Animate and Create:Pushing China's animation industry to the next level

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The International Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou is putting the spotlight on China's animation industry. Companies and investors have cashed in the booming market, but it seems like it has not borne fruit yet. CGTN's Timothy Ulrich has more.

They are fans of Erciyuan, a Chinese term referring an online world of anime, comics, video games and novels.

Their devotion has caught the attention of major tech companies like Tencent and Xiaomi, which spent large sum of money to create their own content.

According to a report by EntGroup, China's animation industry hit over 23.6 billion US dollars last year, making up 24 percent of the entertainment industry. More than 300 million people are paying for what is known as ACG, anime, comics and games. And over half of that lot are born after 1990.

However, the domestic animation market is still heavily influenced by Japanese creations. A lack of originality and creativity is one of the reasons why China is lagging behind its neighbor.

HU JIANPING CEO, ELECTRONIC SOUL "Animation makers must produce high-quality works instead of imitating or copying other works with high similarities."

Lessons can be learnt from the success of the British cartoon Peppa Pig, which has gone viral on Chinese social media. Olivier Dumont, the managing director of the company behind this character, attributed its success to the content.

OLIVIER DUMONT PRESIDENT, ENTERTAINMENT ONE "It's more the series itself or content itself that allows people to get familiar with it and get comfortable with it because they can recognize themselves in the show."

Compared with these cultural icons, China's domestic animation industry definitely still has a long way to go before it claims a national animated mascot.

Timothy Ulrich, CGTN