Current Situation and the Problems of Chinese Animation Industry

Abstract:As animation industry improving more and more fast all over the world， China started powerfully improving this industry during this decade. China owns the largest animation audience group in the world， while our native animation market had been long occupied by Japanese and American animation products. This thesis researches some main problem of Chinese animation industry.

Keywords:Animation Industry;Chinese;Problems

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1.History

Chinese “Wan” brothers made Chinese first animated short film in 1926. Then they made animation feature film in 1941.

This film was well accepted by Japanese audience when it broadcasted in Japan during 1950s.

2.Current Situation

Since China began to develop culture industry， Chinese animation industry has also appeared to be very active. But if we sanely analyze its current situation， we’ll feel a little embarrassed: 80% of Chinese domestic animation market was controlled by Japanese animation productions. China had owned its animation producing and broadcasting. At this late day， we also have countless animation， but compared with foreign counterparts， we are still at the beginning stage and still have many problems.

There is a potential animation market of 20 billion yuan every year in China. The animation products from USA， Japan and Korea is occupying most of it. Now Chinese animation industry is developing slowly， which is worrying.

3.Main Problems of Chinese Animation Industry:

(1)Inappropriate market positioning. The dominating thought of Chinese animation is: Cartoon is the world of little children. As a result， the animations produced must be very naive. Actually， core animation consumer of China should be the people between 10-30 year old.

(2)Lack of original and artistic appeal， the whole animation industry descent to be co-packer.

Serious lacking of original makes China the biggest importer of animation productions. An investigation from the first Chinese International Animation Exposition showed that among Chinese youngsters’ favorite animations， 60% are from Japan， 29% from Europe and America， and Chinese original only be 11%.

(3)Chinese animation industry chain is not complete. Industry chain should contain value chain， enterprises chain， supply chain and space chain. These four concepts forms industry chain in the process of mutual butt joint. This “butt joint system” is the inner mode of industry chain’s founding.

(4)Shortage of related talents and poor structure. Now there are many animation majors found up every year in universities in China. We can see youngsters’ dream， demanding from market and hope of Chinese animation. But as survey shows : now the number of Chinese animation practitioner is less than 10 thousand， only 1/3 of that in Korea. The whole demanding of Chinese video animation talent is 150 thousand， of game animation talent is 100 thousand. But Chinese animation graduate is much less than this demand.

(5)Lacking of market researching， blindly investment. Market awareness of Chinese is relatively low. Animation producer with advanced mode make it step by step from earlier stage market research.

While Chinese domestic animation investors are still on a primary stage of market awareness， investment is put blindly. During these years， with Chinese government’s encouragement and media hype， many companies are anxious to achieve quick success and get instant benefits. They don’t even realize animation， lack of market research and planning， just focus on derivative development. So we can imagine this kind of animation can’t be good enough for market.

(6)Out-dated management system. For a long period， only CCTV， Shanghai Animation Film Studio and several other country owned companies can independently make animations. These “companies” were all running under non-market economy system， out-dated management， low commercial operation efficiency. They only invest， never make money. Now the trend of world animation development tends to be new， be fashion and diversification.

(7)Serious pirate. Pirate in China has been a problem for a long time. After joining into WTO， Chinese government had been working hard on this， now it has been much better than before but still not perfect on animation industry. On one hand， domestic undeveloped animation industry structure makes original part improve very slowly; on the other hand， lacking of consumers’ support makes Chinese animation intellectual property’s value is relatively low. Both serial and broadcasting payments are very low， which seriously destroy the positivity of originators and investors.

Reference:

1.Xie Xiongfei， “A Little Thought on Japanese and Chinese Animation，” JOURNAL OF HENAN XUCHANG COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS， Volume 209， Henan Publishers， June 2011， pp. 5-8.

2.Yang Guang， “The Enlightenment to Chinese Animation Industry from Japanese Animation Spreading，” JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY， Volume 134， China Communication University Press， Feb. 2010， pp. 2-3.