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2 China draws on cartoon cat's
success By Olivia Chung
HONG KONG - Since it was first shown on
television in January 2001, Chinese cartoon
character Blue Cat has become very popular among
mainland Chinese children, who previously had to
turn to foreign cartoon characters such as Mickey
Mouse for entertainment.
However, there
are still very few home-made animation films like
Blue Cat that can attract a vast audience.
Because of a lack of
investment, talent,
creativity and imagination, China's cartoon
industry is still quite underdeveloped compared
with other industries in the country.
As a
result, despite its great potential, China's
cartoon and animation market is still dominated by
foreign products, particularly those from Japan.
Home-made cartoons, including Heaven Eyes
and The Blue Cat and Naughty Mouse's 3,000
Questions, only account for 10% of China's
cartoon and animation market.
"Even now,
about 80% of the Chinese comic and animation
market is occupied by Japanese and South Korean
firms, 10% is taken by European and American
producers, and only 10% are China-made," an
industry expert said.
A national
exhibition of cartoons and animation was held in
Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, during the
May Day "golden week" holiday, which has
highlighted the growing demand for cartoons in
China. Daily visitors to the exhibition reached
more than 80,000 during the week-long exhibition.
Deals signed were worth 4.6 billion yuan (US$599
million). Counters were packed with products from
Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, Chinese media
reported.
This is despite the fact that
the Chinese government last year unveiled an
ambitious plan to boost the domestic cartoon and
animation industry. Experts say China still has
catching up to do, as it takes time to cultivate
animation production professionals and for an
industrial chain to be formed.
The history
of Chinese animation can be traced back to 1941,
when Princess Iron Fan, China's first
animated feature, was released. Made by Wan
Laiming and his three brothers during the Japanese
occupation (1937-45), the film was based on
stories from the episodes of the literary classic
Journey to the West, also known as The
Monkey King, and has anti-Japanese undertones.
In the 1960s, Wan Laiming spent four years
making a two-part feature based on the story of
The Monkey King.
In the 1980s, the
Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced many
animated shorts and features such as Three
Monks and Lotus Lantern. The former was
created with the traditional style of brush-stroke
painting.
Although China has the Wan
Brothers, which is the equivalent of Walt Disney
in the US, it had not become aware of the
profitability of the animation industry until the
beginning of this millennium, when it saw that
animation producers in the United States, Japan
and South Korea were making billions of dollars.
Animation films such as Disney's The
Lion King and Finding Nemo were runaway
hits in China, and Japanese manga-style
animation and anime are also in strong
demand.
According to industry experts,
cartoons and products derived from them generated
about $500 billion last year, up from $222.8
billion in 2004, and are very much a "sunrise
industry".
The industrial output of
China's comic and animation industry reached only
20 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) last year. But
industry experts believe the market could soon
grow to 100 billion yuan ($12.5 billion).
To cater for the need to develop a
domestic animation industry that can compete with
foreign products, the State Administration of
Radio, Film and Television in 2001 requested that
all foreign animations be approved before being
broadcast on Chinese television.
That was
followed by a notice in 2004 that domestic
animation should take up no less than 60% of all
the cartoons shown on
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