A cosplay at a construction site. CFP

Monkey King poses as Marilyn Monroe at the Beijing Animation Festival. CFP

Animation derivative products comprise a tremendous market. CFP

The conception and marketing of cartoon products is a big business in China. Some better-known cartoon characters, like Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty, are imprinted to more than 20,000 kinds of products. Some have even been adapted to video games and films.
Beijing has long been a gathering place for the creators of art and publishers, including many cartoon production studios. The city also boasts an enormous consumer population. The animation industry is now one of the most energetic segments of the city’s culture and creative production.
Li Jianping, vice president of the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy (BFA), adapted the cartoon strip Man in Dream into an animation series. In 2001 he acquired the rights to the project while working as an animation director with China Central Television (CCTV). At the time, it did not occur to him that completing the job would take five years. But the project ended up requiring his drawing of tens of thousands of images.
After graduating with an animation major from BFA’s Department of Fine Arts, in 1988 Li joined CCTV. There he witnessed the cartoon industry’s transition from a planned economy to a market economy. “In the past it was the government that provided funds for cartoon production. The producers only needed to consider the artistic quality of their creations. Whether a cartoon creation was successful did not depend on its market performance, but its social and aesthetic influence.”
Market factors were not taken into consideration in China’s cartoon production until the 1990s. As awareness of the spreading market economy took root in China, Chinese cartoon practitioners began to reconsider the input-output ratio of the industry. Today, increasing numbers of young people are professionally employed by the animation industry.
In his role as a professor, Li finds that the motives for students choosing an animation major vary. Some students merely like to create cartoons, while others intend to be a success in the business of animation. While calling on students to constantly advance in the realm of art creation, Li and other professors also instruct students how to become popular in the market.
The quality of cartoons mainly depends on the ability of the creators. Today, there are relatively few popular made-in-China cartoons. This is largely because, according to Li, China lacks top-flight, highly-experienced talent in the industry.
Among Chinese institutes of higher education, the BFA was the first to sense the market demand for such talent. In 2000 BFA established China’s first school of animation, which has cultivated a number of high-quality creators of animation. Sponsored by the school, the annual Academy Award is known as the Chinese Oscar for Short Animation, and remains the nation’s most authoritative cartoon competition. The year 2007 marked the seventh such event. The 8th Academy Award was included into the Third Culture Expo by the municipal government of Beijing.
To date, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou have evolved into national bases for online games and cartoons. It’s estimated that more than 20 cities in the nation have claimed the title of “The Capital of Cartoons.”
The Animation and Game Industry Development Forum was held at the end of 2006. During proceedings, Chen Dong, vice director of the Publicity Department of Beijing Municipal Party Committee, revealed that the animation and game sector was cited as one of the eight major components of the city’s cultural and creative industry, and the eight sectors would share 500 million yuan of supportive funds allotted by the municipal government each year. Six of Beijing’s first 10 cultural and creative industry bases are associated with the development of animations and games.
Universities like BFA and the Communication University of China have provided the animation industry with top-rated talent. The cultural ambience of Beijing also attracts many cartoon talents from other parts of the country, injecting more vigor into the city’s cartoon industry.
The latest survey co-conducted by the China Center for Information Industry Development and the CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. indicates that in 2007 Beijing’s cartoon industry realized revenues of over a billion yuan, and the annual revenue of some websites and online game companies exceeded 100 million yuan.
Today Beijing is leading other Chinese cities in the publication of cartoons, and is ranked sixth in animation production. In 2007, Beijing generated a total of 1.01 billion yuan through cartoon and animation production. Of that volume, 510 million yuan came from cartoon and animation image authorization, 180 million yuan from animated TV dramas and movies, 240 million yuan from cartoon publications, and nearly 100 million yuan from animation dramas.
The annual output of the global animation industry reached $40 billion, and the market size of its derivative products totals $400 billion. Furthermore, the industry of cartoons will directly stimulate the development of software and education industries. Today increasing numbers of companies are devoted to the production of cartoons and animation. It is estimated that the number of companies participating in the segment and based in Beijing has exceeded 1,000. Just five years ago, that figure was about 100. Today China has 4-5 cartoon channels, and of these KAKU, under the Beijing Television, is broadcast via satellite.
Perhaps in the near future Beijing will indeed become “The Capital of Cartoons.”