The world is in the throes of an animation boom. Audiences can't seem to get enough of animated TV shows and films. In 2019, they raked in an astounding $250 billion.
Today, three countries dominate animated film and television production and consumption: the US, Japan and " a distant third " South Korea. But a fourth player is making itself heard. China has developed an appetite for cartoons.
According to the Global and China Animation Industry Report, the value of China's animation industry grew from $12.8 billion in 2013 to $25.2 billion in 2018. It is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025.
Until very recently, Chinese consumers and producers viewed cartoons as exclusively for children. Abroad, Chinese cartoons were often dismissed as shoddy facsimiles of more established animation styles from America, Japan or Europe.
But that has changed. Animation has found a huge audience of adults and children, Chinese animation has improved in leaps and bounds and online streaming platforms are an efficient and lucrative means of getting cartoons to consumers.
Li Haoling, founder of Haoliners Animation, which has produced around 50 animated TV series and films since it was formed in 2013, told the South China Morning Post that the emergence of online outlets such as short-video platform Bilibili that carry animation had provided a huge boost to the Chinese animation industry.
"Unlike before, when animations were only shown on TV, online platforms draw in lots of viewers. (Some) platforms also provide capital support. Bilibili, which is the largest animation-oriented online platform (in China), has financially supported the production of six of our animation works."
Many point to Nezha as the definitive turning point in Chinese animation. The epic animated fantasy film based on a Chinese folk deity was released in 2019 and exceeded expectations. The film became a cultural phenomenon in China.
The first 3D animated IMAX feature film produced in China, Nezha has taken in $725 million at the Chinese box office to date, and become the second highest grossing film in the history of Chinese cinema.
Still, both technically and in terms of audience size, China lags behind the animation powerhouses United States and Japan, though that is not for a lack of history with the medium. China's first home-grown cartoons were made in the first quarter of the 20th century by the Wan Brothers under the auspices of the Great Wall Film Company.
Some of the Wan Brothers' feature-length cartoons, such as 1964's Uproar in Heaven, are still considered masterpieces. But the Cultural Revolution that began two years after its release effectively brought Chinese animated film production to a halt, and the industry struggled to recover.
Finally, it seems China is starting to pick up where it left off, with feature-length films such as Nezha and shorter cartoons distributed mainly through online streaming platforms. Take, for example, the extremely popular animated fantasy show Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), whose lush animation wouldn't seem out of place in a Japanese production.
Chinese creative skills and production know-how still have some catching up to do to animators in Japan and the US. While much has been made of co-productions for live-action films between China and Hollywood " only some of which have been a success " many see animation co-productions as a golden opportunity for all markets.
Jacques Stroweis is the visual effects supervisor and producer on one such project, the animated feature film and Sino-US co-production The First Super Hero, based on the Chinese legend of the Monkey King.
Cartoon co-productions are especially attractive for Western companies, as they offer big box office returns and are not subject to the burdensome Chinese government restrictions that can hamstring live-action films.
"Many people said they want to be a Chinese version of Disney. I think there will be long road ahead for this," said Li Haoling. "A Chinese version of Studio Ghibli is more likely than establishing a Disney-like behemoth involving lots of aspects and synergy among the various creative industries."
Studio Ghibli, under Hayao Miyazaki, has been responsible for a string of widely loved animated films over the past three decades.
Stroweis says: "There are too many small to medium-sized animation development companies (that) cannot deal with the workload demanded by increased quality standards. Nezha had to use 60 animation vendors to make its deadlines!
"Western filmmakers have been at the game longer. So obviously, they have things set in place. Westerners tend to bring improved process control, which is needed in China. Chinese filmmakers are often more intuitive and improvisational and they will tend to make many changes."
He adds: "I believe that in the future, Chinese animation will rely more and more on their local workforce. They will enjoy collaboration with a few foreign top creative and technical partners. But at the moment, the local talent pool is still limited and hence there is still a need for training and guidance."
Bilibili, for example, has developed a production chain to nurture Chinese animation brands. And Chinese animators and cartoon production companies have access to something that no Western company can claim: China's rich cultural capital.
"China can draw on their extremely rich and ancient historical works, its myths and own visual style," says Stroweis.
Chinese animators may have got off to a slow start, but they have 4,000 years of stories to tell.
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