Identities of Farming Culture in Jiangnan: The Creation of Animation to Inherit Folk Customs of Polder Rice Farming in Water Towns

Background and Aim: Jiangnan farming culture, a custom culture formed by Jiangnan people in their long history of agricultural production and life, highlights the features and connotations of the region. Recent years have witnessed a shift from a traditional agricultural society to a modernized and urbanized one, which is influencing the traditional agricultural cultural system deeply. In the context of increasingly globalized and intelligentized economic development, factors such as differences in survival and consciousness caused by the special geographical environment in Jiangnan (southern Yangtze River) have accelerated the modernization of farming civilization in the region. Confronting such a crisis, this study adopts an interdisciplinary research thinking pattern to protect, inherit, and spread Jiangnan farming culture in animation works by establishing a connection between the culture and animation art as well as combining theories such as semiotics, design, and communication. Materials and Methods: Data was collected through literature research, field investigation, and expert interviews to analyze the value, connotation, and characteristics of Jiangnan farming culture, as well as extract its symbolic and animation elements. Results: The research found that Jiangnan farming culture as a typical polder rice farming culture in China is featured by its unique Jiangnan water town characteristics, which serve as a foundation for creating animation works in this article with polder rice farming as the theme to inherit and spread Jiangnan farming culture. Conclusion: 1. As an independent art category, the animation plays a key role in building a farming cultural space and shaping the image of farming culture in cross-cultural communication. 2. Through the narrative expression of animation art, farming ideas are spread and passed on through animation lenses, allowing people to further understand the origin of Jiangnan farming culture. 3. Animation brings unlimited creative space to Jiangnan farming culture, which can promote its future innovation and sustainable development.