Ink-Wash Animation水墨动画
shuǐmò dònghuà
Animation in the style of Chinese ink painting, invented by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1960 and never fully replicated elsewhere.
Shuimo donghua animates the aesthetics of literati brush painting: soft gradations of ink, empty space, forms that bleed and breathe. Shanghai Animation Film Studio premiered the technique with Where Is Mama (1960), animating Qi Baishi's tadpoles and shrimp, and perfected it in Buffalo Boy and the Flute (1963) and Feeling from Mountain and Water (1988). The multi-layer cel process behind the ink edges was famously labor-intensive and treated as a trade secret.
The tradition survives today as an influence rather than a production method: digital films like Deep Sea (with its "particle ink" rendering) and countless guofeng opening sequences quote the look. It remains the most distinctive visual idea Chinese animation has given the medium; see the History page for where it sits in the timeline.