China's cartoon police not amused
By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - China is extending a ban on television stations broadcasting foreign cartoons by an additional hour during prime time in a bid to protect the domestic animation industry. However, observers believe Beijing should do more to boost the development of the domestic industry, instead of solely blocking foreign cartoons.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's (SARFT) posted a circular on its website on February 19 informing viewers that from May 1 all foreign cartoons will be banned on all domestic TV cartoon and children's channels from 5 pm to 9 pm.

Only domestic cartoons censored by the provincial broadcasting authorities or the SARFT can be aired between that time. Cartoons co-produced by domestic and foreign firms will have to get approval from the SARFT to air during these prime-time hours, the circular said.

The media regulator also demanded TV stations observe a daily broadcast ratio of 7:3 for domestic and foreign cartoons, which means at least 70% of cartoon programs aired must be domestically made.

The move was said "to create a favorable market environment for the domestic cartoon industry".

Since Japan's Astro Boy, the first foreign cartoon imported to the mainland, was broadcast in 1981, the cartoon industry was dominated by Japanese, American and South Korean products.

A pupil studying in a primary school in Beijing's Fengtai District said he did not like domestic cartoons which were too boring for him.

"My classmates and I talk about Superman, Crayon Shin-chan and Digimon, and the toys we bought are the characters of these cartoons. But domestic cartoons are too boring and childish," the fifth grader said.

Crayon Shin-chan and Digimon are popular Japanese cartoon programs and merchandise. The former follows the antics of a five-year-old boy and his parents and friends while the latter is monsters of various forms living in a "digital world".

Liu Huasen, who lives in Yunfu city in south China's Guangdong province, said that he liked to watch The Monkey King when he was small. This story, also known as the Journey to the West, is a renowned classical Chinese folktale.

"Now I seldom watch cartoons as most of them are domestic, which are childish. The latest cartoon I watched is a movie - Ratatouille, featuring a rat, which teams up with a new kitchen boy to become top Paris chefs," said the 11-year-old boy.

Yu Chu-mei, Liu's mother, cast doubts over the success of the ban imposed by the SARFT, saying children like Liu could have access to foreign cartoons via the Internet, VCDs or DVDs.

Some industry players welcome the administration's move, saying it will help the sales of domestic cartoons.

Xu Ling, marketing director of Hong Kong listed-Global Digital Creations (GDC) Holdings, said as the cartoon and children's channels are forced to find more domestic cartoons to fill airtime, there will eventually be more opportunities to domestic cartoon makers.

She said the country's TV stations prefer foreign cartoons, which are distributed all over the world, as the prices of these guaranteed dramas are usually lower when compared with domestic cartoons.

"China's cartoon industry is still in its infancy since it was viewed as an industry by the administration only three years ago, so it really needs such a policy support. The administration ban will leave the channels with the task of buying more domestic cartoons," she said.

Li Shilei, president of the Shanghai Toonmax TV Channel, said they will abide by the administration's rules to broadcast foreign cartoons outside the prime-time slots.

"Given the administration's tightened controls on foreign cartoons since 2006, only one foreign cartoon, Japan's Prince of Tennis, has been approved. We have been relying on the 'replay' of old foreign cartoons, which has had a bad impact on the channel's advertising revenue, so the new rule will not have an impact on rating with limited prime-time slots," he said, without giving the figures.

In 2000, a SARFT regulation required local TV stations to get approval from the administration and set quotas for imported cartoons aired on TV.
In 2004, the SARFT issued a second regulation that said at least 60% of cartoon programs aired must be domestically made.
In September 2006, the SARFT first slapped the ban on foreign cartoons during prime-time hours between 5 pm and 8 pm.

With the government policy in place, China's cartoon industry produced about 101,900 minutes of animation last year, up 23% on 2006, according to the SARFT.

Meanwhile, some industry players said they will be under pressure to provide more domestic cartoons due to insufficient support for the cartoon industry.

Ye Chao, vice director of Haha TV, a dedicated children's channel in Shanghai, said there were bad as well as good domestic cartoons, which could not satisfy demand from the audience and the market, so there was pressure for them to fill the airtime if no high-quality domestic cartoons were available.

Instead of entertaining the audience, the channel broadcast children's programs rather than cartoons during prime-time hours.

Xu from GDC called for the administration to offer subsidies to domestic cartoon makers in a bid to help them produce quality cartoons.

It became a vicious cycle that the prices offered by the TV channels for domestic cartoons were so low that many domestic cartoons turned out low-quality products.

Citing her company's business as an example, Xu said to survive in the market, they have changed their business strategy to accepting OEM (original equipment manufacturer) orders and co-producing cartoons with overseas partners.

With a total investment of 130 million yuan (US$18.3 million), five years in the making and involvement of more than 400 animation workers, the Institute of Digital media Technology (Shenzhen), a wholly owned subsidiary of GDC, produced the first Chinese full-length three-dimensional (3D) animated feature film Thru the Moebius Strip in 2005. The price offered by TV channels was only 600,000 yuan ($84,000) after earning 3 million yuan at the box office, she said.

The film tells the story of a young lad who traverses through the Moebius Strip to a planet 27 million light years away, where his father is prevented from returning by giant aliens. During their adventure they become entangled in a royal conspiracy and finally help a prince reclaim his throne.

Aside from the weak or old-fashioned plot, the movie was criticized for having many similarities to Hollywood blockbusters despite its breakthrough in 3D animation technology.

Shi Minyong, from the animation school of Communication University of China, said the country's animation industry is lagging far behind overseas competitors in every aspect.

As traditional Chinese animation plots have been based on either legends or classic literary works, it has not only made the stories too fake for even grown-ups, but also put animation technology under strain, he said.

Shi said many animators had been producing cartoons in a rough and slipshod way.

Jin Guoping, China Animation Society chief and former general manager of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, said the biggest problem facing the country's animation industry is a lack of good marketing mechanisms. According to Jin this is why the animation companies have no idea how to promote their works.

Liu Bo from Shenyang Hippo Animation Company, believed another challenge for the country's animation industry is the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

Citing his work 100 Love Magic as an example, he said once the cartoon was put on the market pirated copies immediately came out. This seriously hurt the creators' economic benefits and undermined foreign investment confidence.

"China's inferior products and minimal IPR protection have locked the overseas investment away, so China needs to improve its IPR protection to improve the investment environment," he said.

Olivia Chung is a senior Asia Times Online reporter.