The second China International Animation and Cartoon Festival
opened on Thursday in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, as a grand celebration of
the 80th birthday of China's cartoon and animation industry.
Cosponsored by the State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television and Zhejiang provincial government, the week-long
festival is mainly composed of cartoon and animation industry
exposition, a forum discussing the prospect of the industry and a
competition of the cartoon and animation works in China.
World famous cartoon producers from France, Japan, the United
States, Hong Kong and Croatia are invited to the festival.
China produced its first cartoon movie in 1926. But it was
Japan's Astro Boy of the 1980s that enlightened the country's
modern animation and cartoon creations, according to Zhang
Hongjian, director of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee's
Publicity and Information Department.
"There is a remarkable gap between China's animation and cartoon
industry and that of Japan. In fact China lags behind at least 10
years in terms of technique and originality," Zhang told a press
conference Thursday afternoon before the opening ceremony of the
festival.
Statistics show how significant this 10-year gap is to the
country's animation industry and its huge deficit in international
cultural trade. Currently 90 percent of China's animation and
cartoon market is dominated by foreign productions from Japan and
the US. The largest share goes to Japan.
However, Zhang is quite optimistic about the future of the
country's animation industry and provided figures to clarify his
view. In 2004 China produced a total of 19,000 minutes of animation
and the figure for 2005 was 49,000 minutes.
This significant increase in production time shows a growing
interest in the country's fledging animation and cartoon business
estimated to be worth billions of US dollars. In 2004 the cartoon
industry alone in China was worth 8 billion yuan (US$967 million)
and the figure was near 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in
2005.
In the rush to get a slice of the pie, Hangzhou took the lead.
In December 2004 the animation industrial garden in the Hangzhou
High-tech Industry Development Zone was elevated to a state-level
industrial base.
It was named the Hangzhou National Animation Industry Base. It's
been home to over 20 enterprises forming a chain of animation
producers. These companies made 8,580 minutes of cartoons in 2005,
accounting for 18 percent of the total national production. In
March 2005 Hangzhou won its bid to host the nation's first ever
China International Animation and Cartoon Festival,
which started on May 31 and runs until June 5.
In response to a question from the China Economic Times
about whether Hangzhou planned to? be the permanent venue of
the annual China International Animation and Cartoon Festival, Ye
Ming, vice secretary of Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, said
the city would be the most competitive candidate for future events
and is indeed working towards this end.
According to Ye, the provincial government of Zhejiang has
listed cartoons and animation as one of its key interests and
enacted preferential policies for the development of the animation
industry. Since 2005 the Hangzhou municipal government has
allocated no less than 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) to create a
special incentive fund. A production company can receive 1,000 yuan
(US$120) per minute if their work is broadcast on central TV. Last
year, five companies in the Hangzhou National Animation Industry
Base benefited by 7.3 million yuan (US$900,000) through the
scheme.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wind Gu, April 28, 2006)
