Taiwanese animation or Taiwanese donghua can be traced back to 1954's black-and-white animation Wu Song Fights the Tiger (武松打虎) by the Kuei Brothers but the earliest surviving is The Race Between Turtle and Rabbit (龜兔賽跑) produced at the end of the 1960s by the Kuangchi Program Service and was also the first color animation in Taiwan. In the 1970s, Taiwanese animators went abroad to study the animation production techniques in the United States and Japan, opening up Taiwan's OEM animation and homemade industry.
1950s and 1960s
In the 1950s and 1960s, Taiwanese leisure activities were primarily watching film, television, folk opera and glove puppetry. Although American cartoons were broadcast in Taiwan, it was generally perceived to be detrimental to students' studies and increased risk of dropping out, however there were already some Taiwanese experimenting with making short length animations. In 1961, Fr. Philip L. Bourett, S.J. (卜立輝神父) founded the Kuangchi Program Service (KPS) and began the development of Taiwan's multimedia industry by purchasing used animation equipment from the United States, this could be considered the formal beginnings of Taiwanese animation.
In 1963, Fr. Bourret recommended Linus Zao (趙澤修 Chao Tse-hsiu / Zhao Zexiu) to be trained in animation at Disney in Hollywood. Linus had previously worked at Toei Animation from 1959. Upon Linus's return to Taiwan in 1965, the animation department at KPS was established. The first production was Uncle Stone's Letter (石頭伯的信) in 1968 followed by The Tortoise and the Hare in 1969. This won him a Golden Horse Award and he was given the honorary title of "Father of Taiwanese Animation" and the nickname "Taiwan's Walt Disney" In 1970, due to financial factors, the animation department was shut down and Linus left KPS. He went on to found his very own animation studio, Linus Art Studio (澤修美術製作所), and continued to produce commercials and social education films, this was one of Taiwan's early institutions specializing in cultivating animation talent, but all operations ceased after Linus moved to Hawaii in 1971 to take up a position at the University of Hawaii where he taught and worked as a freelance painter until 2003.
1970s
Japanese animation developed at a rapid pace between 1962 and 1970, so much so that Toei in Japan built a new film factory specifically for TV animation. With such rapid development gave rise to the problem of increased production costs so Japanese companies looked overseas to foreign animation companies to take over production work.
In 1970, Ying Jen Cartoon Production Center (影人卡通製作中心) was set up, consisting of twelve animators. Japanese animators Kusube Daikichirou (楠部大吉郎), Tsutomu Shibayama, and Otsuka Yasuo went to Taipei to work with Ying Jen, who were in charge of subcontracting Japanese animation, while the original art were all drawn by the Japanese original artists. All tools such as rulers, pens, and celluloid were strictly imported from Japan. Animations such as Star of the Giants and The Oriental Witches (東洋の魔女) were produced by Ying Jen Cartoons. However, after a little over a year, the Republic of China and Japan severed diplomatic relations, in addition, the salary of an animation artist at the time was not sufficient to live on (One animation page was worth three NTD), hence Ying Jen declared its dissolution.
In 1971, Teng You-li (鄧有立), who would later be named in 1975 as one of the Republic of China Ten Outstanding Young Persons (中華民國十大傑出青年), hired several animation artists from Ying Jen and founded Chinese Cartoon Production. But Teng decided to go a different route than Ying Jen by making homemade animation. In 1972, New Journey to the West (新西遊記), an experimental film directed by Chu Ming-tsan (朱明燦) was released and reported about by TTV, CTV and other cable television networks and print media. The news reached the ear of South Sea Film & Co (香港南海影業公司) director Chang Ying (張英), who discussed working with Chinese Cartoon Production and decided to fund the making of the animated film Creation of the Gods.
When making Creation of the Gods (封神榜), Chinese Cartoon Production were still in the stages of exploring screenwriting and character design. Although they invited Hong Kong screenwriter San Gong-seh (申江寫) to write the script, San wrote plays for movies and did not understand the nature of animation, the script become too large. Although they seized the opportunity of Bruce Lee's passing by adding wuxia and kung fu elements, the box office performance was not good. Fred Tan (但漢章 Tan Han-chung) once critiqued: "Children don't understand it and adults aren't willing to watch it."「小孩子看不懂、大人不願意看。」