Considering China Webinar Series

3D CGI (computer-generated imagery) animation has long been regarded as an American innovation, pioneered by Pixar’s groundbreaking animated feature film, Toy Story (1995). For Chinese animators, mastering 3D CGI technology—a more complex and technically demanding medium compared to 2D animation—has represented an important step in advancing the country’s animation industry.

The journey began with the release of China’s first 3D CGI animated feature film, Little Tiger Banban (2001), and progressed through technological milestones such as Thru the Moebius Strip (2004), marking the gradual maturation of Chinese 3D CGI animation. However, it was not until the release of blockbusters like Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015) and Nezha (2019) that Chinese CGI technology began to achieve significant commercial success domestically. The recent global acclaim for Nezha 2 (2025), with its stunning visual effects proudly touted as "made in China," has sparked a sense of national cultural achievement. Watching the film and contributing to its record-breaking box office sales became a way for audiences to celebrate the progress of Chinese animation.

As the highest-grossing animated feature film in world history, surpassing Disney and Pixar, Nezha 2 not only signifies the rise of Chinese animation on the global stage but also underscores the growing influence of Chinese CGI technology in the realms of computer graphics and the creative industries worldwide.

3D CGI（计算机生成图像）动画长期以来一直被视为美国的创新成果，其先驱是皮克斯开创性的动画电影《玩具总动员》（1995年）。对于中国动画师而言，掌握3D CGI技术——相比2D动画更为复杂且技术要求更高的媒介——是中国动画产业进步的重要一步。

这一旅程始于中国首部3D CGI动画电影《小虎班班》（2001年）的发布，并通过如《穿越莫比乌斯环》（2004年）等技术里程碑逐步走向成熟，标志着中国3D CGI动画的逐渐成熟。然而，直到《西游记之大圣归来》（2015年）和《哪吒之魔童降世》（2019年）等大片的推出，中国CGI技术才在国内取得了显著的商业成功。最近，《哪吒2》（2025年）凭借其令人惊叹的视觉效果在全球获得赞誉，并自豪地宣称“中国制造”，激发了观众对国家文化成就的自豪感。观看这部电影并为其创纪录的票房贡献一份力量，成为了观众庆祝中国动画进步的一种方式。

作为全球有史以来票房最高的动画电影，超越了迪士尼和皮克斯，《哪吒2》不仅标志着中国动画在全球舞台上的崛起，也凸显了中国CGI技术在全球计算机图形学和创意产业领域日益增长的影响力。

About the Speaker

Daisy Yan Du is an associate professor in the Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

She is the author of Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation, 1940s–1970s (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019), which is her first monograph. Her refereed journal arti­cles have appeared in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Discourse, Positions, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Journal of Chinese Cine­mas, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and Gender & History, among others. She is the lead editor of Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion (Harvard University Press Asia Center, 2025), which is the first edited scholastic book about Chinese animation. 

She is also the editor of Chinese Animation and Socialism: From Animators’ Perspec­tives (Brill, 2021), the first of its kind that comprises essays written by renowned animators rather than scholars. She is currently working on two monographs and edit­ing several volumes about animation and new media. She is the founder of the Association for Chinese Animation Studies, established in Hong Kong in 2015 and dedicated to introducing and promoting Chinese animation studies to the English-speaking world.

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10 a.m. Central，Wednesday, March 26

Online via Zoom