the 1980s generation, pay a lot of attention to their children's academic and physical performance. However, they show less care about the development of children's emotional intelligence.
"It might lead to an imbalanced development in kids," Liu said. "We need to guide them to form good traits at an earlier stage."
"Kuai Le Xin Xin" is highlighted by its participation with authors noted for creating children's stories.
Wang Yimei, a domestic author of children's stories, has witnessed that in the past decade, the rapid development of animation and Internet industries have made cartoons and web games a major part of children's life.
"Compared with traditional print media, cartoons are advantageous in offering direct impressions of image, color and voice to the kids. Maybe they can learn the first 'bad guy' or 'good guy' from a cartoon," Wang said.
"While many children's stories have been adapted to animations, it is really rare to see authors for children's stories directly participating in an animation production project. I'm glad to see that finally animation starts to have an intimate touch with literature."
Wang, together with another author called Bing Bo, made joint efforts to use simple and pure language to create the content for "Kuai Le Xin Xin."
"It's also a good way for the kids to learn language. We try to inspire their imagination, enrich their emotion, bring them curiosity and train their ability to observe, think, judge and perform," Wang said.
"It's literature. It's also a happy cartoon about love and education. I write it for the kids. The content is not fantasy. I create it based on child psychology and it's the fruit of joint efforts made by producer, authors and educators."
The first season features 52 episodes. Director Liu said she, together with the authors, is now planning to create the second season.
Changning government will further support the development of the multi-media digital industry to create a sound growth environment for children.
The Child is father of the Man" is taken from the famous poem "The Rainbow" by English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
This expression suggests that people's traits are established at the very beginning of their life.
The same idea figures in an old Chinese saying that says "if you watch children at seven years old at play, you can very probably tell their personalities which remain with them forever."
To help children to adopt healthy attitudes and positive traits, "Kuai Le Xin Xin" (happy Xin Xin), an acclaimed TV cartoon with a focus on developing emotional intelligence and targeting children up to six years old, has been launched by a production company based in Shanghai's Changning District.
It is now being aired at 8pm each day on CCTV Channel 14.
"The cartoon tries to inspire and guide kids to have healthy minds and cultivate good personalities such as being confident, tolerant, brave and willing to share," said Liu Hong, the cartoon's director.
"Each episode tries to depict challenges and difficulties in growth, which can prepare them with essential social adaptation capacity for the future."
The cartoon features Xin Xin, a 5 1/2-year-old girl who is witty, outgoing, brave, determined and warm-hearted. She has tomboy qualities and can run faster and eats more than boys. Other characters include Xin Xin's pet turtle and her friend Tiao Tiao, a monkey who can speak, dance, sing and do magic.
Unlike many other TV cartoons, which frequently feature violent elements to attract the audience, "Kuai Le Xin Xin" deals with daily issues in reality.
"Violence can speed up the pace of the program and evokes excitement among the audience," said Zhu Jiaxiong, a preschool education expert from East China Normal University.
"Accompanied with mocking, deceit and conspiracy, they are adding too many adult elements. We forget our main cartoon audience - innocent and pure kids, who need to be educated first rather than entertained first. The preschool education should be simpler."
Zhu regarded "Kuai Le Xin Xin" as "green and healthy" for children and complimented the producer's courage in taking the "risk" to go against the common "violent" practices.
"If we don't pay enough attention to the development of TV cartoons, which most kids watch everyday, we'll probably distort preschool education unobtrusively," Zhu said.
"TV cartoons should be funny, worthy of watching and of educational significance."
Behind "Kuai Le Xin Xin" was three years of effort made by director Liu's team.
In 2008, Liu was awarded as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Young People in Shanghai for her prominent achievements in creating original TV cartoons. The award gave her further confidence to continue the efforts to develop original cartoon works.
After cooperating with several world-class cartoon makers such as DreamWorks and Disney, Liu's team has learned to apply international vision and innovative concepts to their domestic productions.
"I was often asked by peers from these foreign companies why there were few animation companies in China making cartoons for preschoolers. Therefore, I started to become concerned about this group of audience and preschool education," Liu said.
"In most developed countries, censorship of cartoons for preschoolers is very strict. No violence is allowed in TV cartoons. It inspired our team to create something against the current domestic trend."
In Liu's opinion, today's parents, especially those from the 1980s generation, pay a lot of attention to their children's academic and physical performance. However, they show less care about the development of children's emotional intelligence.
"It might lead to an imbalanced development in kids," Liu said. "We need to guide them to form good traits at an earlier stage."
"Kuai Le Xin Xin" is highlighted by its participation with authors noted for creating children's stories.
Wang Yimei, a domestic author of children's stories, has witnessed that in the past decade, the rapid development of animation and Internet industries have made cartoons and web games a major part of children's life.
"Compared with traditional print media, cartoons are advantageous in offering direct impressions of image, color and voice to the kids. Maybe they can learn the first 'bad guy' or 'good guy' from a cartoon," Wang said.
"While many children's stories have been adapted to animations, it is really rare to see authors for children's stories directly participating in an animation production project. I'm glad to see that finally animation starts to have an intimate touch with literature."
Wang, together with another author called Bing Bo, made joint efforts to use simple and pure language to create the content for "Kuai Le Xin Xin."
"It's also a good way for the kids to learn language. We try to inspire their imagination, enrich their emotion, bring them curiosity and train their ability to observe, think, judge and perform," Wang said.
"It's literature. It's also a happy cartoon about love and education. I write it for the kids. The content is not fantasy. I create it based on child psychology and it's the fruit of joint efforts made by producer, authors and educators."
The first season features 52 episodes. Director Liu said she, together with the authors, is now planning to create the second season.
Changning government will further support the development of the multi-media digital industry to create a sound growth environment for children.
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