ABSTRACT
The animation industry in China is massive and dysfunctional. There are, according to the 2014 Chinese Culture Brand Development Report, more than 4,600 animation companies in Mainland China, employing more than 200,000 people. That is up from only 120 as recently as 2002. But 9 out of 10 of those companies are not profitable and depend on government subsidy to remain in business. According to the Ministry of Culture, China’s animation industry generated more than 100 billion yuan (around US$16 billion) in 2014, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Despite its size, China’s animation industry has so far not produced even a single feature film for successful international distribution. Despite the fact that some 100,000 students are enrolled in animation training in more than 2,400 schools,14 the quality of Chinese-produced animation is woefully inferior to international standards. Much of the problem can be blamed on efforts of the authoritarian Communist Party government to control all creative and artistic industries. In October 2014, President Xi Xinping addressed a forum of prominent artists in Beijing, at which he said, “The arts must serve the people and serve socialism.” This kind of counsel sounds more like a recipe for propaganda than art, and therein lies the challenge for Chinese animators. How can the industry produce movies or any other kind of art for successful international distribution if its best artists must be conceptually promoting socialism and the Chinese political system? In fairness, the roots of Chinese animation are still shallow, and the Cultural Revolution (1966-77) cost the developing industry an entire generation of artists. Between 1941 and 1965, there was precisely one Chinese feature animated film produced, Uproar in Heaven. Chinese animators have a lot of catching up to do.
