After years of foreign cartoons like Garfield, Slam Dunk and Snoopy, Chinese readers can now enjoy a comic strip from their own country.

China has been trying to encourage more home-grown products to take hold in newspapers and magazines. The otherwise bleak and sterile Chinese comic strip scene has been livened up with the emergence of China's first comic strip: Laboratory No.1.

Since it's release a year ago, the strip has been keeping readers hooked. It's the first Chinese comic strip for all ages. The series tells intriguing tales about a space laboratory.

Many distributors are interested in developing tie-in products including clothes and stationery.

(CCTV.com September 14, 2005)