The New Generation: Anime fan culture blooms among young Chinese

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China's mainstream culture is embracing a rising subculture called ACG, which is short for anime, comic and games. The change underlines a great demographic shift as China's millennials grow into independent consumers. Today, in our special series, The New Generation, Yang Zhao reports on some of these ACG fanatics, who have made a career out of what used to be a hobby.

Away from real life where he's a little shy, this cat lover is quite a celebrity in a virtual world.

29-year-old Li Zhenyi prefers to stay at home and interact online. And as an amateur animator, he's already had his work viewed millions of times.

This is what he creates. As a fan of award-winning Chinese sci-fi novel, The Three-body Problem, Li slowly moved this story to the screen over the past four years.

The best-selling novel depicts the future of humans in a universe against an alien civilization. But Li's animation style turned this epic, dark novel into something simple and childish.

LI ZHENYI NET ID: SHENYOU BAFANG CREATOR OF MY THREE-BODY "Many non-ACG viewers never saw anything like that. A fan told me her mother once watched the animation, pointed at the cube-shaped character and asked, what is that? She replied, 'this is a man', and her mother was shocked, and asked, is that a man?"

But that wouldn't bother many hardcore ACG fans who are very familiar with this so-called Minecraft style. Minecraft is a popular sandbox video game that allows players to alter the landscape and build up any structures out of blocks. For amateur animators like Li who are self-taught, this is the best platform.

LI ZHENYI NET ID: SHENYOU BAFANG CREATOR OF MY THREE-BODY "Not many people watched my stuff at the beginning. I remember my first episode had just 1,200 views, and second with 3,000. But the third episode was recommended by bilibili, and it became popular. Many people found me and wished to collaborate with me."

The bilibili.com that Li mentioned is a video-sharing platform which millions of ACG fans in China call home. In March, the platform made headlines across the country when it raised nearly 500 million dollars in its IPO, along with the fact that there were at least 300 million ACG fans in China who spent some 75 billion dollars annually. The subculture might just be the new mainstream.

LI ZHENYI NET ID: SHENYOU BAFANG CREATOR OF MY THREE-BODY "It's not about why I like ACG culture. It's time to think about why the mainstream thinks young people shouldn't like ACG culture. It's not childish, we grew up watching comics and anime. We are so used to it."

Unlike these 3D objects which look less than serious, Li and his young team treat their work with lots of respect.

FENG XIAOYANG NET ID: FATE WRITER OF MY THREE-BODY "Every reader has his own interpretation about this novel. So the biggest challenge is how to write a screenplay which matches their imagination."

LI ZHENYI NET ID: SHENYOU BAFANG CREATOR OF MY THREE-BODY "Creating animation is difficult. There is too much work to do and you can barely make any money. The only thing that supports you is the feedback from your fans. But during a video-making process which could last several months, no one gives you anything. Most people cannot persist in this process."

Last year, Li's team received funding from Youzu Pictures, which holds the novel's copyright. These amateurs are now turning into pros and the quality of their work keeping improving. But they are still sticking with their Minecraft style, which may prevent them from getting a wider range of audience -- but that doesn't bother them at all.

FENG XIAOYANG NET ID: FATE WRITER OF MY THREE-BODY "You don't have to find your fans, your fans will find you if you did something really good."

The ACG world might have some unique aesthetic and culture, but one thing's for sure: passion and hard-work are universal. YZ, CGTN, Shanghai.