Animating Chinese Animation

By staff reporter LU RUCAI

Japanese and Western companies have long dominated China’s vast animation market, but the tide is about to turn. That is the hope, at least, of Chinese animators after the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced its latest move. On April 26 this year, SARFT proclaimed that domestically created cartoon producers would enjoy sales tax breaks and a range of other preferential policies.

This is not SARFT’s first attempt to galvanize the long struggling domestic animation industry. In 2004, it set at 60 percent the minimum proportion of Chinese-made cartoons to be screened on national cartoon channels. The following year, it organized the first China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in east China’s Hangzhou City. The second one took place last April, and was hailed by experts as a roaring success. It appears that the Chinese cartoon industry is about to draw itself out of the doldrums.

Tremendous Potential

In 1926, the Wan Brothers created China’s first-ever animated short, the hilarious Uproar in an Art Studio. Since then, Chinese cartoonists have produced a number of classics that many adults remember fondly, including Sanmao’s Orphan Tramp (based on a comic strip that starred a poor boy with three locks of hair), Uproar in Heaven, and Nezha Making Havoc in the Sea. But despite huge technological strides, today’s cartoonists have failed to amuse their audiences in the way their predecessors could.

Huge demand for animation certainly exists in China: by the end of 2005, local TV stations were running 50 children’s channels, while another three were broadcast nationwide. Together they air an annual total of one million program minutes, but in 2005, just 42,700 of those were “made in China.” The gap is inevitably filled by foreign products. Meanwhile, The Lion King, Finding Nemo and other such foreign blockbusters flood into Chinese cinemas, leaving scant room for domestically produced features in the film market.

Then there is the merchandising. Wang Yongzhang, director of the Department of Culture Industry, says that Japanese and US companies suck some 80 percent of cartoon-related profits out of the country. Each year they rake in RMB 600 million from China through just five characters – Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Kitty Cat, Pikachu and Doraemon.

China’s booming cartoon market is supported by its 300 million youngsters under the age of 14. Every year, these young citizens consume some RMB 60 billion worth of stationary, RMB 35 billion worth of snacks, RMB 20 billion worth of toys, RMB 90 billion worth of clothes and RMB 10 billion worth of audiovisual products and books. All are fertile soils for cartoon merchandise, and Chinese cartoon makers are eager to plant some seeds of their own. The government has also helped out. Between 2004 and 2005, SARFT built 19 animated film and TV show production studios in various parts of the country. And by the end of 2005, the number of licensed domestic cartoon studios had increased to 210, with more than 60 of those in Hangzhou.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, are jumping over each other to get into the lucrative business. Some 39 co-production contracts were signed at the 2nd China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, at a total value of RMB 1.4 billion. Such cooperation suits China’s fledgling cartoon industry – it can seize momentum from the current boom and train some top talent while gaining managerial and marketing expertise from more experienced cartoon producers. And when Zhongnan Animation Video’s animated TV series Divine Eyes went down well in Singapore and Thailand, it clinched a deal with an American company to construct a RMB 1 billion-theme park.

The China Animation Association says the country’s animation industry made RMB 18 billion (about US $220 million) in 2005, up from RMB 11.7 billion in the previous year. However, the figures include a significant contribution from foreign outsourcers. Meanwhile, the cartoon industries in Japan and the US respectively yielded US $9 billion and US $5 billion last year. The Chinese cartoon industry has a lot of catching up to do, but the good news is that there is plenty of room to do it in.

Crucial Talents

Increasing the proportion of home made cartoons on the nation’s TV stations won’t necessarily raise their profile. If the kids don’t find them funny, foreign cartoons are just a button-push away. Surveys have shown that 60 percent of Chinese kids prefer Japanese cartoons while 29 percent like American and European ones. Just 11 percent tunes into cartoons made in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong or Taiwan – combined.

So what is the luster that Chinese cartoons seem to lack? Says Zheng Dongtian of the Beijing Film Academy, “Many animation companies claim they are short of hands. But they have plenty of hands to color and draw – they are short of creative minds that can come up with captivating characters and storylines. It’s not easy to cultivate such talent – few university programs focus specifically on this aspect of animation. They are more concerned with software than scriptwriting.”

The Beijing Film Academy’s Fine Arts Department opened its animation program in 1953 – the only one of its kind in China until 2000. In all those years, it enrolled just 50 students. “We used to enroll every six years, and we’d take in ten plus students at a time,” says Sun Lijun, Dean of the BFA Animation School that was founded at the turn of the millennium. “To make matters worse, a third of the graduates went off to work in some other sector,” he laments.

Now the picture is very different. Some 200 Chinese universities offer animation degrees, including the Communication University, Tsinghua University and China Academy of Art, and places are in hot demand. The Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art, for instance, plans to recruit 200 students for its Media and Animation School, but has so far received more than 7,000 applicants. The school’s associate director Chang Hong believes that animation programs should be aimed at fostering design and conceptual skills instead of computer abilities.

Turning Passion into Profits

During this year’s China International Cartoon and Animation Festival SARFT department chief Jin Delong announced that Chinese animation companies are finally beginning to turn profits – exciting news indeed for the industry as a whole.

In 2005, for instance, the television version of Sanmao’s Orphan Tramp brought in royalties of 20 million before it was even completed, earning another RMB 10 million in the first few months of this year. The 1,800-episode edutainment cartoon 3,000 questions for Blue Cat and Naughty Mouse has been sold to 15 countries around the world, including the United States. Producers Sunchime Cartoon Group have developed no less than 6,600 “Blue Cat” products that sell in 2,200 franchise stores. Each year the group pockets RMB 16 to 18 million in licensing fees alone.

These are, however, the lucky ones. The Shanghai Animated Film Studio was the first, and for a long time, the only, cartoon studio in the Chinese mainland. The likes of Uproar in Heaven, Nezha Making Havoc in the Sea, and Tadpoles Looking for Mother were all born there. Studio executives are reluctant to make many more, as they “lost on each one.” Other enterprises like Haier and Robust have also dabbled in the business, but they soon threw in the towel when the only return they were getting was increased publicity.

Considering the ridiculously low prices that TV stations usually pay for animated products, many wonder how cartoonists have survived. It costs between RMB 5,000 and 20,000 to produce one minute of a Chinese cartoon, but they sell for far less. However, Jin Delong points out that international animation companies don’t get rich off copyright incomes, which typically account for less than 20 percent of production costs in Japan, Europe and the US. Merchandising brings in the big bucks, and Chinese cartoon companies have too long ignored this link. Again, things are changing quickly. A new animated series, Babo Pan-Mily, is about to hit Chinese TV screens, and a range of products bearing the main character, an adorable panda, is ready to pack the shelves. If this cartoon and more like it succeed, the brush could very soon be in the other hand.