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Policies mislead China's animation industry

By Wang Wei: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, October 18, 2011

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"Seer" from Mr. Cartoon Pictures [File photo]

Starting in 2004, China broke ground and established 56 national bases for its animations industry. In the seven years since, few of their works have won recognition from children or their parents.

Changzhou National Animation Industry Base is one of the first nine national animation industry bases approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). Like the other bases, it benefited from favorable policies in cheaper rent and lower taxes the local government established to attract entrepreneurs.

In 2005, the Changzhou municipal government allocated 15 million yuan (US$2.35 million) for the base; the annual fund reached 20 million (US$3.14 million) yuan in 2006-2008, and 50 million yuan (US$7.85 million) in 2009.

Yet as the local government approved more studios and promoted the animations industry as the city's brand, the companies themselves kept cutting costs. In the end, the project became a land grabbing opportunity for the government and a rat race for the studios.

"Companies are encouraged to produce more animations and take government subsidies, so many of the works are poor in quality," Jiang Xianguo, Party secretary of the Changzhou Creative Industries Park, said.

In 2010, 269 cartoons, totaling 172,689 minutes, were independently produced at those national animation industry bases. They account for close to 80 percent of all the original animated works in China.

Meanwhile, incentives for quantity continue to dominate that of quality. For the Changzhou National Animation Industry Base, their 2D and 3D cartoons, if shown on Jiangsu TV, will be rewarded 800 yuan (US$125.6) and 1,500 yuan (US$235.4) each minute respectively; if shown on CCTV, each minute is worth 400-3,000 yuan (US$62.8-470.9) depending on the timeslot and ratings.

These bounties have led to a swarm of new animations companies roping in local officials and winning subsidies with low-quality works. Worse, some studios work only to maximize profits by exploiting the favorable policies. The policies established a limit on completion time, so these studios tend to finish one project at an animation base, transfer to another base for one more project, and rinse and repeat. On the other hand, studios committed to making quality works received few incentives from the outside and faced many difficulties to survive.

Another suffering sector in the animation industry is the secondary work to animate the designs and concepts. In the 1980s and 1990s, Guangdong Province had been the base for such work in China and even in the world. Although many European and American studios worked out the storyboards and designs, the animations received final polishing in the South China province.

The campaign to support the animation industry puts great emphasis on innovation, which became one of the requirements for studios to enjoy preferential polices. Therefore, many companies gave up their processing business and established new departments for original work.

Just at that time, however, the animation processing industry welcomed technological advancements. Computers became widely used for animations. China's animators then lagged behind this technological revolution, giving way for India to become the leading processing base.

"There should be some great enterprises for processing; however, the present policy only encourages original works. The direction is right, but it doesn't mean that every company should turn to making its own works," said Liao Xiangzhong, vice president of Communication University of China and dean of the animation school at the university.

At first, the Changzhou animation base incorporated any firm dedicated to producing original work. The strategy soon proved fruitless.

"It's wrong to totally depend on original works. The animation industry implies a chain with many derivatives such as music production and advertising," Jiang Xianguo said, "so we begin to buy equipments and build up platforms for processing."

Unfortunately, Changzhou, as a third-tier city, restricted the development of the base. "Companies will not leave within three years; but if their development turns out to be limited at such a third-tier city, they will consider moving to another place," Chen Lei, general manager of Comy Culture Propagation Co., said.

Chen blames the lack of talent in the workforce. "Local schools cannot provide enough skilled people, while those in other cities are not willing to come," he said.

Still, the Changzhou animation base has been identified by some insiders as one of the few bases with healthy operations, while many others have become lost causes.

Now, the approval for establishment of national animation bases has slowed, while already establishment of local firms is still keeping pace.

There are nearly 300,000 Chinese students majoring in animation in 2010. According to the "Chinese College Graduates' Employment Annual Report (2011)," released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, animation ranks first among majors with a "red card" warning, meaning the number of graduates in the particular field is exceeding the demand of the job market.

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