Once considered kid's toy and rebellious teenagers' heartthrob, cartoons and graphic novels suddenly hit China's mainstream culture as the country realized creativity is profitable.

A visitor to the first animation and manga exhibition in National Art Museum of China plays with an interactive facial expression computer. [CFP]

In a large hall of the National Art Museum of China, the country's top gallery for fine art, the poster of a cartoon goat, very popular on TV this year, is put on show.

Downstair, there displays oil paintings of China's realistic artists, including a portrait of a young girl in Mao's suit, wearing a badge of Chairman Mao Zedong on her chest.

Visitors to the exhibition of animation and manga on the third and fifth floors included Li Changchun, senior state leader in charge of publicity and culture. He watched the exhibition on November 5.

Gan Yujie, 60, who frequented the museum almost every week, told Xinhua that she never imagined the graphic novels like "Romance of the three Kingdoms" could make it to the halls of the national art museum.

"I was excited to see the works there," said professor Liao Xiangzhong, dean of the Animation School of Communication University of China.

"The exhibition in such a museum means that animation and comic arts have been recognized by the government as 'real' arts," he said.

Cartoonist shows how to draw a cartoon book. [CFP]

Organized by such ministries and organizations as Ministry of Culture(MOC), Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Science and Technology, the show covers a wide range of categories in the field of animation and cartoon, including animation films, animation TV series, Iconic cartoons, comic books, mobile cartoons.