Suzhou featured in award-winning animated short film

A promotional poster for "My Milk Cup Cow", directed by Zhu Yantong.

"My Milk Cup Cow", an animated short film which uses Suzhou as its backdrop, has attracted worldwide attention winning 24 awards at international film festivals.

Created by Zhu Yantong, the 11-minute film tells the story of a father who says to his daughter there is a cow at the bottom of her cup, to get her to drink her milk. The story focuses on the creative little white lies that the father tells his daughter in order to look after and protect her.

Zhu Yantong, a Suzhou girl, created "My Milk Cup Cow" to store her thoughts and feelings about childhood and give thanks to her father. The animated film won 24 awards at international film festivals. [Photo/Zhu Yantong's weibo]

Zhu, who graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, said in an interview that the story is semi-autobiographical and that she used to hate drinking milk as a child.

Born in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, Zhu spent most of her childhood in Suzhou's Zhenze town, which is depicted in the animation.

After transferring from the Nanjing University of Finance to study postgraduate animation at Tokyo University of Arts, Zhu was taught by the famous Japanese animator Koji Yamamura.

The film won the Animation Division New Face Award at the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival this year, marking the first time that a Chinese entry has been nominated and won.

The animation has also taken home awards at numerous international film festivals, such as KROK International Animated Film Festival, Puchon International Student Animation Festival, Munich International Film Festival, the Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival and Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival.