This article examines how the emergence, constitution and diversification of independent animation in mainland China was formed with minjian discourse and the rise of independent creativity over the past two decades. This was an era in which the animation mainstream was transformed from a primarily political discourse to a fully commercialized entity, while the aesthetic parodies and pastiches of an imaginary ‘Chineseness’ have undergone a renaissance within a power struggle between individuality and independency in animation practice.