China in Flames
About China in Flames
Paper figures and drawings stand in for Chinese workers, peasants, foreign powers, and local rulers. Protest is put down. The workers break chains and raise a red flag. The cartoon argues against foreign intervention and for the Chinese revolution. Another title is Hands Off China. Zenon Komissarenko, Yuri Merkulov, and Nikolai Khodataev directed.
Cast & crew
More about China in Flames
I. Vinogradov wrote it. It was ordered by the society Hands Off China, with Chinese students from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East and with sinologists. Grigory Kabalov and V. Shulman operated the camera. Russian Wikipedia times it at 38 minutes and calls it the first Soviet feature-length cartoon to get a wide release. The technique is cut-out and drawn. Goskino is not the studio on that page.
Themes
Background
The 1925 cartoon takes the side of the Chinese revolution and names the foreign powers as the enemy of the workers on screen.
Making
Komissarenko’s group at the cinema school built the reel for a political society, with Chinese students in the room while the paper figures were drawn.
Look
Grigory Kabalov and V. Shulman photographed the cut-outs and the drawings.
Technique
Cut-out figures and drawings share the reel. A production note says the album method was used here first.
Notes
- Animators include Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Zinaida and Valentina Brumberg, Olga Khodataeva, and Lyudmila Blatova.
- A note on the making says the album method was used here for the first time.
- The alternate title is the name of the society that commissioned it.
- Animator.ru lists it as number 2318.
Scenes
- Paper figures stand for workers, peasants, and the foreign powers.
- The workers break the chains and raise the flag.
