A still from the 3-D animation Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven, produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio. [Photo: China Daily]
China's cartoon industry focuses more on originality and creativity
There is an air of excitement in the animation studios of the Yangtze River Delta, as several recent happenings indicate that China is finally ready to open its animation market to foreign investment.
Two big-ticket global names, DreamWorks and Disney, recently showed their interest in China's animation sector, suggesting the domestic market potential and its integral role in the nation's initiatives to build an innovative society. At the same time, the animation industry is also caught in a warp as it faces an acute shortage of creative talent amid an over-supply of technicians.
According to data provided by the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industries Promotion Conference, the added value of the cultural and creative industries in Shanghai was about 194 billion yuan ($31 billion) last year, 15.8 percent growth year-on-year.
The two industries have also set a target of reaching an added value of more than 200 billion yuan this year, and to account for 10.6 percent of Shanghai's GDP by then.
Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu are among the most economically developed regions, and together account for more than 22 percent of the total animation industry in China, which stood at 47 billion yuan by the end of 2010.
Since 2010, the animation industry has witnessed a sea change with its focus increasingly turning toward originality and creativity, rather than outsourcing for global studios.
Not surprisingly, television programs account for more than 45 percent of the business of most animation studios, according to figures from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Adjacent to Shanghai lies Suzhou in Jiangsu province, one of the earliest places in China where the animation industry took root. Most of these companies were engaged in outsourcing work for European and US companies.
In 2005, an animation-training center was established at Suzhou International Science Park. In 2006, the training center teamed up with other domestic universities and colleges to nurture more animation professionals.
In 2011, 1,817 new animation professionals passed out of the training center, up 9.6 percent on 2010. But even so, the industry remains starved of original and creative talent, experts say.
Dream deal
California-based DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, the creator of Kung Fu Panda and Shrek, has decided to team up with China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd to form the Oriental DreamWorks joint venture.
With an initial investment of $330 million in the venture, Chinese companies will hold a 55 percent stake, with DreamWorks Animation taking up the rest.
Disney, one of the most famous brands in the world, is believed to be in talks with Chinese Internet giant Tencent over a possible tie-up in the animation sector, with media reports indicating that the two companies may form a joint venture later this year.
DreamWorks Animations Chief Executive Jeffery Katzenberg has said the new joint venture will produce and distribute animated feature films and TV series and roll out its first product by 2016.
According to Katzenberg, the joint venture aims to be the leading family-branded entertainment company in China.
Song Yuefeng, director of Shanghai Paladin Max studio, said the entry of DreamWorks will reshape Shanghai's animation industry.
"The real positive of the deal is that it will help regulate the industry," Song said.
He said that while the high-end segment of the animation industry is in a poor state, the overall industry is riddled with bubbles.
"At present, the industry is in urgent need of product and software renovation. DreamWorks has come in at the right time. It is here to set an industry standard, which will do more good than bad," said Song, whose work Baizi Welcome the Special Olympics won the PSA award of the Shanghai Special Olympics in 2007.
He said Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, produced by SMG, has been one of the few successes for Chinese animation, and it has helped to expand the market.
The Pleasant Goat as in the animation of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, one of the few successes of Chinese animation, produced by Shanghai Media Group Inc. [Photo: China Daily]
CG, or computer graphics, the technology that Song's company specializes in, may sound unfamiliar to most moviegoers. But it is the core technology used in 3-D blockbusters such as Avatar and Transformers.
"CG is the renovation of tools. It is the trend of the future as government policies also support the development of this technology. But somehow, animation producers have misunderstood these policies and are rushing to develop CG technologies of their own, thereby creating an oversupply of technicians and a shortage of theme production and marketing talent," Song said.
"Most animation companies in China still survive on outsourcing orders from overseas companies. There is still a huge gap between China and Western countries in core and sophisticated techniques," he said.
"It would be better for Chinese animation companies to consider purchasing technologies from Singapore, Thailand, or Europe, or look at more ways to bring overseas professionals to work in China."
Contrary to people's expectations, the creative ability of animation producers in Shanghai is much weaker than those in Jiangsu or Zhejiang as there was initially hardly any support to promote creativity, Song said.
He said the gap between Chinese animation producers and the giants such as Pixar and DreamWorks lies in the market environment.
In the Yangtze River Delta region, which is already taking the lead in China, the soil is still not fertile enough to harvest world-class animation talent, experts said.
Zheng Xiaofeng, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Wanglushen Ewesoft Co Ltd, a Suzhou company that specializes in original animation, said that the talent shortage will become more acute after the entry of big names like DreamWorks and Disney.
Ewesoft was one of the first animation companies to invest in original animated productions from China.
"When we started in 2005, most of the companies in Suzhou were doing outsourcing work for overseas companies. Very few had shown creativity, which is essential for culture-related companies," he said.
With works produced totally on their own, the company has often been following a roundabout way to its market. Zheng said his company has been selling animation to countries and regions in Southeast Asia and the Middle East with an eye on Chinese residents in those regions.
The company also toyed with the idea of entering the European and US markets, but did not due to the cultural differences.
"We should try and put more efforts in the international market and get some valuable international exposure. This will make it easier for us to expand in the domestic market," Zheng said.
Creative challenge
South of Shanghai, there are thousands of small animation companies in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Unsurprisingly, the biggest problem here is also the lack of talent.
Animation-related products created by Jiangsu Wanglushen Ewesoft Co. [Photo: China Daily]
Xia Lie, deputy director of International Ani-com College of Hangzhou Normal University, said creative talent has been shrinking steadily in China since the 1990s. The prestigious Shanghai Animation Film Studio saw its golden days end in the 1980s and has not recovered.
"Many animation producers preferred to do outsourcing work for overseas companies to make quick money. After 20 years of such work, we have a great number of technicians who are excellent in techniques but lack any originality or creativity," Xia said.
"The college students who are studying animation were mostly born in the 1980s or 1990s. The situation is not good for them as they are unable to find teachers who can hone their creative knowledge and skills. Many students feel that their thoughts are not fully exploited and their ability to tell stories in the right way is always inadequate," he said.
"It is crucial that we build a bridge between the Chinese and Western experiences. But here comes a more in-depth question: how to seek the soul of Chinese animation and how to discern Chinese animation from US or Japanese ones."
Looking at the current crop of animation shown nowadays, it is easy to see that very few of these works are themed around current topics.
"We have such a huge inventory of literature, but sadly, little has been successfully transformed into animation works. Very few animation producers have the habit of reading and hence most of them cannot tell the stories properly," Xia said.
He believes that Hangzhou is doing a good job in terms of promoting the animation industry as the local government is pushing it aggressively.