Unofficial Animation: Personal Witness to the Development of Indie Animation in New-Century China

When it comes to contemporary animation, what first comes to your mind? Is it the special-effects blockbusters in cinemas, or the ongoing updates of popular series? Yet beyond these familiar screens lies another breed of film—one born not on an industrial assembly line but in the hands of individual artists. These works keep pushing form and content forward, quietly expanding what animation can be. That is “independent animation.”

This time, we have invited the renowned animation director and cartoonist Chen Lianhua to share his experiences of creating independent animation in China over the past two decades. From his early experiments with Flash animation to his widely acclaimed short film series “Solar Terms,” which integrates paper-cutting and ink-wash styles and has been selected for multiple international animation film festivals, and later to his celebrated work Yao-Chinese Folktales, he has consistently adhered to the belief that “one can create animation alone.” At the same time, he has personally witnessed the trajectory of independent animation in China. As one of the early founders of the “Feinaki Animation Week,” he has also been dedicated to building platforms for independent animation, organizing screenings, meet-ups, and open-chats to help more remarkable works get seen and discussed.