迪士尼进入中国 本土动画面临挑战

After more than a decade of haggling, Shanghai has finally secured a Disneyland.

But amid all the excitement and anticipation, almost unnoticed, is the historical irony of a Disneyland in Shanghai.

Almost 70 years after producing Asia’s first cartoon film, the city now has to borrow an US animation icon – at staggering cost, reportedly 25 billion yuan ($3.66 billion) to entertain its children and boost its tourist appeal.

And this is happening in a country with a vibrant tradition of cartoons and comics, and a government that favours its indigenous animators with a fervour rarely seen elsewhere.

A recent surge in control, an artificial industry boom driven by hunger for government subsidies and rampant piracy have undone most of the mainland animation industry’s heritage advantages and preferential government policies.

The sector flourishes in terms of quantity rather than quality and fails to represent China’s cultural identity or extend its soft power, something mainland cultural authorities expected it to do.

Piracy also took its toll, but a more convenient scapegoat was imports of foreign anime, which flooded the market in the 1980s and 1990s amid a burgeoning mainland television industry.

In 2005, a China Animation Association survey found that domestic production houses accounted for only about 10 percent of market share in a business worth 18 billion yuan a year. The Monkey King and folklore heroes conceded their status as Chinese childhood idols to American Transformers and Japanese Godzilla fighters.

In the name of staving off the invasion, a series of targeted restrictions and incentives were rolled out. Domestic animation companies were given tax breaks and, in some cases, direct subsidies.

Government-sanctioned "animation and cartoon industry parks" began springing up around the country. There are now more than 40.

With such favouritism, the volume of home-grown animation produced each year soared from around 20,000 minutes in 2004 to more than 100,000 minutes last year. But Ouyang Jian, a deputy culture minister, estimated last year that up to 90 percent of domestic animation firms are deep in the red.

The sequel to Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, produced by Shanghai Media Group (SMG), hit mainland screens late last month.

But the success of the first movie owed much to a namesake TV cartoon series, which benefited directly from the favourable prime-time airing granted to domestic animation. Claims have also surfaced that government-backed SMG collaborated with State-owned chain cinema operators to prolong the movie’s screening slot and help boost its balance sheet.

Yet even in that environment, it still reaped just half the mainland takings of DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda (140 million yuan).