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Animation is hot. There is a huge demand for cartoons, and
artists can't draw them quick enough to keep up.
And yet the producers of animated works in China mostly lose
money.
The problem defies logic, but producers' willingness to continue
turning out cartoons encapsulates the euphoria for animation that
grips China today.
Call it animation, cartoons or comics. The names are not totally
interchangeable, but they overlap to such an extent that people
sometimes use one to cover all bases.
In Chinese, the traditional name "donghua" is giving way to the
newer "dongman" as the all-encompassing tag.
The popularity of 'animation,' for lack of a more inclusive
term, is both projected and very much a reality.
Movies such as "The Lion King" and "Finding Nemo" were runaway
hits in China and Japanese anime is in high demand.
Young people seem to love cartoons yet profits are elusive.
According to Variety China, a Beijing-based trade publication,
the country's animation market, including comics, is estimated at
20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion). The annual demand for animated
programs runs up to some 263,000 minutes, but domestic animation
studios can only turn out 20,000 minutes.
That leaves a gaping hole, and the central government has issued
a series of regulations to spur the growth of domestic animation by
keeping foreign fare which once took 90 per cent of the Chinese
market at bay.
In 2004, the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT)
ruled that no foreign programming be allowed during prime time and
the ratio of domestic to foreign programming be kept at 60-40.
Later that year, three cartoon channels were launched by
Beijing, Shanghai and Hunan television stations. The three
operations now broadcast a total of 20,000 minutes of animation
every year.
The craving for quality animation was evident at this year's
first China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival,
which ended in late May at the Communication University of China
(CUC) in Beijing's eastern suburbs.
Students swarmed into theatre-sized halls to watch and applaud
animated works from Germany and Japan as well as some of the best
domestic fare.
Xu Shunxiang, a 23-year-old senior at the CUC Animation School,
was optimistic about prospects for the animation market. "I'm
looking for a job in a media company. I want to be a director of
animation," he said. "I've learned a lot from the forums at the
event. Whereas in the classroom we are taught the details of using
software, we can catch a glimpse of the big picture here."
Poised for a revival
China has its own equivalent of Walt Disney in the Wan brothers,
who took China's animation to unprecedented artistic heights but,
unlike Disney, never made it into a business empire.
In 1941 in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, Wan Laiming and his three
brothers produced the first animated feature in China, titled
"Princess Iron Fan." In the early 1960s, Wan adapted the epic story
of the Monkey King into a two-part feature with the technical
brilliance to rival masterpieces from Disney, students of the genre
say.
In the early 1980s many notable animated shorts and features
were produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, using
distinctly Chinese styles of artistry and storytelling.
But the Chinese market did not awaken to the potential of the
animation industry until it saw that animation studios in the
United States, Japan and South Korea were virtual gold mines. The
showing of Disney's "The Lion King" in China was particularly
influential.
With the new millennium arose a consensus that animation in
China was poised for a major revival. Government policies are
geared towards stimulating the industry, and early last year, SARFT
approved 94 per cent of all animation submissions, much higher than
the 68 per cent for television serial drama projects.
Cities from Hangzhou to Shenzhen are vying to be the "hub of
Chinese animation," and the Ministry of Culture has also become
involved, setting up three "manufacturing bases" in Shanghai,
Sichuan and Liaoning.
At the end of last year, 210 companies were producing animation,
according to a cross section of experts in the field. At least four
schools, including CUC, churn out crops of students with
specialized talents.
But according to an insider, fewer than 10 television stations
are regular buyers, and even then they usually barter with
advertising slots rather than pay for the programming. The few who
do shell out cash pay 30-200 yuan (US$3.75-$25) per minute, a
fraction of the production cost, which runs as high as 10,000 yuan
(US$1,250) per minute for 3-D animation.
"It is very difficult to survive in this environment we have the
market but no feasible profit," said Wang Liuyi, an executive of
Hangzhou-based Sunchime Cartoon Group, one of the most successful
firms in the business.
The cartoon channels are said to have decent ratings, but they
attract mostly young children, whose only role in purchasing
decisions lies in what they're able to persuade their parents to
buy. The programmers have attempted to broaden their audience to
youths, and even adults, but so far animation still equals children
in the sphere of television.
Which style for China?
"Our combined output cannot hold a light to that of a single
company in Japan," said Lu Shengzhang, professor at the CUC
Animation School.
Lu, the main player in the making of the mascot cartoon film for
the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games, said Chinese animation can
"excel only by presenting Chinese characteristics.
"If you simply copy the Disney style, you'll always be
second-rate Disney."
Like many businesses in a premature stage, people spend a lot of
time squabbling about which direction is the right one should we
hold on to the traditions of the golden era of Chinese animation,
or should we absorb the lively Disney style or the mesmerizing
Japanese anime and manga?
John Lant, professor of Temple University in Philadelphia, is an
expert on Asian animation. He explained that the success of
Japanese animation is "due to their invention of genres." He
advised Chinese animators to learn from all countries, but above
all to learn from their own environment and culture.
A recent contest of original animation and comics from
traditional Chinese sources drew 1,000 submissions from Chinese
animators worldwide. But one expert says most of the works lack the
real "Chinese spirit" because the animators are young and not
steeped in traditional culture.
"Technology cannot take the place of ideas," said Fu Tiezheng,
deputy director of the cartoon committee for the China Television
Artists' Society.
CUC student Xu Shunxiang and his friends started with
Western-style paintings and still have a lot to learn when it comes
to China's own tradition of fine arts.
Tong Hui, a sophomore at CUC, started animation as a hobby while
still in high school. "I've been doing this longer than some of my
teachers," he laughed.
Watching the avalanche of animated shorts at the festival and
the accompanying "Aniwow Award," he said he would like to work for
new media. "I actually major in web design, but I feel my animation
skill comes in handy and will provide me with a big push in my
future career."
Like Tong, most of China's animation firms look beyond
television for survival.
"If you look at the business model in other countries, you'll
notice that the ancillary market for an animated show can be 15-20
times larger than television broadcast rights can command," said
Sunchime's Wang Liuyi.
Sunchime has a certifiable hit on its hands with The Blue Cat
series. The series has been aired on 1,020 television stations in
the past six years and has been sold to 15 overseas markets. The US
rights alone brought in US$1 million.
Sunchime used to be an audio-visual producer but, squeezed by
counterfeits, turned to animation. Blue Cat has so far developed
six series and 2,000 episodes, with a total of 6,600 products
covering a dozen business areas. "But AV and books still account
for 30 per cent of our revenue," Wang said, "and that means we
still have room for expanding the ancillary market."
The future of China's animation may not be on the TV, but on the
mobile phones. An 80-minute flash produced by Chengdu-based
Sinodoor, called "Girl, How Long Is Your Minute?" debuted in
Singapore and Malaysia, where subscribers can download it for a
fee. It reaped profits of 700,000 yuan (US$87,500) in one
month.
"Animation uses a language that everyone can understand and
involves no language barriers," CUC's Lu said. "All it requires is
the spontaneous flow of human emotions."
And plenty of leeway for creativity.
(China Daily June 12, 2006)
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