[Xu Siyue] Exploration of "living" protection ways of intangible cultural heritage

Abstract: As the understanding of intangible cultural heritage continues to deepen, the protection of intangible cultural heritage is shifting from "static preservation" to "living protection".

In this process, the participation of modern visual media can make up for the shortcomings of traditional protection methods.

This paper takes three animated films "Nuwa Bends the Sky","The Legend of Capturing the Devil" and "The Song of Painting" as examples to explore new ways to protect intangible cultural heritage in the "living" category of oral tradition, performing arts and folk art.

Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage; living protection; animated films

Intangible cultural heritage refers to "the various social practices, conceptual expressions, forms of expression, knowledge, skills, and related tools, objects, handicrafts and cultural venues that communities, groups, and sometimes individuals regard as part of their cultural heritage." This intangible cultural heritage has been passed down from generation to generation and is constantly recreated as communities and groups adapt to their surrounding environment and interact with nature and history, providing these communities and groups with a sense of identity and continuity, thereby enhancing cultural diversity.

and respect for human creativity." According to this definition, intangible cultural heritage mainly includes the following contents: 1.

Oral traditions and expressions, including language as a medium of intangible cultural heritage; 2.

Performing arts; 3.

Social practices, rituals, festivals; 4.

Knowledge and practice about nature and the universe; 5.

Traditional handicrafts.

At present, the understanding of intangible cultural heritage has moved away from the level of "cultural residues" and paid more attention to the exploration of ways to protect it in its "living form".

The so-called "active protection" is a concept corresponding to "static protection".

In the past, traditional "static protection" measures, such as textual records of oral traditions and museum displays of traditional handicrafts, although they have played a certain role in preserving intangible cultural heritage matters, they have isolated the matter from the "cultural space" to which they belong.

It cuts off its origin in life, separates its connection with its inheritors, solidifies its development and change trend, and it is difficult to highlight the "intangible" particularity of intangible cultural heritage compared with material cultural heritage.

Therefore, in the current protection of intangible cultural heritage, it is necessary to proceed from the characteristics of intangible cultural heritage and combine the principles of life, innovation, integrity, people-oriented, and education to ensure that the protected objects are not only retained, but continue to Maintain "vitality", broaden the scope of protection and explore protection ways on this basis.

Among the "dynamic" protection approaches of intangible cultural heritage, documentaries have been applied relatively early as modern visual media.

For example, anthropological documentaries represented by "intangible cultural heritage" ethnographic documentaries and "intangible cultural heritage" ethnographic documentaries, as well as commercial documentaries that are more common in mass media.

However, for intangible cultural heritage in the category of cultural expressions, relying solely on the documentary model seems not enough to achieve overall "living protection".

For example, intangible cultural heritage documentaries that record folk art works, and the presentation of specific works still cannot get rid of the "static" model.

In recent years, drama films have also begun to absorb intangible cultural heritage elements, such as Nuo opera in "A Thousand Miles of Riding Alone" and Nvshu in "Snowflake and Secret Fan".

However, overall, the role of this type of intangible cultural heritage matters has remained more in symbol borrowing or narrative connection, and has not yet reached the level of "living" protection.

In contrast, the role of animated films, which also belong to dynamic visual arts, in intangible cultural heritage protection has not been paid attention to.

my country's rich treasure house of cultural heritage has always been the soil for animated film creation.

As early as the initial stage of animated films in China, the Wan brothers had begun to think about the national characteristics that were different from Disney animations in the United States.

They drew inspiration from "Journey to the West" and absorbed the styling elements of China opera to film the first animated feature film "Princess Iron Fan." In 1955, the Shanghai Film Studio's predecessor, the Shanghai Film Studio's art film group,"drew on the characteristics of folk wood carvings and clay sculptures in shape" and filmed the puppet film "The Magic Brush".

In the same year, the Shanghai Film Studio Art Group established a production team for the animated film "The Proud General".

Director Twei put forward the slogan of "exploring the road to national form and knocking on the door to comedy style." The success of these two films has prompted art film creators to pay more attention to drawing nourishment from traditional culture.

"Exploring the Road of National Form" has also become a landmark slogan in the history of the development of animated films in China.

Although there are many disputes over the term "China School", it is undeniable that China's animated films have indeed formed a unique style that is different from other countries, and the establishment of this style is based on the cornerstone of cultural heritage.

In the past, much attention has focused on how China's animated films draw nutrients from cultural heritage to expand their performance space, but few people have discussed the reaction of animated films on the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage in this process.

Combined with the different types and characteristics of intangible cultural heritage, animated films can become an effective way to protect intangible cultural heritage in the following aspects.

1.

Oral tradition intangible cultural heritage

Oral traditional heritage is mainly created orally by the public and passed down by word of mouth.

This characteristic also brings difficulties to the protection of such heritage.

Not only that, the "living" protection of folk literature must rely on certain agreed and commonly known occasions, such as temple fairs, song festivals and other occasions with fixed time and space, or occasions with no fixed time and space such as labor, weddings and funerals.

With the changes in urban layout and people's lifestyles, this type of "folk customs fields" is gradually decreasing, and the oral traditional heritage attached to these "folk customs fields" is facing the crisis of disappearance.

While "restoring","transplanting" or "regenerating" the "folk customs field" to protect oral traditional heritage, it is also advisable to use animated films to visually present it and broaden the protection channels for such heritage.

1) Visual presentation of oral traditional heritage

As early as 1955, Chen Huangmei, then director of the Film Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, pointed out that "art films are suitable for fairy tales, myths, folk stories, etc., which is in line with the characteristics of art films." Indeed, the fantasy and exaggeration elements contained in oral traditional heritage such as fairy tales, myths, and folk stories are consistent with the characteristics of animated films.

Therefore, in the creation process of animated films in China, oral traditional heritage has always been one of the main sources of subject matter.

For example,"The Proud General" is based on the folk proverb "sharpen the gun on the spot","Ginseng Doll" is based on northern folklore,"Monkey Fishing for the Moon" is based on folk fairy tales,"Nine-Colored Deer" is based on the Dunhuang story "The Deer King Born", etc.

Even the myths that are most difficult to visually transform are also explored in animated films.

Myths originated in ancient times and were collectively created by our ancestors.

They reflect nature, the relationship between man and nature, and social forms, and are highly fantasy.

The limited understanding of the ancestors made their identification of the external world full of fantasy that is difficult to interpret today.

Although with the progress of mankind, the cognitive function of myth has been replaced by science, the study of myth in various fields such as literature, sociology, and religion has never stopped.

By protecting myth, an oral tradition, we can understand the composition of primitive society, explore the origin of cultural phenomena, perceive the development of primitive thinking, and inherit the spirit of our ancestors who respected nature and competed with nature.

However, the "field" to which the mythological oral heritage adheres has been completely changed.

In the process of protecting it, in addition to textual records, creative transformation must also be considered.

As early as 1985, the animated film "Nuwa Mends the Sky" made an attempt to visually present myths.

2) Case analysis of "Nuwa Mends the Sky"

"Nuwa Mends the Sky" director Qian Yunda, screenwriters Qian Yunda and Ling Shu, art designer Hu Yongkai, photographer Wu Huarong, painting scenery Ye Ge.

The film was filmed by Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio in 1985 and released in the same year.

In 1986, it won the Special Award at the International Children's Film Festival in Saint-Rome, France.

There have always been many discussions on the "original appearance" of Nuwa: archaeology, folklore, and exegesis circles have inferred that Nuwa is the "frog god" from the word "Wa"; or from the perspective of reproductive worship, Nuwa is associated with the female genital; or Nuwa with a human head and a snake body is regarded as a relic of ancient totemism; or through the myth of the Great Flood and the comparative analysis of pronunciation, the image of Nuwa is combined with the gourd, and then it is adhered to the myth of brother-sister marriage, and the image of Fuxi's human head and snake body is interpreted.

No matter what "original appearance" Nuwa has, her function of nurturing symbols is one of the core essence of her image.

Especially in contemporary times, the visualization of Nuwa's image focuses on showing the gender characteristics of her women, emphasizing the fertility symbols contained in the process of anthropomorphism.

On the one hand, this reflects the secularization development trend of myth, and on the other hand, it is also related to the channels and receiving groups of visual presentation.

Therefore, in animated film works with mythological themes, it is necessary not only to retain the original images unique to mythology, but also to have visibility and aesthetics, and appropriately adjust the content that deviates from the perception of contemporary rationality.

The image of Nuwa in the animated film "Nuwa Mending the Sky" has long hair reaching her waist, highlighting her female characteristics; the upper body is exposed to retain her original characteristics; and the breast and round belly are enlarged, which strengthens the image connotation of the character of Nuwa.

--breeding function.

In order to create this character, film director Qian Yunda and his creative team made many bold attempts.

First of all, money was transported to the most primitive place-Ximeng Va Autonomous County to collect customs.

Ximeng is located in the Wa Mountain Mountains in southwest Yunnan at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters.

The Wa people call themselves Awa and Awa 'er, which means people who live on the mountains or in the mountains and forests.

In the "Survey and Research Series on the Current Situation and Development of Ethnic Minorities in China-Wa Nationality Volume in Ximeng County", it is pointed out that the Wa Nationality in Ximeng is still in the development stage of transition from primitive society to class society.

Nuwa is a character with dark skin and a bare upper body, showing the shadow of a Wa ethnic group.

Secondly, in order to strengthen the realism of the human body, the camera crew not only invited Hu Yongkai, who is good at sketching, to serve as an art designer, but also worked hard on the basic skills of sketching collectively.

After the image of the main characters is determined, if the remaining characters are all processed according to the image of Nuwa, the workload will be heavy, and secondly, they may not be able to pass the review.

Qian Yunda happened to read a report on Huashan rock paintings in Guangxi in the newspaper.

When he went to the field to take a look, his inspiration suddenly popped out.

Many rock paintings are preserved on the cliffs and cliffs along and near the Ming River, Pinger River and Zuojiang River in Guangxi.

Among them, the rock paintings on Yaoda Huashan in Ningming County and Mianjiang Huashan in Longchuan County are the largest.

These mountains are called "Huashan" and later "Huashan." It was recorded in the "Annals of Ningming Prefecture" during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty: Huashan is fifty miles away from the city, and there are red human figures in the cliffs.

They are all naked, big or small, holding arms or riding horses.

Before the chaos, the color is bright.

After the chaos, the color is slightly dimmer, and there are many such people along the stone walls on both sides of the river.

Academic circles have inferred that the Huashan rock paintings were painted during the Warring States Period to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The main content of the Huashan rock paintings is human figures, and they are squatting human figures.

The images are all ochre red.

It is made of a binder mixed with hematite powder and animal milk, blood, and leather glue as the painting pigment.

It mainly records the scene of the religious sacrifice ceremony of the ancestors.

In "Nuwa Mending the Sky", the creator drew on the squatting human figure in Huashan rock paintings, where Nuwa kneaded soil.

The first human figure created has round limbs, a slender waist and a plump buttocks, and hair dotted on the head.

These are all female gender characteristics.

Later, based on women, a male human figure with tough lines and broad shoulders and broad back was created.

Male and female figures danced on the screen, giving birth to smaller child figures.

Although these abstract figures have no facial features, expressions or lines, they complete the film's narrative just right.

Although the formation of the Huajiang rock paintings should be later than the ancient period when Nu Wa mended the sky, the character image based on the human shape of the rock paintings not only resolves the embarrassment of "nudity", avoids the problem of designing different character shapes, and reduces the difficulty of drawing a large number of characters.

It is also in line with the creation atmosphere of the myth of Nu Wa mended the sky.

Not only that, in the film, the static abstract human figures in the rock paintings "move".

Their stylized dances simulate the original sacrificial scenes and even subtly imply the process of copulation and childbirth.

It is also a dynamic interpretation of the myth of human origin.

In addition to the character shape, the background design of the film is also unique.

When Nuwa created humans,"heaven and earth were opened up without people." Qian Yunda and the background designer Ye Ge conducted an experiment on how to express the scene of the beginning of chaos and the beginning of heaven and earth.

Brush warm advertising paint on the glass, then press the background paper on it, semi-dry and not thin, allowing the paint to naturally penetrate and dye, and then remove the background paper, which produced many special effects that were neither like the sky nor the earth.

At the beginning of the film, Nuwa, who only covered her lower body with leaves, appeared in the chaos.

She shouted everywhere, and the sound effects produced an echo effect, and the limited picture suddenly turned into a boundless wilderness.

The mountains and rivers of ancient times cannot be traced, so you might as well use abstract methods to create illusions.

This background treatment complements the characters and makes the overall style of the film more unified.

In 2016, Zuojiang Huashan rock paintings were officially included in the World Cultural Heritage List.

In the process of visualizing the myth of creation,"Nuwa Mending the Sky" not only retains the core essence of the myth, but also combines the creative characteristics of animated films.

It draws inspiration from cultural heritage rock paintings and integrates it into the art design of the film.

Using this as a carrier, presenting the myth of oral traditional intangible cultural heritage, although it has the creator's subjective interpretation, from the character shape to the background design, This animated film all attempts to "live" protection of myths such as "Nuwa Mends the Sky".

2.

Intangible cultural heritage of performing arts

Intangible cultural heritage of performing arts includes folk music, folk dance, folk opera, etc.

The biggest problem faced by this type of cultural heritage protection is the disappearance of performance opportunities, display platforms, and communication channels.

Taking the puppet show as an example, after the original street-to-street performance model was replaced by troupe performances, higher requirements were also put forward for the performance venue.

However, once the support of performance space was lacking, the protection of this cultural heritage became difficult.

As an important branch of puppet shows, Zhangzhou puppet shows have built a new "performance space" using animated films as a carrier during its development, providing ideas for the "living" protection of intangible cultural heritage such as performing arts.

1) Multi-dimensional display of intangible cultural heritage of performing arts

Puppet shows have been around for a long time in China, but their origin has not been determined."Liezi·Tang Wen" records that Yanshi of the Zhou Dynasty used materials such as "leather, wood, glue, lacquer, white, black, dan, and blue" to "create people who can advocate." "Yuefu Miscellaneous Records·Puppets" describes how Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty was surrounded by Maodun in Pingcheng, and Chen Ping made puppet figures to withdraw from the army.

Although from the perspective of academic argumentation,"Liezi's fake books are not trustworthy" and there is no other historical evidence to support Chen Ping's case, from this two accounts, we can still see the long history of puppet shows in our country.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the development of puppet shows became increasingly prosperous."Tokyo Menghualu·Jingwa Jiyi" recorded "stick head puppets","hanging silk puppets" and "medicine hair puppets", and "Mengliang Lu" described "Twenty-four puppets in Guanxiangkou and Sujia Lane" in "Mengliang Lu".

There are also detailed descriptions.

This shows the popularity of puppet shows at that time.

The puppet show that followed has gone through innovations in various dynasties and generations, and has developed to this day, laying the foundation for the emergence of puppet pieces.

Puppet films, as the name suggests, are films that use puppets as their creative objects.

In the actual creation process, in addition to wood, the puppet pieces are made of plaster, rubber, plastic, sponge and silver wire joints and foot nail positioning.

Therefore, a more accurate name should be "puppet animation", but the name "puppet piece" seems to better reflect the traditional origin of this species.Starting from my country's first puppet film "The Emperor's Dream", this film has gradually become an important branch of my country's animated films.

Most of the puppet films have adopted a frame-by-frame shooting method, such as the "Magic Brush" and "Avanti" that are well known to the audience.

There are also some films that have adopted a continuous shooting method.

If "frame-by-frame shooting" is regarded as the basic feature of animated films, such films seem to be unable to be classified as animated films.

Some scholars collectively refer to them as "puppet art films".

Or "continuous puppet films", the combination of Zhangzhou puppet shows and animated films mainly belongs to this category, and this type of film records and presents the performing art of puppet show artists differently, among which there are three main types.

One is that documentary films are interspersed with continuous puppet shows, such as "Playing in the Palm" filmed in 1962.

At the beginning of the film, it is a simple presentation of the stage and props, followed by a narration to explain the identity of the puppet and the general content of the play performed.

The film is interspersed with records of puppet performance artist Yang Sheng participating in the performance, and this connects different plays.

Although there were lens design and arrangements during the recording process, for example, for the shooting of some shots, the music creator, as an art designer, dug a hole in the floor, let the artist reach out with his hand to operate the floor, and then used a top-down method to hide the operator.

This is an experience that has never been experienced before in stage performances, but overall this type of film can still be classified as documentary films.

The second is a continuous puppet show.

For example,"Daming Mansion", which was also filmed in 1962, selected Yang Sheng's representative play "Daming Mansion" as the subject.

The opening narration combined with subtitles provides a brief description of the plot, and then follows the original performance style of the play to the end, retaining the original opera tunes with the background music of gongs and drums.

Although this type of film has an element of relocation, the film provides an overall record of the traditional repertoire.

If we proceed from the perspective of "recording reality", it can still be classified as documentary films.

These two types of films faithfully reproduce the performance process of the puppet show, retain the working materials of the puppet artists, and play a certain role in the continuation of traditional plays.

In addition, there is also a film style that uses the attributes of puppets and draws on the creative experience of puppet films to recreate the puppet show from a film perspective, continuing the "vitality" of this intangible cultural heritage, such as the film "The Legend of the Devil".

2) Case analysis of "The Legend of Capturing the Devil"

Zhan Tong, chief director of "The Demon Capture", plays screenwriters Ma Mingquan and Zhuang Huoming, executive director Xiao Huaihai, photographer Qiao Zhengyuan, styling designer Zhan Tong, set designer Chen Shaoyuan, and puppet carving Xu Congliang.

The film is divided into six episodes, which were jointly produced by Shanghai Art Film Studio and Fujian Film Studio in 1987 and released in the same year.

"The Legend of the Devil" adopts a wide-screen format and is adapted based on "The Romance of the Gods".

Although Zhangzhou puppets also have plays with this theme, such as the puppet show "Feng Shen Bang", unlike the "Palm Drama" mentioned above or "Daming Mansion","The Legend of the Devil" is filmed almost in accordance with the model of a large-scale story film.

In addition to directors, screenwriters and other main creators, it is also equipped with props, set design, martial arts design, special effects, costumes, composition, and even dubbing.

The protagonist of this film is a cloth puppet manipulated by the Zhangzhou Puppet Troupe Company and the Longxi Puppet Class of the Fujian Province Art School.

Although this film is filmed continuously compared with "frame-by-frame shooting", the film is not filmed in one go, but uses a variety of film methods.

Its film language is much richer than that of "Palm Drama" and "Daming Mansion".

It has got rid of the simple recording mode and has the aesthetic characteristics of a drama film.

Zhan Tong, the general director of the film, once served as the art designer for films such as "Pig Bajie Eating Watermelon" and "Golden Monkey Conquering Demons", and directed puppet films such as "Southern Youth" and "True and False Li Kui".

He studied the modeling characteristics of animated films and the shooting skills of puppet films.

He believed that if he wanted to shoot a film with many characters and a grand scene like "The Legend of the Devil", he could not copy all the Zhangzhou puppets 'style and personally design "The Legend of the Devil".

The puppet heads of cloth puppets are mostly carved out of natural camphor wood and will not change after carving.

Therefore, they often adopt exaggerated shapes to highlight the character's personality the moment the characters appear.

At the same time, as the audience in the theater looked up to watch the puppet show, the eyes of the puppet puppets generally looked down, creating the effect of the puppets looking at each other.

The emergence of cameras breaks the fixed distance between the audience and the puppet puppet.

Through the flexible application of close-ups, close-ups, and long-distance views, coupled with the cooperation of various means such as editing and music, the characters can be portrayed in more detail.

Therefore, the characters in "The Legend of Capturing the Devil" absorb the typological characteristics of the drama masks.

For example, the red face of the Grand Tutor Wen symbolizes his integrity, and the white face of Fei Zhong implies his sinister and cunning.

At the same time, it weakens the exaggeration effect on the drama stage and emphasizes the details of the five senses, such as Fei Zhong's eyes are round, but they are matched with thin oblique eyebrows.

There is a slight shadow under his eyes, which seems to be trickery at any time.

When Ji Chang faced the meat pie made by his own son, the camera moved forward and through a close-up, you could see the eyebrow lines between Ji Chang's eyebrows, revealing his inner suffering.

The twill under his eyes enhanced this effect, as if he could see the tears hidden in his eyes.

Another example is Daji in the film, with apricot eyes, eyebrows, and red lips.

For example, on the puppet stage, such fine facial treatment often lacks stage effect, but in the film, it conforms to Daji's seemingly weak image of a beautiful woman.

"The Legend of Capturing the Devil" highlights the character characteristics of the characters through switching scenes, and also demonstrates the superb carving skills of Zhangzhou puppet artists.

The head and trunk of the cloth puppet are connected by a cloth bag.

The puppet artist puts gloves into it and manipulates the puppet with his fingers.

Therefore, the puppet moves flexibly and is good at fighting.

"The Legend of Capturing the Devil" retains and strengthens this feature.

When performing, the feet of cloth puppets are the easiest to "wear".

Therefore,"The Legend of the Devil" often uses the middle shot to avoid shooting the feet of characters.

However, in fighting scenes, this problem can be solved by changing the camera angle or switching lenses.

For example, at the beginning of the film, Bukit and the nine-headed rhinoceros leopard duel in the Colosseum.

The rocks in the foreground skillfully cover the feet of the static figures, and then the figures begin to move.

The camera is between the nine-headed rhinoceros leopard, Daji, King Zhou and Bukit The rapid switching between highlights the tension of the entire scene.

Not only that, the film also retains some of the stage special effects of the puppet show, such as smoke and sparks, but takes it one step further.

For example, the flames in the film are all real fire, which is almost impossible to achieve on a puppet show stage with wood carvings as the main character.

In the film, in addition to the static brazier, there is even a dynamic flame effect when Daji burns the memorial of Taishi Wen.

In the fourth episode, Jiang Ziya was about to be executed.

Suddenly, the camera turned to black and white, accompanied by smoke, creating an abnormal environment when Jiang Ziya was rescued and highlighting his immortal power.

The windy scene effects that often appear in the film are achieved with the help of the wind power of an electric fan or blower.

The magic color of "The Romance of the Gods" is displayed in the film through various technical means.

At that time, computer technology was not yet popular.

These treatments reflect the creator's ingenuity.

In 2006,"Zhangzhou Puppet Show" and "Zhangzhou Puppet Head Carving" were selected as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Xu Congliang, the "puppet carving" in "The Legend of the Demon Capture", and his brother Xu Zhuchu have also become the representative inheritors of the intangible cultural heritage of "puppet head carving".

As a traditional drama, Zhangzhou Puppet Puppet Show itself is a visual presentation, even a dynamic visual presentation.

The "Zhangzhou Puppet Head Carving" uses the puppet show as a carrier and also completes the process of dynamic visual presentation.

"The Legend of the Demon Capture" enriches the presentation of this intangible cultural heritage.

It not only retains the characteristics of puppet puppets, but also adjusts and strengthens it combined with film aesthetics, creating a special film between puppet movies and drama movies.

The film style provides a feasible way to protect intangible cultural heritage of performing arts such as puppet shows.

At the same time, compared with the first two types of puppet shows filmed continuously, this type of film also has some problems in recording cultural heritage.

In the detailed introduction of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List,"Zhangzhou puppet show is a comprehensive art composed of puppet performances, plays, music, puppet making, costumes, props, scenery, etc." However, during the filming of "The Legend of the Devil", these originally unified elements were inevitably separated and screened from the perspective of film creation, such as the film's adjustment of the soundtrack.

Zhangzhou puppet performances are often accompanied by Xiang opera tunes or Peking Opera music.

In recent years, in order to expand the audience of puppet shows, the singing has been cut down during performances, and even mime has been directly used.

As an animated film, the target audience of "The Demon Capture" is not limited to the local people in Zhangzhou, but at the same time, the mere use of pantomime cannot meet the narrative requirements of the film.

Therefore, the dialogue was designed when the film started shooting, and professional actors were invited to voice it later.

The soundtrack of the film absorbed opera elements such as gongs and drums, and expanded it, and even created musical themes for the main characters, such as the light flute matching Jiang Ziya, the sad Xun matching Wen Taishi, or the electronic sound matching Daji.

Whether such treatment will affect the overall protection of this heritage is a question worth continuing to explore.

3.

Intangible cultural heritage of folk art

Folk art originates from people's life and is usually associated with food, clothing and daily necessities, festivals and customs, beliefs and sacrifices, games and entertainment.

Specific forms of expression include bamboo weaving, clay sculptures, paper-cutting, shadow puppets, prints, peasant paintings, etc.

The intangible cultural heritage protection of folk art usually adopts a static presentation method.

This is because the understanding of folk art often only focuses on the works embodied on the surface and ignores the intangible cultural characteristics behind them.

"Folk art is visual art in form, but they are not pure works of art in real life scenes, but the life of people in real life.

The so-called 'life aspect' is the appearance or style of life."

1) Dynamic records of intangible cultural heritage such as folk art

Since the beginning of its development, China's animated films have continuously drawn nourishment from folk art.

It is precisely because of the absorption of various art styles such as paper-cutting, window grilles, shadow puppets, etc., that China's animated films have been called "art films" for a long time, which shows their relationship with folk art.

Looking at the folk art in animated films, most of them belong to "shell" in the form of visual art.

However,"Song of Painting", which describes Jinshan peasant paintings, has its unique shooting method and pushed the creation of Jinshan peasant paintings to a new peak in the process of "dynamic" protection.

2) Case analysis of "The Song of Painting"

"The Song of Painting" was directed by Ada, photographer Jiang Youyi, and editor Xiao Huaihai.

It was filmed by Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio in 1981.

In the same year, it was screened at the "National Advanced Workers of Rural Culture and Art" Award Conference, which caused a sensation, and was later made into copies and distributed to China's embassies abroad.

It was very popular.

The combination of peasant paintings and animated films was not originally created by "Song of Painting".

"Stories in the Murals" directed by He Yumen and Wang Shuchen in 1959 was based on three murals in which farmers defeated "drought, flood, and wind disaster" in Pixian County, Anhui Province.

It was the main form during the first climax period of peasant painting.

In the context of the times that reflected the actual struggle and praised the Great Leap Forward at that time, the reason why this film adopted the form of murals was to be close to the lives of farmers and adopt its familiar expression techniques to achieve propaganda purposes.

Ada Xu Jingda, the director of "The Song of Painting", did not leave a specific explanation, but according to the memories of the creators who participated in the film, the Jinshan peasant paintings in this film are no longer simply creative materials, but the creative objects of the film.

It is precisely because of this difference in original intention that "Song of Painting" adopts a creative method different from other films.

The birth of the film mainly stems from Ada's inspiration.

In the 1970s, Jinshan peasant paintings gradually took shape.

In 1978, the "National Farmers Exhibition" was held in Beijing, and Jinshan peasant paintings emerged.

In April 1980, the "Shanghai Jinshan Farmers 'Exhibition" was exhibited at the China Art Museum in Beijing, causing a sensation.

At that time, Ada talked about this new art form with some of the creators he often worked with and proposed that a film could be filmed on this theme.

Wu Tongzhang, the pioneer of Jinshan Peasant Painting, and Ada are both members of the Artists Association.

They have known each other for a long time.

On this basis, they came to the origin of filming this film.

In the animation film industry, Adasu is known for his pursuit of innovation and change.

He participated in the production of "Little Tadpole Searching for Mother", directed "Three Monks", and acted as the styling designer "Monkey Fishing for the Moon", all of which have made a breakthrough in animation techniques, and his presentation of Jinshan peasant paintings naturally does not follow the rules.

In the past, the handling of similar themes or the use of documentaries was generally static, although there was a push and pull of the lens.

Or, like "Stories in Murals", which uses this art form as a carrier and absorbs the styling elements within it for re-creation.

However, Ada captured the special style and characteristics of Jinshan peasant paintings and made this painting form "move".

During the preliminary creation stage of Jinshan Peasant Painting, folk craftsmen and artists were once listed as the main body of creation, but Wu Tongzhang felt that they were influenced by painting stereotypes and their works lacked individuality.

During the process of collecting styles in 1977, Wu Tongzhang discovered that elderly rural women still retained many embroidery products.

He felt that the minds of these rural women contained the real treasure house of peasant paintings.

Sure enough, it was in the hands of these rural women that Jinshan peasant paintings based on paper-cutting, embroidery, stove murals, blue calico, etc.

were born.

The content of the paintings is closely related to rural life and is usually a display of folk life.

There are records of specific occasions such as temple fairs and weddings, such as Chen Furong's "Double Ninth Festival in September" and Zhang Fengying's "Groom and Bride"; more are descriptions of ordinary life scenes such as farming and raising ducks, such as Cao Jinying's "Village Head Fish Market" and Zhang Xinying's "Flower Kitchen Head".

In order to faithfully reflect the origin relationship of "life-folk art tradition-peasant painting", Ada interspersed animation shots, static shots showing the paintings, and real-life shots recording the lives of farmers in the film, completing a multi-angle presentation of the paintings.

Take a group of shots in a movie as an example:

This set of shots combines the real scene of the duck flock's activities with the whole and part of the painting "Playing Ducks in the Lotus Pond", as well as animation fragments, revealing the realistic origin of the Jinshan peasant paintings.

In the introduction of some paintings, the film also records the daily lives of the creators of Jinshan peasant paintings, interspersed with their paintings, further reflecting the dynamic connection between Jinshan peasant paintings and life, and revealing the "life phase" contained in folk art.

The innovation of "Song of Painting" is not only to connect the painting with the folk life field where the painting is produced, but also to fully consider the aesthetic characteristics of Jinshan peasant paintings in the processing of animation fragments.

The creators of Jinshan peasant paintings have not received systematic art study, and they do not follow the laws of sketching or perspective in the creative process.

They often paint based on impressions, so they will "combine many different times, different spaces, different viewing directions and various The characteristics of various objects are intricately intertwined.

He often takes himself as the center and depicts some interesting things around him in one painting through various angles, transcending the expression limits of focus perspective and scattered perspective.

The phenomena of looking up, looking down, looking up, looking up, looking down, looking back, etc.

appear in the same painting, which constitutes a special composition form of Jinshan peasant paintings." Ada keenly captured the animation elements contained in this feature of Jinshan peasant paintings.

In general art films, the original paintings are connected through animation to achieve dynamic effects, while Jinshan peasant paintings already provide multiple views of the same object in the paintings, so it is possible to restore the basic motion pattern without adding animation.Ada led the crew to collect one or two hundred original works in Jinshan, select parts of the paintings that could form an animation relationship, and then divide shots on the original works, directly transitioning from the 'original painting' to 'original painting' to 'original painting'.

Therefore, the animation fragments in this film are all composed of the original paintings of farmers in Jinshan, and no animation is added.

For example, to shoot the movements of birds, we must find various forms of birds from the original painting, birds with heads lowered, birds with wings raised, birds with wings spread, and birds with folded wings, arranged and combined, shot one by one or stacked to form an animation effect.

Although it seems relatively "clumsy" compared with animated films that have both original paintings and animations, it faithfully retains the original state of Jinshan peasant paintings.

On this basis, Ada planned to further explore the interesting, exaggerated and narrative elements in Jinshan peasant paintings and shoot more animated films.

He once encouraged Zhang Xinying, the creator of Jinshan peasant paintings, to "paint more cats with different looks and connect them together to make a fun story." With his encouragement, Zhang Xinying created "Troubling in the Kitchen", which depicts stealing food cats, robber cats, distressed cats, simmering cats, and fighting cats.

Although it is a fixed moment, it is full of drama.

Unfortunately, Ada died young, and the plan to shoot an animated film drawn by farmers in Jinshan was put on hold.

After its screening,"The Song of Painting" attracted the attention of all parties and generated some discussions.

The focus of the discussion was mainly on whether the genre of this film was an animated film.

To this end, Hu Yihong, Qian Yunda and Ma Ke Xuan respectively published papers in "Film Art","A Breakthrough in Animated Film Language from" Painting Song "and" Painting Song "and the Concept of Animated Films-Discussing with Comrade Hu Yihong" for discussion.

Overall, the animation clips in this film account for limited space and basically belong to the category of documentary films.

However, it is these limited animation fragments that have become the highlights of the entire film.

These animation fragments directly use the original Jinshan peasant paintings without adding an animation.

At the same time, they are interspersed with real-life scenes, achieving a living presentation of this art form.

Although the film did not have a clear promotion purpose at the beginning of filming, it is undeniable that the film has contributed to the development of Jinshan peasant paintings, enhanced the popularity of Jinshan peasant paintings, and made Jinshan peasant paintings a business card of Jinshan.

The film was not only released in China, but was also brought by Ada to the Zagreb International Animated Film Festival in Yugoslavia, attracting international attention.

In 2007, Jinshan peasant paintings became the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Shanghai City.

As early as 1981,"Song of Painting" used its special animation techniques to provide a way for the living protection of intangible cultural heritage such as folk art.

4.

Conclusion

Looking at the films listed in this article, although they are not entirely animated films shot in the traditional sense, they all give full play to the characteristics of animated films, either combined with plot films or interspersed with documentaries, providing a reference for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

It is undeniable that these films were basically born in the 1980s.

At the beginning of their creation, there was no clear direction for intangible cultural heritage protection.

The film creators mainly started from the choice of art styles or themes of animated films, and based on the characteristics of animated films.

In this process, the involvement of intangible cultural heritage content stems more from unconscious artistic sensitivity rather than conscious protection purposes.

The evaluation and summary of these films also focus on the gains and losses of animation art.

This is because in my country, the concept of intangible cultural heritage was not initially established until the beginning of the 21st century.

In the subsequent development process, discussions on the concept of intangible cultural heritage and ways to protect intangible cultural heritage have always been endless.

To this day, the protection of their own heritage by Chinese people has risen from the "material" level to the "non-material" level, from the "static protection" level to the "living protection" level, and from the "artifact protection" level to the "human protection" level of the artifact makers.

Intangible cultural heritage protection has become a grand social and cultural activity involving multiple forces.

The main body of the activity has expanded from the original academic community to different forces such as government departments, cultural institutions, enterprises and inheritance entities.

In this context, a bridge between animated films and intangible cultural heritage protection was built.

In recent years, as the attention to traditional culture continues to heat up, animation creators have turned their attention to cultural heritage again, absorbing nutrients from it and creating a number of works based on local culture, including many excellent works.

For example,"Return of the Great Sage" released in 2015 made a modern transformation of "Journey to the West" and used the shell of traditional themes to tell the story of a "lost hero", triggering a movie-watching craze.

The box office reached 956 billion yuan, and the number of movie-goers was 27.58 million, ranking 10th in the national box office list that year, and was called a "phenomenal" movie in the industry.

"Big Fish Begonia" released in 2016 is inspired by "Zhuangzi·Xiaoyao Tour".

The character design is based on "Shanhai Jing", and is complemented by tulou, white crane, lotus lantern, stone lion, dragon head boat, oil paper umbrella, lantern embellishment of national elements such as lanterns highlights the exquisiteness and beauty of the picture.

The film box office exceeded 500 million yuan.

Although it did not reproduce the box office miracle of "Return of the Great Sage", it aroused discussion about "China Style" animation among the audience.

It is true that the attention attracted by these works has played a certain role in the contemporary preservation and promotion of cultural heritage such as "Journey to the West" and "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", but it has not yet risen to the level of cultural protection of intangible cultural heritage.

The reason is that animated films are an aesthetic experience.

In the process of forming aesthetic interest, they must undergo artistic processing and processing.

For example,"Return of the Great Sage" adapted "Journey to the West".

Although there is also inheritance of the classic theme, the more important thing is to refine the theme of the original work and reorganize it to meet contemporary aesthetic needs.

In this process of artistic creation, the direction of animated films and intangible cultural heritage protection seems to be gradually drifting away.

However, if the two are deliberately converged, animated films are labeled as "intangible cultural heritage protection" and equipped with the function of education, animated films will fall into restrictions that cannot be freely expressed, and the audience will also be forced to be given the responsibility of "inheritance and protection" during the viewing process, triggering psychological exclusion, and making the communication effect run counter to the idea.

Not only that, in the process of understanding traditional culture, contemporary animated films generally have some problems: first, excessive reliance on and excessive exploration of certain classic themes.

In 2015 alone, when "Return of the Great Sage" was released, there were 8 animation adaptations of "Journey to the West" approved.

In fact, in my country, in addition to well-known literary classics such as "Journey to the West","Water Margin" and "Mountain and Sea Classic", there are also a large number of myths, legends, fairy tales, and even folk proverbs, which can be presented through animated films.

At present, it seems that the creators of animated films have not broken their habitual thinking mode and looked for inspiration in the broader oral cultural heritage.

Secondly, the traditional cultural elements displayed in animated films are often complicated and empty.

"Big Fish Begonia" has caused controversy because of this.

Although cultural heritage is manifested as specific cultural events, what is more important is the national cultural awareness it contains.

If traditional cultural elements are only piled up as visual symbols in the film without interpreting their connotations, the promotion of these cultural heritage will lose its significance.

Therefore, this paper attempts to re-sort the historical experience of China's animated films from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage protection to summarize feasible ways to "live" protection of intangible cultural heritage.

It is true that not all intangible cultural heritage is suitable for animated films.

This article mainly targets intangible cultural heritage of oral traditions, performing arts and folk art, and supplements existing protection methods.

The reason why animated films can "live" protect intangible cultural heritage is first because they have "painting craftsmanship" and can directly display folk art cultural heritage as creation objects.

The animation effect of Jinshan's peasant paintings in "Song of Painting" makes full use of this special attribute of animated films.

On this basis, it is interspersed with the life scenes of the creator of the peasant paintings and integrates and protects the "fragmented" content.

While emphasizing "art", animated films also have "image activity", dynamically highlighting the vitality of their objects by mobilizing film means.

The rich film language in the film "The Legend of the Devil" highlights the artistic characteristics of Zhangzhou's puppet puppets.

At the same time, the performance skills of the inheritors of the puppet puppet show are also completely recorded in a "non-mirror" manner, thus providing a comprehensive analysis of the performing arts category.

Intangible cultural heritage is protected.

In addition, animated films are also "highly hypothetical", so they can embody and visualize virtual parts of oral culture such as myths and legends.

Based on this characteristic,"Nuwa Mending the Sky" with myth as its theme makes an attempt to protect oral traditional cultural heritage.

On the other hand, the subject of animated films also conforms to the purpose of intangible cultural heritage protection.

In the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage,"protection" of intangible cultural heritage is defined as "various measures to ensure the vitality of intangible cultural heritage, including the recognition and documentation of all aspects of such heritage, research, preservation, protection, publicity, promotion, inheritance, especially through formal and informal education) and revitalization." In terms of specific measures,"educational plans to publicize and disseminate information to the public, especially young people" and "informal means of knowledge dissemination" are emphasized.

The objects of animation films are the general public, including young people.

Although their educational function has been controversial in recent years, it is undeniable that young people are still the main audience of most mainstream animated films.

Therefore, animation can be used as an "informal means of knowledge dissemination" to play a certain role in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

In contemporary times, the broadcast platform for animated films is no longer limited to theaters, but covers various channels such as television and the Internet.

If fully utilized, the scope of publicity for intangible cultural heritage protection can be further expanded.

For example, Mexico, which is also a developing country, has begun to use animation to produce videos to promote its heritage, provide them free of charge to major television stations, and further promote them on Social networks.

In our country, how to transform rich cultural traditions and historical accumulation into excellent art products in the digital art era and have a positive and healthy impact is also a question worth exploring.

Therefore, from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage protection, it is advisable to summarize the past animated films containing intangible cultural heritage elements, and then consciously explore ways to incorporate animated films into the protection of intangible cultural heritage, so as to achieve the purpose of "living" protection.

The key to this protection process is to achieve a balance: it can not only meet the artistic and aesthetic needs of animated films and carry out active innovation, but also maintain the continuity of the intangible cultural heritage genealogy as much as possible.

To achieve this balance, animated film creators should cooperate with scholars in the field of intangible cultural heritage to expand their understanding of intangible cultural heritage, correctly understand the core to which the vitality of intangible cultural heritage depends, and then reconstruct it based on the characteristics of animated films to achieve "living" protection of intangible cultural heritage.

(This article was published in the 2019 issue of "Dongyue Lun Cong".

The annotations are omitted.

See the original issue for details)