Animation made in China is the least popular in China.
According to a recent survey, original English-language animations are the most popular, forming the apex of a popularity pyramid, followed by other imported works, with the bottom of the pyramid filled with Chinese animation. Sun Lijun, director and professor of the Animation School of the Beijing Film Academy, pointed out the problems that the Chinese animation industry is facing and made some suggestions for its future development.
Sun noted three main problems in terms of policies, domestic market and originality. The animation industry in China lacks national support policy, meaning that some animation projects, in particular for TV series, have to cease production due to lack of profits.
Fees offered by TV stations or cinemas are too low to attract further investment or to drive cartoon producers to spend more resources on production.
Closely related to the above two factors, creators cannot produce innovative and original works as they have to cater to existing tastes of audiences and market, and follow trends and mimic others.
To tackle these problems, Sun proposed that investors should be far-sighted and see the significance of original works, and that officials play a more critical role in both market control and cultural diffusion. Creators of cartoons could take market demand as a reference, but they should produce works with Chinese-style content that can be readily accepted by children and youths, Sun stressed.
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