A young girl (right) poses with a cosplayer during the 2015 Tudou Festival in Shanghai on August 16. Photo: IC

Since many people in China (mostly over their 40s) don't know much about the 2D world of ACG (Animation, Comic and Game) content, they probably haven't realized that this other world is already aggressively seizing territory in the three-dimensional world of mainstream culture they live in by breaking down the wall that has existed so long between the two worlds.

This wall has long been regarded as an impassable divide between the 2D and 3D worlds. For residents of the former it has helped protect the holy land that is their ACG hobbies from ignorant outsiders, while for those in the latter it prevented periphery culture from mixing in with the mainstream.

But now the borders are blurring as ACG culture has continued to move from the periphery to take center stage.

Back to life

Filled with large quantities of popular ACG content, websites such as acfun.tv and bilibili.com are two major base camps for ACG culture in China. Interestingly enough, these sites have caught the attention of TV studios recently, not due to the content they provide, but because TV shows that have otherwise received lukewarm receptions by mainstream audiences have proven quite popular on these sites.

A recent example is Hunan TV's Run for Time, an outdoor reality show starring red-hot singing groups such as TFBOYS and SNH48. Although the program's TV viewership numbers have fallen sharply, the show has a huge following on Bilibili.

Run for Time isn't the only show to see a similar phenomenon. Over the past two years, TV dramas such as The Red, New Detective and Legend of Southwest Dance and Music and reality shows like A Bright World and Survivor Games, names that most mainstream audiences haven't even heard of, have become quite popular on these ACG websites.

There is a reason these ACG websites, whose users mainly fall between 15-22 years old, have made the unpopular popular. Growing up reading various Japanese ACG content and watching numerous American and British TV series, this young demographic is not as easily entertained as most people once thought. They tend to highly value logical plotlines and well written stories from the shows they watch. This has led to some productions that lack big name stars but have well thought out plots, such as The Red, to have a larger influence in the ACG realm than among mainstream audiences.

With more than 50 million registered users on Bilibili, the site has given quality TV programming a new chance to survive in an era where most TV shows rely on big name star power alone to attract audiences.

Feeding the machine

While it may seem that the ACG realm is merely playing a subservient role in the TV and film industry, ACG has actually become a major source of content upon which mainstream studios can draw. Capital investment from all corners is out there looking for the next big IP that can become the foundation of a super franchise. While most of these investors have set their sights on online literature sites, some far-looking companies have decided to turn to ACG.

According to the production schedules of several studios, nine online series adapted from ACG works such as animated show Draw the Bad Men in the Underworld, comics The Black and White and Tiger Crane and games like Paladin Hotel II will make their way to major streaming sites such as PPTV, Youku and iQiyi. Some analysts are even saying 2016 will go down in history as the year ACG-based shows took off.

Considering that the audience demographic for ACG content and online series tends to overlap to a large degree, the ACG industry is expected to expand as new fans are introduced to the original works through these online adaptations.

Capital accelerant

In 2015, hit animated film Monkey King: Hero Is Back changed many people's idea that cartoons are only for children. Even Jing Junhai, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC, expressed at a forum for Hero Is Back on August 4 that the positioning of animation as aimed at juveniles should be changed.

Gradually shedding long-standing stereotypical labels, ACG culture is becoming an important part of the overall cultural environment in China. Some little known ACG works, like My Name Is Bai Xiaofei, have garnered more than 8 billion views for its animation and comic works, allowing it to get even closer to the level of red-hot online series The Journey of Flower, which is considered the king of online dramas with its more than 10 billion views.

According to the figures from iResearch, in 2014 the total number of ACG fans in China grew 68 percent to reach 149 million content consumers. This year that number is expected to reach 219 million.

Considering the prevalence of the mobile Internet, this number is sure to gain even more momentum in the future.

Capital has played a vital role in the mainstreaming of ACG content. ACG base camps like ACfun and Bilibili have been respectively acquired by Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent. Another famous site u17.com was taken over by leading domestic animation production studio Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture Company.

"The ACG economy" was proposed as a concept during this year's Tencent Animation Industry Conference on November 19. The conference clearly included ACG content alongside other IP content such as literature, TV shows and films. By embracing this golden age, ACG culture is expected to take off just like online series did two years ago.


Newspaper headline: Breaking the 2D barrier