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Archive #51 – Animating Sun Wukong: Shanghai Animation Film Studio’s Havoc in Heaven and Symbolic Transformation on the Eve of the Cultural Revolution

Jim R. McClanahan Leave a comment

I was on ProQuest Dissertation Express the other day and noticed a recent Master’s thesis by Jackson R. Ayers called Animating Sun Wukong: Shanghai Animation Film Studio’s Havoc in Heaven and Symbolic Transformation on the Eve of the Cultural Revolution (2022). It describes the cultural and political context behind the creation of the beloved animated film Havoc in Heaven (Danao Tiangong, 大闹天宫, 1961/1964; a.k.a. “Uproar in Heaven”; video 1), which premiered on the heels of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). This is an important subject not only because I love the movie, but also because I’ve previously archived a book chapter about the coopting of a famous Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) episode for propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Therefore, I have decided to archive the thesis to add to my coverage of 20th-century representations of the Monkey King and his companions.

Video 1 – The movie Havoc in Heaven on YouTube.

Abstract:

This paper attempts to deconstruct the complex intersection of Maoist-era propaganda and Chinese folk-art traditions in the years before China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) by interrogating the symbolic transformation of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, into a hero who justified rebellious action. Specifically, this research analyzes director Wan Laiming’s 1964 film, Havoc in Heaven (Danao Tiangong 大闹天宫), China’s first domestic feature-length animated film. Employing Wan’s memoir and documents from other animators at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS), this framework establishes artists as the unit of analysis to study symbolic change between Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propagandistic guidance and the Chinese people. This approach emphasizes the agency and mediating role artists possess when producing art as propaganda. Developing on approaches employed by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and Alexander Bukh in their research on nationalism, this research encompasses both the narrative content of Havoc in Heaven and the perspectives of SAFS animators towards their work. It argues that a lack of direct party intervention during production and the unexplored frontier of animated film created permissive and productive conditions in which Ohnuki-Tierney’s concept of meconnaissance flourished. Furthermore, Wan and his team reveal that the primary operating principle at SAFS was the development of a nationalized Chinese animation style, founded in traditional folk-arts, and directed towards children’s education, not the fulfillment of Party objectives.

Archive Link:

Click to access Animating-Sun-Wukong-Shanghai-Animation-Film-Studios-Havoc-in-Heaven-and-Symbolic-Transformation-on-the-Eve-of-the-Cultural-Revolution.pdf

Thanks:

The dissertation was originally found on Scholarspace, so thank you to them for making it freely available.